2,000 styrofoam pieces from the socially distanced mangrove cleanup at Sungei Loyang [Sun 18 Oct 2020]

The Cleanup

2,055 styrofoam pieces! Working in pairs with social distancing practiced within and between pairs, a small group of volunteers spent a large chunk of the allocated 1 hour on a Sunday afternoon picking up these glaringly white and ubiquitous pieces at the mouth of Sg. Loyang. In total, 3,440 pieces of marine debris were bagged into 19 bags with a combined weight of 76.3kgs.

Pieces of Styrofoam and other plastic pieces at Sg. Loyang mangrove

Consistent with previous years ICCS Data, Styrofoam pieces had the highest count. Other items in the top 10 were also predominantly made of materials derived from fossil fuels (i.e. plastic).

Top 10 Items collected and pictures of plastic trash collected by ICCS volunteers

41 fishing gear related debris were amongst the items collected. Some of the drift nets had trapped animals. Volunteers released a ghost crab but were too late to save 2 mangrove horseshoe crabs- having been trapped in the nets too long thus being unable to find food or eventually drying out.

1st two pics – volunteer freeing and releasing a ghost crab; 3rd Pic – dead horseshoe crab

Importance of Healthy Mangroves

Sg. Loyang Mangrove is located at the East end of Pasir Ris Park. It houses a variety of flora and fauna, and according to WildSingapore it is also home to the Bakau Mata Buaya, a “Critically Endangered” mangrove tree. Marine debris tends to get trapped in the mangrove roots, leading to potential smothering of said roots and consequently impacting the health of the mangroves and the marine biodiversity that relies on it. This is why clean-ups are important to support a healthy mangrove.

How to conduct a cleanup?

While covid-19 prevented our annual island wide cleanup to celebrate International Coastal Cleanup Day on every 3^rd Saturday of Sep in 2020, it hasn’t stopped beach cleanups, albeit in smaller groups of 5, to happen altogether. The public can join organized small group clean-ups through Little Green Men , Ocean Purpose Project , EastCoastBeachPlan or organize your own using the tools from Cleanpods. You can even conduct your own cleanup at Lazarus island with discounts on your next ferry ride! Do remember to check the ICCS Facebook page for prevailing guidelines, given the long-term nature of this pandemic.

The ICCS page has resources which you may find useful for organizing your own cleanups. And if you have data, you may share that on Ocean Conservancy’s CleanSwell App.

Volunteers with the collected trash

Thanks to NEA PHC and NParks for liasing with us to ensure the continued protection of our mangroves.

Keterina Chong
ICCS Zone Captain 

Earth Day coastal cleanup @ Coney Island this Sat 22 Apr 2017 with Adrian, Jen & Beth!

Celebrate Earth Day (Sat 22 Apr 2017: 9.00am) with a coastal cleanup at Coney Island with Adrian, Jen & Beth! Meet them at the West Entrance, they will provide trash bag and gloves! Sign up at their registration page.

Adrian, Jen & Beth and friends have tackled marine trash on the shores of Singapore by contributing to year-round coastal cleanups both as participants and organisers for several years now.

Having tackled marine trash at Sungei Seletar, Tanah Merah and Chek Jawa in previous years, they are heading to Coney Island this Earth Day as the marine trash situation there requires attention.

Thanks to NParks for providing trash bags and gloves, and coordinating trash removal after the cleanup!

Adrian & Beth featured in The Straits Times
for the World Wetlands Day coastal cleanup last February

The trash on the Pulau Serangoon (Coney Island) shore – revisited after nearly five years!

Pulau Serangoon or Coney Island as it is better known by these days, is located off the northeastern coast of Singapore and is host to several beaches and a mangrove. Like any shoreline in Singapore, it suffers from a marine trash load.

After it was connected to the mainland by reclamation, Sivasothi aka Otterman examined the area as a potential cleanup site in June 2011.  He was unable to open the site then due to safety issues and has been wondering when ICCS could begin operations there.

Now, things are finally happening! The island has been developed as a park and managed by NParks. there are safe access routes to the beaches and trash on the inter-tidal shore is cleared by NEA on a daily basis.

However, NParks which manages the high shore reports an ever present trash load. And they urged us to get things started! So on 18 Feb 2016, I visited Coney Island for a site recce with NParks’ park manager Alex Tam.

Coney Island can now be accessed via the Coney Island West Entrance by taking bus 84 from Punggol MRT. It took me just a five minutes walk from the bus stop to the West Gate.

This was my first visit to Coney Island and I was warmly welcomed by the calls of orioles and magpie robins. What a beautiful place! Yet, the five beaches (A to E) and mangrove on the island revealed a different sight.

Beach E (400m) – The beach is easy to locate and access, and the entry point is suitable for an assembly area and trash disposal point. Although Coney Island beaches are regularly cleared by NEA contractors, a medium load of trash accumulates on the strand line and in the inland vegetation. The trash load is characterised by styrofoam pieces, plastics and some bulky items. Volunteers will have to avoid picking up twigs and wooden pieces as they clear trash.

Beach D (300m) – The trash load is medium to high, with more bulky items observed, such as fishing nets, tyre and barrels.

The inland vegetation is peppered with plastic bottles and some glass bottles. Volunteers will have to be careful with glass pieces even if wearing gloves. Despite a cleanup by 50 students a fortnight ago (photo on the left below), a horrendous amount of trash remains!

Beach C (100m)– This is a very a short stretch of beach, and the end is clearly demarcated by the stream, which is cleaned twice a week.

Beach A to B – This is something that Beach A and B might look like. More details after the next recce trip!

Mangrove – This is a small patch of about three to five footballs fields and can be entered via a boardwalk. The trash load appears low, but more after a second recce.

When conducting a much needed coastal cleanup at Coney Island, organisers will have to be advised about the presence of only a single toilet at the eastern end of the island. And it is advisable for volunteers to wear long-sleeved thin shirts and pants as precautions against sandflies. I didn’t get bitten, but many have been after the park was opened.

Toilet on Coney Island. Source: littledayout

It was good to be able to review the site, and we hope to invite Organsiers to tackle the burden of marine trash at this site soon!

ICCS Zone Captain (NW & NE) recces of 15 sites in Mar 2015

Weekend of 07 & 08 Mar 2015 – ICCS Zone Captains and the Intern visited 15 different cleanup sites in the Northwest and Northeast zones to conduct preliminary recces. We examined four large sites in the Northwest on Saturday and 11 sites in the Northeast on Sunday. Certainly much work is needed to help our mangrove and coastal areas cope with the load of marine trash!

Sites examined:

Northwest Zone: Zone Captain Adriane Lee & Intern Becky Lee

1. Kranji East mangrove
2. Lim Chu Kang East mangrove
3. Sungei Buloh West mangrove
4. Lim Chu Kang beach and mangrove

Northeast Zone: Zone Captains Yang Yi Yong & Ng Kai Scene & Intern Becky Lee

1. Sungei Loyang
2. Pasir Ris Beach 1
3. Pasir Ris Beach 2
4. Pasir Ris Beach 6
5. Sungei Tampines
6. Punggol Beach 1
7. Punggol Beach 2
8. Sungei Seletar 1
9. Sungei Seletar 2
10. Selimang Beach
11. Sembawang Beach

At Kranji East Mangrove in the Northwest, we were greeted by a truck load of trash.

Discarded fishing nets are entangled amongst mangrove roots, and pulling them out, Adriane discovered a horseshoe crab trapped inside. He gently removed the animal and placed it back on the shore but it was no longer moving.

 

At Lim Chu Kang East mangrove, the strandline was polluted with discarded nets, plastic bottles, plastic oil containers, tarp sheets, and of course – styrofoam.

The situation at Lim Chu Kang Jetty:

The mangroves were multi-colored, peppered with food containers, detergent bottles, beer cans, plastic bottles and styrofoam.

On Sunday, we began with Sungei Loyang at a very low tide which exposed the accumulated trash at that mangrove.

 

Pasir Ris Beaches 1 and 2 are recreational beaches cleaned daily by professional cleaners. There tiny fragments of plastic and styrofoam littered the strandline.

Our Northeast Zone Captains; Chen Kee, Yi Yong and Kai Scene!

Plastics and styrofoam bits on our beaches are a common site. You can see this even on Pasir Ris Beach 2, a recreational beach cleaned daily by cleaners.

Pasir Ris Beach 6 is adjacent to Pasir Ris Park and not cleaned daily by clears. there the trash load burden on marine life is higher

 

Sungei Seletar presented an amazing scene – barely any land was left to be seen from under the trash cover.

We wrapped up the recces for the weekend, with adamant spirits and determination boiling within us. The battle with marine trash will never end, but we hope as ICCS participants hit the shores and witness this pollution in Clean and Green Singapore, the reflection of our lifestyles and day-to-day habits will trigger action and encourage more environmentally-friendly practices. Together we can and MUST make an impact to protect our oceans.

2015’s first coast cleanup recce – Pasir Ris 6 @ North East Zone [07 Feb 2015]

This past Saturday morning (07 Feb 2015) marked the first recce of the year for the North East Zone. Organisers from Bukit Batok Secondary School comprising of teachers Syam Lal Sadanandan and Surjeet Singh with student Azri, met with Zone Captain Yi Yong at Pasir Ris Beach 6 in preparation for their cleanup in March.

Organisers from Bukit Batok Secondary School got in touch with ICCS coordinators late last year with the intention to carry out a cleanup in March. This was a good opportunity to address the high trash load at Pasir Ris Beach 6 which, despite the concerted effort of various groups at the International Coastal Cleanup in Sep 2014, still presented a significant challenge of marine trash.

Near the bottom of the picture: the now dried-up and silted-over stream

After four and half months, the small stream at the entrance of the site had disappeared! This could be due to the low rain fall of the past month. Well, organisers need no longer worry about accessing and exiting the site at higher tide levels so there will be greater flexibility with the cleanup schedule.

A high trash load along the strand line and in the vegetation

Another area of high trash concentration along the beach

Typically, the trash load at Pasir Ris 6 was as high as ever, with the largest trash accumulated along the strandline and in the vegetation. This will prove challenging as the students will face restrictions in their movements and risk of insect bites, so they will have to be careful here. The trash was comprised of the usual suspects – plastic bags, wrappers and bottles, with a few barrels in the mix. A big plastic tub had the organisers’ eyes twinkling as they conspired of ways of utilising it in their school’s beautification project!

Teachers Syam and Surjeet excited with the prospect of turning trash into treasure

The cleanup, scheduled for the 14 Mar 2015, will be an interesting and educational experience for the students of Bukit Batok Secondary School. They have their work cut out for them, so let’s wish them all the best as they do their part in tackling the scourge of marine trash!

Help marine creatures like this horseshoe crab!

By Yang Yi Yong
Zone Captain,
North East Zone,
International Coastal Cleanup Singapore

Northland Primary School @ Sembawang Beach, 13th September 2014

Mr Manivanan Muthu Somasundram, a teacher at Northland Primary School, led a group of 7 students to Sembawang Park on the 13th of September, filling 9 trash bags which weighed a total of 47 kg.

The litter collected consisted largely of plastic items, namely plastic bags, disposable beverage bottles, straws, food wrappers and take out containers. The most commonly seen item of the day were cigarette butts, which littered the coastline.

Thank you and your students for your work in protecting our shores!

Photos by Manivanan Muthu Somasundram.

The trash on the Pulau Serangoon shore

In June 2011, I conducted a recce with NParks staff at Pulau Serangoon (Coney Island) for sightings of the smooth-coated otter and for ICCS. Well there is trash there, and a lot of it is beyond the highest high water spring tide level and in the mangrove.

However, the access way from the inland road to the shore are trails through a casuarina forest. This typically undulating terrain and is destined to snap an ankle or two especially when carrying trash out from the shore to the trash disposal site. So sadly, it is too harzadous to send  volunteers into the area.

The Pulau Serangoon recce on 22 June 2011

So no joy for a coastal cleanup at Pulau Serangoon until we solve that problem. I have been considering a beach operation, but that will require some work to setup. For now instead, I have focused on setting up Lim Chu Kang East Mangrove and Kranji East Mangrove sites. Both these mangrove sites in the north-west  typically have a very high trash load and require a lot of work to setup a safe and regular cleanup operation.

It’s been more than two years since the Pulau Serangoon recce and last week, Ivan Kwan from NParks shared photos from a visit there. He reported that the trash is still there and the shores are calling out to us for help.

You are not forgotten, marine life of Pulau Serangoon! I will keep looking out for an Organiser, a method and a band of volunteers capable enough for this site.

Meanwhile, Ivan’s photos serves as a reminder of the burden of marine trash, and you can view more in the Flickr album.

If you feel keen to do something about this, and have the field experience, do email me at iccs@rafflesmuseum.net. Exam marking is almost over and we can chat during the monsoon and plan to recce the site in the first quarter of next year. No dramatics are required, slow and steady work over several years will have a miraculous effect.

Thanks Ivan!

Trash in the Northeast! NE Zone Captains recce the coastline

Sat 16 Mar 2013 – The Northeast Zone Captains (Yiyong, Chen Kee and Kai Scene) conducted our first recce for ICCS 2013 during the morning low tides. We usually initiate site recces later in the year and were surprised by the amount of trash we saw along the coastline at all our sites.

It was more than what we typically see in September.

Zone Captain Yiyong and Dy Zone Captain Chen Kee observing the trash-lined stream at Pasir Ris Site 6

We started out at Pasir Ris Site 6 in order to cross the stream easily while the tides were at their lowest. We discovered a HUGE, hollow but very heavy log there. Where had it come from? Surely not a tree fall from the forest behind us, as it was huge with no roots attached. This must have been washed in by the tides, just imagine!

Huge hollow log Pasir Ris Site 6. A new find! Look at the size relative to Chen Kee!

We proceeded on our rounds with visits to Sungei Tampines, Sungei Seletar, Punggol, Sembawang and Selimang. The East Bank of Sungei Tampines was much dirtier than the West Bank. We saw bags of trashed placed neatly at the West Bank – signs that it had been cleaned up. Uncles fishing along the West Bank informed Yiyong that the West Bank was cleaned regularly by NParks. However, much work remains to be done along the East Bank – a task for the organisation taking on the site this year.

Trash along the East Bank of Sungei Tampines

The last stop on our recce trip was Sembawang Park. The construction there looks like it will be finished in good time for Sep 2013. It will result in a larger site if all goes well, and easily accessible too, with new staircases leading down to the shore.

While visiting the Northeast sites, it was great to hear that the guides for Otter Trail were in the vicinity conducting their recce. They visited Pasir Ris Park too! Unfortunately, we were heading the opposite direction and did not meet along the way.

We ended the recce feeling more prepared and ready to welcome organisers to the Northeast. Looking forward to a fruitful ICCS 2013!

World Oceans Day Cleanup 2012 – 75 clear 1.5 tonnes of trash in light rain!

To celebrate World Oceans Day 2012, ICCS conducted two beach coastal cleanups at Pasir Ris Site 6 (PR6) and Tanah Merah Site 7 (TM7) on the 9th June 2012! On this sleepy Saturday morning where the sky was overcast and with intermittent showers, 75 volunteers turned up to do their part for the marine environment!

At PR6, 50 volunteers turned up to help clear a non-recreational beach site and everyone worked hard to try to clear as much trash as they could within the 90 minutes. The NE zone captains (Kai Scene, Chen Kee & Yi Yong) recruited energetic PR6 volunteers from ACJC student council, general public who responded to the World Oceans Day cleanup post, SgCares and ICCS Otters (Kah Ming, Jocelyne, Marcus, Kelly & Weiting).

NE Zone Captain Kai Scene looking really happy at the wonderful 80% volunteer turnout rate!

After a full 90 minutes of cleanup, we had used up all of the 140 trash bags! The ICCS team then quickly organised the volunteers to form a human chain to transport the trash quickly and efficiently out to the collection point.

Participants form a human chain to transport out the numerous bags of trash.

Look at the amount of trash collected, a total of 1,100kg of trash removed!

All the trash was weighed and we removed a total of 1.1 tonnes of trash from the site! After 90 minutes of hard work, there was definitely a transformation from a trash-filled beach where food wrappers and plastic bags littered all over to a visibly cleaner PR6! Kudos to all PR 6 volunteers for your time and effort!

Over at TM7, even though the cleanup was delayed 30 minutes by the rain, 21 highly enthusiastic volunteers from SgCares, together with Ivan, Dinesh and Tanah Merah Zone Captains (Benjamin & Gladys) started at 9.30am to work the shores. Each volunteer had a trash bag in hand and off they went to remove any trash that they saw.

TM 7 volunteers help to remove sand from the interior of tire before moving to disposal point! (Photo from Benjamin Tan)

Even though, the TM7 were a smaller group of volunteers, they managed to remove 66 trash bags within 90 minutes. This amounted to an impressive 343kg of trash, excluding bulky items! Great job, TM7 volunteers!

TM7 volunteers bringing in the trash (Photo from Ivan Kwan)

Well done to all the volunteers who turned up for the two beach cleanups today! These efforts have made a difference to the marine environment. Do share your experience with your family and friends as part of the celebration for World Oceans Day. Spread the message and help protect our oceans!

See also Ivan <a href=”http://lazy-lizard-tales.blogspot.sg/2012/06/world-oceans-day-tanah-merah.html”>Kwan’s post</a>

Help battle marine trash on World Oceans Day cleanup @ PR6 (9th June, 8.30am)

It’s World Oceans Day on the 8th June! What better way to celebrate World Oceans Day by doing meaningful for our shores? The seas have provided us with much resources, many of which we have taken for granted, food and even oxygen from phytoplankton. Even if you live far inland, the oceans and us are interconnected on many different levels.

This World Oceans Day, we encourage you to take this opportunity to give back to the oceans! Make a difference to the marine life that call our shores their home and personally experience the impacts of plastic on our shore. We invite you to come celebrate World Oceans Day with a 90 minutes coastal cleanup activity at “hidden beach paradise”Pasir Ris Site 6 (PR6).

Sign up here by Wed 6th June 2012:
http://tinyurl.com/yrcc-pr6-2012

Your efforts will help reduce the high trash load at PR6 which usually consists of plastic bags, food wrappers and straws. These plastics can cause damage to the marine ecosystem and might eventually break down to microplastics and enter the food chain. These concentrations of toxic chemicals leeched from the plastics may magnify and move up the food chain to reach back to humans. Besides removing marine trash, learn about the diversity of marine life just at our own shores! These shores are often overlooked but are teeming with life!

Learn their identities when you head down to Pasir Ris on June 9th!

EVENT DETAILS

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For those interested in tackling Pasir Ris Site 6, do note the following:

Date: 9 Jun 2012
Meeting Time: 8.30am (The session will end around 11.30am.)
Meeting place:  Pasir Ris Park BBQ Pit No. 64

Volunteers for Pasir Ris Site 6, please sign-up at http://tinyurl.com/yrcc-pr6-2012!

Note:  It takes around 10 minutes to walk from the nearest carpark (Carpark E) / bus stop to the site. For more details, you can refer to this page.

You will meet our friendly Northeast Zone Captains: Ng Kai Scene, Lim Chen Kee & Yang Yiyong.

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View our post on Earth Day clean up for a glimpse into what you may be involved in!

If you wish to share your photos with the community and want them in our ICCS Flickr repository, you can zip and wetransfer to iccs@rafflesmuseum.net. Please send the files with the following details (name of photographer, date, location).