Size DOESN’T matter… Chek Jawa’s youngest hero! [People at the ICCS]

At 4 yrs and 10 mths, Jackie Lim was Chek Jawa’s youngest hero today. Accompanying her parents who were part of the Dow Chemicals ICCS 2010 contingent, she gladdened the hearts of all who saw her at work on Chek Jawa’s southern shore.

Taking full advantage of her light weight, she ventured onto parts of the muddy shore adults had to be cautious about for fear of sinking! Deftly using her pair of tongs under the watchful eyes of her parents, she made quick work of many pieces of plastic accumulated since last year’s cleanup.

An early start to environment responsibility

Jackie volunteered to help carry one of the abandoned kelong fish nets retrieved by adults from the shore.  Calling out the items for the data recorder to note, Jackie showed that size doesn’t matter.

One can start caring for the environment at a very early age.

Kudos to Jackie Lim!

Andy Dinesh
ICCS Recce Captain

Photos from the Zone/Site Captains

As the Zone and Site Captains reported in, some brought back photos that we uploaded in a jiffy and watched in the lab but erm, forgot to report here. The lab computers were crawling so they took a very long while to get online. For the record there was:

Kallang Basin by Ng Kai Scene

http://www.flickr.com/photos/habitatnews/sets/72157607384804926/

Lim Chu Kang mangroves by Dewi Anggraini

http://www.flickr.com/photos/habitatnews/sets/72157607388657463/

Pandan mangroves by N. Sivasothi
http://www.flickr.com/photos/habitatnews/sets/72157607388940595/

Kranji mangroves (a glimpse) by Dewi Anggraini

http://www.flickr.com/photos/habitatnews/sets/72157607388657467/ 

Posted by email from International Coastal Cleanup Singapore (posterous)

Kallang Basin photos from Waterways Watch Society

Photos of Compassvale Secondary and WWS in action; see the entire album at Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/habitatnews/sets/72157607388936471/

Posted by email from International Coastal Cleanup Singapore (posterous)

Singapore Science Centre photos at Labrador Beach

The Singapore Science Center Photos are up on Flickr! See: http://www.flickr.com/photos/30732487@N08

Posted by email from International Coastal Cleanup Singapore (posterous)

Fast Action at Punggol Beach!

This year, 240 enthuastic students from Sembawang Secondary School
tackled this man-made beach – they were so excited that they almost
forgot to record the data!

Armed with their own household plastic bags, they hunted high and low among the rocks to fill their bags.  At the end of the hour, they removed every plastic bag and bottles. And the main item of the 216kg worth of trash collected at Punggol this morning, styrofoam topped the list!

Thanks to Sembawang Secondary School. They came, collected and left a clean beach behind!

Lim Chen Kee
North East Zone Coordinator
International Coastal Cleanup Singapore

Posted by email from International Coastal Cleanup Singapore (posterous)

Kallang Basin – Results Are Out!

Kallang Basin – click here for details.

Photos from Tampines District Scouts at Pasir Ris Beach

More photos from the Cuon Scouts (Greenview Secondary): http://picasaweb.google.com/cuonscout/2008ICCS

Posted by email from International Coastal Cleanup Singapore (posterous)

Pandan Mangroves – Results Are Out!

Pandan Mangroves – click here for details.

Long intense hours for the Data Manager

The data has been streaming in from returning Site and Zone Captains since this morning, as well as emails from Organisers. The captains have been reporting in physically to the ICCS HQ at the Department of Biological Sciences's Life Sciences Lab 7 at the National University of Singapore – where pizza awaits the hungry souls. From 9.30am to 7pm (and counting) Data Manager Anand Ramchand has been preparing and processing data and this will continue in to the night. We've also been pushing photos up to the web and all agree that web2.0 has made life so much easier thiese days!

Posted by email from International Coastal Cleanup Singapore (posterous)

56 car parts and more than 10,000 plastic bags at Kranji mangrove

The Kranji/Buloh mangrove cleanup 2008 was held at Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve (SBWR). The 265 participants for the cleanup come from National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore American School (SAS), and Emaar International School (EIS).

3.4 tonnes of trash was categorised and collected during the two-hour long cleanup. The most common items collected were plastic bags (10,375), straws (3,222) and styrofoam pieces (2,492) food wrappers (1,778). Typically, Kranji mangroves turned up a car and a van bumper amongst the 56 car parts.

The enthusiastic Singapore American School ventured deeper into the mangroves to remove historical trash from the site. The trash bags loaded up  by the sites very quickly so our alert Trash Transfer Team activated immediately to start bringing the  heavy to the final Trash Collection Point.

The coordinators from the National University of Singapore  did a detailed job this year, allocating each of their many Site Buddies to pre-allocated groups of volunteers – whom they had called for a reminder about the meeting time in campus. The  highly motivated participants were a mix of staff and students from the very large campus, and they worked alongside for the first time.

The trash transfer to the final bin point this year secured the services of the Sungeo Buloh Wetlands Reserve's pickup as the reserve's traditional super-trolley finaly broke down!

We left with high spirits, happy once again that we had chipped away at the influx of marine trash that threatens our precious mangroves.

Posted by email from International Coastal Cleanup Singapore (posterous)

Cheong Wei Siong & Wang Zhihong,
Site Coordinators, Buloh-Kranji mangrove,
North-West Zone,
International Coastal Cleanup Singapore