Speaker:
Mr N. Sivasothi

Synopsis:
The Singapore coastline is still survived by interesting patches of coastal and marine ecosystems, which are home to otters, dugongs, sea stars, octopus, dolphins, hundreds of species of fish, sea snakes, turtles, otters and even crocodiles! Creatures new to science are still being discovered today. Sivasothi will share stories of our precious marine life in this talk!

Marine life faces several challenges – development, marine trash, poaching and environmental accidents. In this focus on marine trash, plastic is a particular curse and United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on World Environment Day 2004 that “Marine trash, mainly plastic, is killing more than a million seabirds and 100,000 mammals and sea turtles each year”.

Can we change this picture?

Volunteers with the annual International Coastal Cleanup Singapore removed some 10 tonnes of trash from our coastline on a single day 2004 and 20 tonnes a decade later! Most of this is plastic, and mostly originating from land. Abandoned nets entangle and kill birds, snakes, crabs, horseshoe crabs and fish. In just one ghost net in Mandai mangroves, 300 endangered horseshoe crabs were entangled and doomed until rescued. But we see results – the mangroves in Buloh-Kranji have recovered after a decade – these small steps make a difference!

For enquiries, please contact:

Mr Ambert Ang
Phone: +65  65162711
Email: DBS_outreach@nus.edu.sg