The Flying Saucer At Sunset

Lenticular clouds (Altocumulus lenticularis) are stationary lens-shaped clouds with a smooth layered appearance that form in the troposphere, usually above mountain ranges. One was spotted in Singapore recently...

Eyes Of 30,000 Honeycombs

With 30,000 individual facets, dragonflies have the most number of facets among insects. Each facet, or ommatidia, creates its own image, and the dragonfly brain has eight pairs of descending visual neurons to compile those thousands of images into one picture...

A Kaleidoscope Of Colours, Shapes And Patterns

Spectacular and innovative in design, the Flower Dome replicates the cool-dry climate of Mediterranean regions like South Africa, California and parts of Spain and Italy. Home to a collection of plants from deserts all over the world, it showcases the adaptations of plants to arid environments...

Lightning Strikes, Not Once, But Many Times

Unlike light, lightning does not travel in a straight line. Instead, it has many branches. These other branches flashed at the same time as the main strike. The branches are actually the step leaders that were connected to the leader that made it to its target...

Are You My Dinner Tonight?

A T-Rex has 24-26 teeth on its upper jaw and 24 more on its lower jaw. Juveniles have small, sharp blade-shaped teeth to cut flesh, whereas adults have huge, blunt, rounded teeth for crushing bones. Is the T-Rex a bone-crushing scavenger?

Thrown Away By The Kelongs

Pasir Ris Park
East, Singapore
January 2013

Merlion Wayfarer was out exploring the shores again during the January low tides. This time round, she went eastwards to Pasir Ris Park.

She was surprised to see the condition of the beach. At the edges of the mud-sand composite beach, there was about a metre of foam at the incoming tide.

She recalled past news reports on the beach:
  
And in her exploration, in addition to the usual washed up debris, she found further evidence of the pollution rampant on the beach:
Soapsud-like foam at the edge of the beach...

 
In some places, the suds had turned into dirty-yellow curds. 
It was as if someone had just regurgitated his entire stomach contents into the water...

The sand unearthed by Fiddler and Sand Bubbler Crabs when digging their burrows were black or reddish-brown in colour - A sign of pollution which had penetrated below the surface...
  
Dead fish were littered over some parts of the beach (Too unsightly to include!) 
while a huge dying horseshoe crab lies in the sand...

There were several foreign workers collecting shells and fish. Yet they pointed out to Merlion Wayfarer this huge bag (size of a black garbage bag) of fish that they did not dare to touch. It was apparently disposed of by the kelongs nearby. Apparently the fish in the fisheries at the kelong were not spared too.

Merlion Wayfarer hopes that the necessary authorities will take action to warn people off the beach and facilitate a cleanup to prevent further agricultural and environmental damage...



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