Punggol Beach
North East, Singapore
February 2015
Punggol End used to be a favourite haunt of Merlion Wayfarer. Before the recent developments these few years, it was a place abound with bird life, where mating butterflies, huge thumb-sized spiders and the occasional snakes can be found. By the waters, there were sea urchins, anemones, starfish, horseshoe crabs and jellyfish.
Today, it is a place polluted with oil found even under layers of sand and debris washed up ashore. In her latest outing during the CNY long weekend, Merlion Wayfarer was dismayed to see the amount of pollution in the murky water.
What made it worse was there a whole patch of forest was cleared nearby. This patch contained trees where bird life was thriving. It was also the regular perch of a pair of White-Bellied Sea Eagles (Haliaeetus leucogaster). A nest was even spotted there before.
Light brown pollution all over the shore at low tide...
The polluted foam is light, floats on water, and coagulates when in contact with any solid surface or other similar blobs...
A likely reason might be the new construction projects on the opposite shore -
These structures are at least 5 floors high...
These looked like signs of bleaching -
Crabs with white streaks across their exoskeletons and pincers...
This Snapping Shrimp was spotted wandering out of its burrow. It appeared lost. There was no Goby watchdog to keep a lookout. Could it be because the Goby did not survive the polluted waters?
With this post, Merlion Wayfarer hopes that the relevant authorities
will take measures to protect the shore life and other marine organisms.
