Spectacular September at the Sisters Islands Marine Park

On 2 Sep, Minister Desmond Lee launched the free volunteer guided walk at St. John's Island, which is part of the Sisters' Island Marine Park and hosts the Marine Park Public Gallery.

The Public Gallery now has many additional features, including a mangrove display and a huge touch pool. Volunteers also continued to bring the public on intertidal guided walks at Big Sisters Islands. And more happenings...


In Minister's words: "You can take a free guided walk, organized by NParks, on St John's Island starting Oct. Led by trained volunteers, it will take visitors on a 2.8km trek to see heritage trees, coastal forests and coral reef, and see native birds and marine life such as the critically endangered hawksbill turtle as well as the Indo-Pacific Humpback dolphin if you're lucky."

Photo by Minister Desmond Lee.

"The walk ends at the NParks Marine Park Public Gallery which has a new virtual reality dive trail and a new mangrove mecocosm." Also, a huge touch pool featuring local marine life.

More about the St. John's Island tour and how to sign up.

Intertidal public walks continue on Big Sisters Islands

The last low spring tides in the morning happened in September. For the rest of the year and into early 2018, the tides (and thus the walks) will be in the afternoon.

Photo by Collin Tong.

Here's the group guided by Richard Kuah.

Photo by Richard Kuah

Another group led by Pei Yan.

Photo shared by Jasmine Tan.

More about guided walks at the Sisters' Islands Marine Park on the NParks website.

More about what to expect at a guided walk.

Why should I visit with an experienced and trained guide? Why are places limited on a public walk? Which other shores are accessible to the public? and more in this wildsingapore page.

More about volunteering with the Sisters Islands Marine Park.


Friends of the Sisters Islands Marine Park

In the words of Stephen Beng, Chairman: "Our ocean environment wins when all stakeholders are willing to work together for the longterm survival of our coral reefs.  Collaboration at the Marine Park Friends network meeting last Friday evening moved forward with positive discussions on how we can all contribute towards making our first marine park vibrant, cherished and protected. Thankful for the commitments from a wide range of representatives; boating, kayaking, scuba diving, fishing, education, research, media, NGOs, gov agencies and resource managers. Most of all, for the support and vision of Minister Desmond Lee."

Photo by Stephen Beng.

Beetles on St John's Island

Thanks to David Moh, we get a glimpse of beetles on St. John's Island. Which is also part of the Sisters' Islands Marine Park. More in his blog post.

Photo by David Moh.

Collision near the Sisters' Islands Marine Park

Early on 13 Sep 2017, about 1.7 nautical miles (3.15km) south-west of Sisters' Island, a dredger JBB De Rong and a tanker Kartika Segara collided. The dredger sank and as a result, 5 men were missing. MPA reports "There have been no reports of oil spill or disruption to shipping traffic in the Singapore Strait." This is yet another bullet dodged by the Marine Park. In Aug 2016, there was a collision near the Sisters Islands, between a Very Large Crude Carrier and a container ship. Fortunately, there were no resulting injuries or oil spill. More details on the wild shores of singapore blog.

Chart from MPA Release on 13 Sep 2017.

Catch up with all the happenings at the Marine Park through the Sisters' Islands Marine Park facebook page. You can share your encounters, ideas and thoughts for the Marine Park here. Photos in this blog post are from those who shared on this facebook page. Thank you!