Sea turtle overload and other Marine Park happenings

The sea turtle hatchery was launched at the Marine Park in September! Intertidal walks resumed in October, and lots of other interesting sightings and happenings too!

Photos by Lisa Lim, Richard Kuah and Victor Toh.

Here's a glimpse of some of the recent happenings at the Marine Park.

Intertidal walks resume

In October, those who signed up earlier but missed the walks due the asbestos issue, finally got their chance to visit. Thanks to the volunteers and NParks staff! The next walks are in December and registration opens on Sunday 11 Nov at 10am.

Photos by Lisa Lim.

Launch of Turtle Hatchery on Small Sisters Island

From the NParks website: The Turtle Hatchery is located at Small Sister’s Island, which serve as a dedicated site for marine conservation research with facilities to promote species recovery and habitat enhancement. Curated programmes will be developed to facilitate visits for schools, institutes and organisations interested to learn about marine research and initiatives that are carried out in Singapore waters. For more information on planning these programmes, please email marinepark@nparks.gov.sg.

Photo by Ria Tan

Shortly after the launch,  more baby sea turtles hatched!

The Marine Park has other awesome creatures too. Like magnificent sharks!

Friends of the Marine Park

Message from the Chairman, Stephen Beng: "The 5th “Friends of Marine Park” community meeting marked a little over a year since we first got together!

It was important for us to first lay a good foundation on which each stakeholder can build a lasting plan to protect and care for our marine park. We hoped to start right by strengthening relationships within the community, opening communications, learning from each other, and agreeing on goals and priorities.

At this meeting, we took stock of the many efforts made collectively through a busy first year.

We reminded ourselves of the goals we set out to achieve for the Sisters’ Islands Marine Park and for the conservation of our marine environment.

Many of us also found new opportunities to contribute and collaborate through the network this platform provides.

More activities are in store as we bring home the International Year of the Reef 2018, and more to look forward to as we continue to grow the community!

Photo by Stephen Beng

The Singapore Blue Plan 2018

In October, the Singapore marine community launched the Singapore Blue Plan 2018 as part of International Year of the Reef 2018 Celebrating Singapore Shores.

Mr Desmond Lee, Minister for Social and Family Development and Second Minister for National Development was Guest of Honour at the Launch. Among his key points, he said "our agencies will carefully study the recommendations in detail, discuss and engage the editors and community, and see how we can take this forward together. We have come a long way in our nature conservation journey, and it is only with the same spirit of openness and collaboration that can we continue to make progress to protect our biodiversity"

Minister Desmond with the marine community at the Launch.
Photo by Dr Tan Heok Hui

The Singapore Blue Plan 2018, published by SIBiol, is led by marine biologists, and prepared with the broad inclusion of marine scientists, stakeholders and members of the public. Altogether, there are more than 100 contributors to this document.

St John's Island is part of the Sisters' Islands Marine Park. Its western shore falls under the Marine Park, and the Marine Park visitor centre is located on St John's Island.The cluster of Kusu, Lazarus and St. John's Islands has been recommended by the Singapore Blue Plan 2018 for elevated protection status. More details here.

Film screening

"Birth of a Marine Park" by Victor Tang was also screened during "Beneath the Waves" by St Joseph's Institution. It was  a day of marine films including Chasing Coral, Remember Chek Jawa and more! A great opportunity to meet a broad range of marine folk: advocates, artists, scientists, agencies and social enterprises. And learn more about marine and sustainability issues in Singapore.


More about the Marine Park

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.

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!