New Nature Walkway at Labrador, Berlayar Creek

Just announced today, plans to build "a garden trail at the Alexandra Arch where more shrubs will be planted, and cycling paths and more footpaths built.

The path will wend towards the Berlayer Creek mangrove swamps, which are now inaccessible. Besides a boardwalk, plaques about the plants and animal life will also be put up.

The boardwalk will take the trekker by the sea and link Labrador Park to the future promenade fronting the Reflections at Keppel Bay condominium."Another description: "After crossing Telok Blangah Road, a visitor would reach the 960-metre Berlayer Creek Mangrove Trail, which will feature an entrance plaza with an information gallery about the mangroves, as well as a rest area. The proposed trail will have lookout points with storyboards about the flora and fauna.At the end of the Creek would be the 330-metre Bukit Chermin Harbour View Walk, which will have an elevated walkway providing scenic waterfront views of Keppel Harbour and Sentosa, in an area that was once exclusive to members of the Keppel Club."

There is also a promise that "construction work, scheduled to start next year, would be carried out carefully to ensure that the ecosystem would not be affected".

and "The trail will run parallel to a previously inaccessible mangrove habitat, with several boardwalks puncturing the mangrove at strategic points to both allow visitors a glimpse into its rich biodiversity and minimise any impact on the local ecosystem".

Additional information includes: "The nature and coastal walk is scheduled to be completed in tandem with the opening of the Labrador Park MRT station along the Circle Line".

Full articles on wildsingapore news.

What's at Berlayar Creek?

Unfortunately, the last time few times we visited, it was to remove an enormous amount of drift nets.

On the first trip, a small team struggled with the mess.On the second trip, a bigger team hauled even more out.Meanwhile, leisure fishing goes on at this shore, while huge fishtraps are laid just off the shore.

Links to more about Berlayar Creek

• Trash found there on the reddot blog
• Marinelife and other encounters on the ashira blog and discovery blog

Taking out the trash: Berlayar Creek, Labrador

This afternoon, despite threatening clouds, a determined bunch of Naked Hermit Crabs headed out to Belayar Creek to deal with the monster gill nets there. To finish up the job we started in an earlier trip.
Led by the intrepid Andy Dinesh, we set about to remove the massive network of nets abandoned on the shore. They are half buried so there's a fair bit of digging to do.Then cutting them up and dragging them out. Thank goodness we have many hands and strong backs today.There were nets even in deeper waters.
I felt as if we dragged out more than our body weight in nets.
There was a particularly long one (about 50m long) across the Creek itself, ending at Keppel Club.
We dragged it out to the Keppel Club shore and the Club staff were kind enough to offer to dispose of them. This saved us from heaving the nets out over the soft mud to the Labrador side of the shore. Thank you!And as we were hauling out nets, there was a boat just off the shore, setting down a fish trap as big as a man.The guy notices us.
And we note their registration number.
Andy found a very sick and dying heron. Poor thing.Just as we thought we took it all out, as we were leaving the shore, we came across MORE junk stuck among the rocks at the high water mark!We sure hauled out a lot of nets and junk! The iron rod Ivan hauled out is taller than himself! (He says now he has a tongkat longer than Ron's!)
The tired team is quite pleased to have cleared most of the junk off the shore. June, Andy, July, Joe Lai, Ivan and Tiong Chin, all having fun with poor Robert H. who really tired out from all the work.
And what an incredible amount of junk it was. Besides nets, there were thick ropes, barbed wire, plastic bags in various stages of disintegration, lots of golf balls, CDs and even insect repellent.
This is killer litter! We saw some crabs and little fishes stuck in the nets.
But gill nets can do far worse. Here's a photo of dugongs drowned in gill nets in Abu Dhabi.
Singapore has dugongs too. What a terrible shame if these abandoned nets killed our gentle dugongs. Tomorrow, we are going to clean up the Northern coast, which we suspect is visited by dugongs.

We're looking into doing this more seriously and regularly. If you'd like to help out, drop me an email. Ria at hello@wildsingapore.com

Killer driftnets removed from Berlayar Creek, Labrador

Just a few hours earlier at around 9pm, a small group of Naked Hermit Crabs, Wildfilms crew and friend made time to catch a short not-so-low tide to get rid of driftnets at Belayar Creek.
The little creek next to Labrador, just opposite Sentosa, where the bright lights shine on reclamation work for the Integrated Resort. The manly members were out in deeper waters dealing with a massive tangle of nets.
Meanwhile, the ladies were seriously dealing with a net that had an anchoring tyre well embedded in the sand.
A lot of digging and dragging was involved.But it's no problem for the tough gals!

Meanwhile, the guys make three trips dragging up portions of the mega mess.

It's tough trying to drag nets equal to your body weight across rocks and on soft mud.

And there just SO MUCH of it. Closer examination shows there are several very long nets abandoned out there in a huge tangle. Andy rightly called it the Mother of All Driftnets.

Why are abandoned nets a problem?

Because they continuously kill as long as they are there. Animals such as horseshoe crabs and crabs get entangled and die a miserable death. Fishes too. If they get loose and drift into the sea, they may entangle dolphins, sea turtles and dugongs, which are air-breathing animals and will drown if they can't reach the surface.

The guys rescued one trapped horseshoe crab, a very large one, probably a female because of her size. But there were several in the net that were already dead.

The team only managed to take out one third of the mess before the tide turned.
After dragging the nets off the flats, there was still the tricky bit of getting them up the sea wall. Fortunately, Michelle brought a long rope!

Some tying up and a quick pull, the nets were hauled right up to the shore where they could no longer harm sea creatures.

The team took out piles of nets that were bigger than them! Thank you Cynthia, Andy, Robert and Michelle.

We will come back with a bigger team to drag out the rest of the mess at the next series of low tides.

The mega driftnets were first spotted and reported on the reddot blog
More about Berlayar Creek during a recent visit on the ashira blog and discovery blog.

You CAN make a difference! Come join us as we remove the rest of the diftnets, or join the International Coastal Cleanup Singapore