(Part of submission to RGPS for my SS Portfolio)
Field Trips to Changi Beach
16 and 29 January 2010
This is a brief explanation of what I did during my field trips to Changi beach.
My father is quite a nature lover, for as long as I remember he has been bringing us to all kinds of nature places like Sungei Buloh Nature Park, Labrador Park, even to marine parks in the Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesia. However, all our visits to Labrador Park and Chek Jawa had had limited success and we saw very few creatures.
March 2006, Labrador Park
We didn’t know that this crab was poisonous when we handled it.
Hairy crab Pilumnus vespertilio
So I asked Ms Ria Tan, a prominent Singapore marine conservationist, what went into the preparation of a successful trip to an intertidal zone.
The Tide Table
Ms Tan told me that the tide table was the most important tool I had to learn to use before making a trip out, and just looking at the day’s tide from the Straits Times would not be enough. We had to look out for the low tide, and it was absolutely necessary to get at least 0.2m or even 0.1m tide if we were to see more interesting things.
Since then I would frequently visit websites such as the SAF Yacht Club website to find the lowest tide in any given month.
The Field Trips
We made 2 field trips for this portfolio, the first on 16 January 2010 where we were expecting a low of 0.5m and the second on 29 January 2010 where the tide was 0.3m. The first was really a recce to positively identify the stretch of Changi Beach that we were looking for, and the second would be the serious trip – we were praying that the 0.3m low tide would still allow us good finds.
16 January 2010
We went sea grass combing.
29 January 2010
Changi Beach view at 0.3m low tide
We were not disappointed – there were really a wealth of creatures to be seen. During the first trip there was a Malay family harvesting sea creatures and we spoke to them briefly.
Here are some creatures we saw during these trips.
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