50m net abandoned on Labrador (14 Nov 2012)

After TeamSeagrass monitoring at Labrador, the small team found an abandoned driftnet.

Photo by Andy Dinesh on facebook.

The net was about 50m long. It seemed newly laid possibly the day before, during public holiday?


Fortunately, we are always equipped with scissors and bag to remove such nets. Here's Pei Yan removing large pieces of coral rubble trapped in the net.

"Help me get the net to higher shore!" I yell at Andy as the tide comes in. He stops instead to take a photo of me struggling with the net. I must admit, it's much better than the photos I took of us at work on the net.

Photo by Andy Dinesh on facebook.

What a relief that we didn't find any fishes trapped in the net. But we found 6 small (each about 10cm long) Spider conch snails (Lambis lambis) trapped in the net.

And also one large crab (body width about 10cm), possibly a Red egg crab (Atergatis integerrimus). It was still alive. The net was made of mono-filament and had a mesh size of about 10cm.

Pei Yan and Andy carefully release the trapped animals. Then, together with Jim, we hauled out the net.

Earlier on, Andy had been collecting BBQ grills scattered all over the shore. There were 101 of them!

Thanks to Andy, Pei Yan and Jim for hauling out the net and helping with the seagrass monitoring! More about what we did during this trip on the wild shores of singapore blog.

It's sad that people still trespass onto the shore when there are signs that we should keep off the shore due to ongoing marine conservation work.

Labrador shore and the jetty are now permanently closed to the public due to safety issues. The natural cliffs along the shore are not very stable. Thanks to Yuet Hsin of NParks for permission to monitor.

For years, next to Labrador, there has been massive reclamation, dredging  and other coastal works for the new Pasir Panjang Container Terminal which includes underwater blasting. Hopefully, as the massive construction nearby comes to an end, the seagrasses and other marine life at Labrador can return. It is only through long-term monitoring that we can learn more about what is happening on this shore.

More about TeamSeagrass and how you can volunteer to join the Team.