Long driftnet at Berlayar Creek (24 Apr 2015)

During a survey of Berlayar Creek shore, we came across a long abandoned driftnet. It started from the sand bar facing Sentosa and stretched northwards to Reflections by the Bay.

Thanks to Toh Yuet Hsin and her team from NParks, the net was removed.


The net crossed the sand bar, rocky shore and small patch of seagrasses growing near the Berlayar Creek Boardwalk.

The net is probably about 50m long. It wasn't very new as it broke when I pulled at the nylon netting.

It took us a while to drag it onto the sand bar to cut it up and pack up in smaller pieces. Fortunately, we didn't come across any animals caught in the net.

These are then laboriously hauled out onto the high shore.

Thanks to Toh Yuet Hsin and her team from NParks for being there to deal with the net!

At least the driftnetting problem at Berlayar Creek is far less than it used to be. We used to regularly see people putting up nets across the Creek, such as these people in Sep 2009 setting up a net in the water.

Another net was laid by them further away.

While yet another net was strung from tree to tree across the Creek.

The problem was that many of these nets were simply abandoned on the shore. The nets continue to trap animals until they are removed. The problem was so bad that a few of us decided to clear up the huge accumulation of abandoned nets in Nov 2007.

And again in  Dec 2007.

There are way too many shores for the few of us to keep an eye on them all of the time. So if you spot anything wrong going on at a shore, please do let me know: Ria Tan hello@wildsingapore.com. Thank you!