Star Bamboo Singapore

The Straits Times newspaper today quoted Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister S. Jayakumar citing Singapore as a shining example of balancing business and environmental interests.

Singapore has the “world’s busiest port yet the seawaters here are home to 32% of the world’s corals“.

Hmm, I never realised that our little island has a third of the world’s coral reefs.

On closer reading, the figure actually refered to the number of species. That’s still pretty impressive, as we apparently have more coral species than the Great Barrier Reef.

Great Barrier Reef. Not Singapore.

But numbers don’t tell the whole story.

The visibility in Singapore waters is appalling due to heavy sea traffic and land reclamation works. There was once I went scuba-diving at Pulau Hantu (“Ghost Island’), a small island to the south of mainland Singapore.

It was like diving in mud, I couldn’t see beyond 10cm.

I could only catch a glimpse of the corals if I press my face right next to them and keep completely still. Any movement will kick up the silt on the bed.

The few corals I could find look shrunken, pale, and nothing like the colourful and vibrant structures you see in diving magazines.

There were hardly any marine life around either. A lone clownfish was the find of the day.

—

About 14 years ago, four of the Southern islands were filled up and combined into Jurong Island which houses a huge petrochemical complex today.

I was involved in the reef rescue operation at one of the islands, Pulau Ayer Chawan, and still have the t-shirt to prove it.

A team of volunteer divers forcibly plucked up the coral reefs and brought them up in baskets. My job was simply to haul them onto the boat.

The plan was to transplant the corals at Sentosa island.

Corals are hugely sensitive organisms. As you can imagine, not many survived the traumatic experience.

Those that did last till today have another problem to contend with. Sentosa Island is now being redeveloped into a casino and theme park.

I don’t know what will happen to the corals now, but you can be sure that in Singapore, economic interests will always trump all others.