What we've been up to in May

Whew! What a crazy month!

During the weekend of 24-25 May, the Crabs were at the Envirofest event (at Toa Payoh Hub) together with nearly everyone else from the active nature conservation community of Singapore.

Nature lovers were out in full force to share their work with the members of the public. Doing an exhibition is as important as doing field work. It gives us a platform to reach out to the masses with our message of conservation. Saving habitats, giving a voice to the animals that we try so hard to save cannot be the work of a few individuals in a community. We have to share what we have learnt in all our field trips with ordinary folks. They may not joined us in our field trips but many are no less concerned with issues of nature conservation in Singapore. They are the ones teaching their own children, students, sharing with friends and family. Every effort counts.

There were plenty of exciting stories to share from groups such as Team Seagrass, Hantu Bloggers, Nature Trekkers, Nparks, RMBR, to name a few. The Crabs were right there with everyone else to share their stories about guided nature walks on two of Singapore's shores - Sentosa and Chek Jawa Boardwalk.

The kids who dropped by at our booth loved the "Can Eat or Not" game. Through the game, we introduced some of the marine animals that are found on our natural shores, while their parents got a short explanation from the Crabs on the nature walks that we do.

Some parents enjoyed the game! They too were fascinated that so many animals can be found in the intertidal zone in urban Singapore.

A mother and daughter enjoying Envirofest 2009.

Thanks to Liana, CH, Anuj, Ivan, LK and many others who helped out at the Crabs' booth.

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On 30/5/09 Saturday, we took several families from Clementi Town Secondary School (CTSS) out to see the intertidal zone at Sentosa. Everyone's spirits were high as they had been waiting a long time for this day. After a short safety briefing from the Crabs, the groups set out to the shore.

The groups spotted lots of hard and soft corals with all the polyps visible. We were fascinated with the colours of the polyps. There were bright green, dull green, yellow, brown and red.

A few kids were a bit apprehensive about getting their shoes wet in the water initially, but within minutes, they forgot all about it and began searching for animals and marvelling at the beauty of these creatures. They seemed to like the crabs. Not us "Crabs", but the real stuff like the hairy crab, brown egg crab, red egg crab. mosaic crab and swimming crab.

Here's a large brown egg crab that has made its home in the giant tyre.

Unfortunately for the CTSS group, the shore walk ended prematurely when a huge storm blew right into our path. We ended the walk after less than 1 hour on the shore. Everyone agreed that safety comes first, but all said that the trip was an eye-opener to the beauty that is found on our shores. I'm sure many will return to Sentosa to take a second look at the "Original Underwater World".

Thanks to Allen, Sam, LK, Evelyn, Ria, Ivan and SJ for helping with the CTSS walk.