Ocean Advocates Triple Cleanup

In conjunction with the annual International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) initiative, S.E.A. Aquarium’s Research & Conservation team, supported by RWS Cares, organized its own series of cleanups during the month of September under its Ocean Advocates volunteer arm. 

On 15th September, 38 RWS team members (TMs) joined local non-profit Waterways Watch Society on a kayak cleanup within Kallang Basin. 

On 20th September, 29 TMs—including certified divers, dive masters from S.E.A. Aquarium’s Dive Operations Team, and surface support kayakers and crew—undertook a dive cleanup off Seringat-Kias Island in the Southern waters of Singapore, guided by experienced dive masters from another non-profit organization, Our Singapore Reefs. 

Finally, on 30th September, 15 TMs got their hands dirty at Ocean Advocates’ first mangrove cleanup at Sungei Pangsua, conducted in partnership with prominent nature group Nature Society Singapore. They were also joined by 12 students and teachers from Republic Polytechnic’s Diploma in Outdoor & Adventure Learning and NUS’ School of Architecture as part of their school projects to explore and better understand our local mangrove habitats.

 

Through the course of this triple cleanup, 277.5kg of debris was collected. This brings Ocean Advocates’ total weight of trash collected for the year to 607kg, far surpassing the 400kg target set at the beginning of 2023. Plastic bottles made up the biggest proportion of trash collected, totaling up to about 1000 bottles collected. That said, the success of the cleanups extends beyond these numbers. The discovery of a patch of 200 plastic bottles during the dive cleanup and endless mud-coated trash (e.g. small styrofoam bits, lighters, shoes, washing machine pipe, hanger, Christmas decoration, ceramic horse, drum barrel) picked up from the mangrove cleanup served to open the eyes of our Ocean Advocates to the pertinent marine pollution problem in Singapore. Learning that despite our best cleanup efforts, garbage would quickly re-accumulate in waterways like Kallang Basin and Pang Sua Canal also inspired our volunteers to practice mindfulness in their everyday consumption habits. 

The Research & Conservation team would like to thank its collaborators—Waterways Watch Society, Our Singapore Reefs and Nature Society Singapore—for their expertise and support, and we look forward to extending these partnerships as well as the continued success and growth of Ocean Advocates in 2024 and beyond.