Chek Jawa and volunteers in the Prime Minister's National Day Rally speech

Volunteers releasing horseshoe crabs caught in a driftnet on Chek Jawa are featured in the Prime Minister's National Day Rally speech!
They have even animated the horseshoe crabs so the ones that were released were moving on the shore! Awesome!

This slide is part of the PM's speech on "The Singapore Spirit"

From the text of the PM's speech:

83. What is this Singapore spirit?

84. We must maintain a Singaporean core in our society, stiffened by this Singa­pore spirit

85. We must pass this spirit to the next generation

a. So that they have the same conviction, and make the right choice for themselves
b. Through our schools, but also many other activities:

i. Community involvement
ii. Pursuing passionate causes
iii. Tackling daunting challenges

c. Important for youth to try many new things

i. Learning about the world
ii. Discovering their own abilities
iii. Gaining confidence and maturity

86. We do our best to give our youth such exposure

a. Encourage youth to develop a social conscience

i. e.g. care for those less fortunate than they are (Young NTUC visiting a Seniors Home)
ii. e.g. protect the environment (youths releasing horseshoe crabs from an abandoned drift net at Chek Jawa]

Unfortunately, I can't seem to figure out how to embed the video clip that is on the Reach website.

Here's a closer look at the photo that was used:

It was taken on Aug 2007 during Lim Swee Cheng's survey of Chek Jawa for sponges which led to the first and only and very awesome Guide to the Sponges of Singapore. Also with us is Chim Chee Kong, who among his many volunteer and nature contributions, is one of the leads of the Star Trackers who monitor our Knobbly sea stars including those at Cyrene Reef. And taking photos of their work is Marcus Ng, the author of the Semakau Book, an active volunteer in many nature efforts and groups and also author of probably the most ancient nature blog in Singapore: The Annotated Budak.

I was pleasantly surprised to receive an urgent request for the photo last Tuesday. With an urgent reminder from Wilson Ang from Eco-Singapore as I was not online the whole day (was happily at the turtle release at Sisters Island).

It was even more touching to receive a thank you email for the photo which highlighted a message from the PMO staff "The picture of the horseshoe crabs worked well. You may be interested to know that we animated the crabs, so they moved when PM pointed them out."

Well, we should thank all these people for highlighting our marine life, the threats to them and some of the good work being done for them!

I am once again reminded of the importance of sharing good photos of our shores and efforts for our shores. You never know when it would be used to help raise awareness!