Exciting seashore programmes at Sungai Pulai

There are marvellous seagrass meadows, rocky shores, mangroves and more at Sungai Pulai, just across Singapore's Tuas shores.

A tagged seahorse from the SOS website

Led by the intrepid Choo Chee Kuang, these shores are looked after by the Save Our Seahorses team. And they have just announced exciting programmes at Pulai River and beyond!

The SOS programme, of course, includes tagging seahorses and their relatives, the pipefishes.

Seahorses live in seagrasses, so there is also seagrass monitoring.

They also do surveys of the rocky shore on Pulau Merambong which lies at the mouth of Pulai River.

And a special Parents & Kids program for kids, accompanied by their parents, to enjoy hands-on marine education under the guidance of experienced marine educators.

The mangroves and wetlands in the area is a Ramsar Site so there's a Ramsar Tour to showcase some of the marvellous wildlife there.

More about the available slots for the various programmes on their website.

What is Sungai Pulai? The Sungai Pulai estuary "possibly the richest marine bio-diversity spot in Malaysia" and gazetted a Wetland of International Importance in 2003. The area may be impacted by plans to develop a massive petrochemical installation there. Sungai Pulai is one of the three Ramsar sites in Malaysia, that lies just across from Tuas. Thus reclamation at Tuas and plans for major developments at Tuas may also impact this huge wetland. Hopefully, greater awareness of Sungai Pulai will be raised among Singaporeans with plans to develop a cross-border tourist attraction involving Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve and three Johor Ramsar sites of Sungai Pulai, Pulau Kukup and Tanjong Piai.

Save our Seahorses is a non-profit organization committed to saving the seahorse and the Pulai River Estuary in Malaysia. SOS comprises a group of young scientists, students, public volunteers and local fishing communities. Among their recent projects is a new seashore guidebook for Sungai Pulai. Read more about their work in their report for 2008-2009.