There are marvellous seagrass meadows, rocky shores, mangroves and more at Sungai Pulai. Just across the Johor Strait, opposite
Singapore's Tuas shores, the Sungai Pulai estuary is
"possibly the richest marine bio-diversity spot in Malaysia" and has been gazetted a Wetland of International Importance in 2003.
These shores are looked after by the
Save Our Seahorses team. And they have just announced more
exciting seashore programmes for 2012.
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.
More about Sungei Pulai
The area is already going to 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 in Singapore. These wetlands are connect to Singapore wetlands and in fact, the Sungei Buloh Master Plan includes a study 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.
