Wild dolphins! Sea turtles! In Singapore waters!

In the last few days, there have been sightings of dolphins and sea turtles in Singapore waters!

Photo by Rene Ong on facebook

Three wild dolphins were seen in the channel between Kusu Island and Lazarus. Sea turtles were also spotted!


Rene Ong shared on 10 Sep on facebook: "Yes we have dolphins! Unforgettable experience... especially with the dolphins swimming so close... and towards us... meeting a family.... they even swam on their side (to see us?)... perhaps curious about us ... Indo-Pacific hump-backed dolphins aka Pink Dolphins."

Photo by Rene Ong on facebook.

Rene added more details in the Mega Marine Survey post: "A small team of us had a very close and unforgettable encounter with not one, not two, but three dolphins at Lazarus Island! One of them is just a baby.They were curious enough to swim very close and on their side, presumingly to look at us perhaps(?), before swimming off. They are Indo-Pacific hump-backed dolphins, aka Pink Dolphins. (ID thanks to Mei Lin)"

Photo by Rene Ong on facebook.

Wild dolphins have been regularly sighted in Singapore waters. Here's more about Singapore's wild dolphins on wildsingapore.

Sea turtles too!

On 14 Sep, baby turtles were seen emerging from the sand at East Coast Park. There were said to be more than 50 of these turtles.

Precious moment of baby turtles scampering to the sea on East Coast Park beach
Stomp 15 Sep 2014

Stomper Suriani and her family were fortunate to see the precious sight of 50 or more baby turtles scampering to the sea on the beach at East Coast Park yesterday, Sep 14.

According to her, it was about 5pm when they spotted this rare sight near the coast at Carpark D5.

She said:"Some children were building sand castles and digging a hole when suddenly the turtles came out. "My brother, Suhaimi, managed to capture this never-before-seen moment in Singapore waters."

Sadly, on 13 Sep, Nicholas Yap and his students who were on a field trip at Pulau Hantu spotted the carcass of a dead sea turtle. The Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum is said to be working on retrieving it.

Photo by Nicholas Yap

Sea turtles are quite regularly sighted in Singapore waters by divers and shore explorers. And sea turtles have been seen hatching and laying at East Coast Park in the recent past. David Tan shared his experience with a huge mother Hawksbill sea turtle who had come ashore at East Coast Park to lay eggs in Jul 2013! While baby sea turtles were seen hatching at East Coast Park in 2006! More about Singapore's wild sea turtles on wildsingapore.

Mother sea turtle came ashore at East Coast Park to lay, Jul 2013.
Photo by David Tan

These baby sea turtles hatched on East Coast Park in 2006.
Photo by N. Sivasothi

How can we help protect our sea turtles and dolphins?

Stop littering.

Stop mass balloon releases.

Two balloons were discovered in the digestive tract of this sea turtle along with the balloon string.

Photo by USFWS Northeast Region facebook page

Balloons and soft plastic kill sea turtles, slowly and painfully. Balloons, plastic bags, nylon rope, styrofoam are swallowed by sea turtles which mistake these for jellyfish. One report found that sea turtles are selectively preferring to eat soft plastics over other types of rubbish.

An exploded ballon looks very much like a jellyfish!
This was seen at Cyrene Reef.

YOU can make a difference for our shores!

Explore your shores! Just join any of the many guided activities on our shores, from walks to dives. Come for shore talks and other events. These are updated daily on the wildsingapore happenings blog. Get weekly updates by subscribing to the blog.

Express about your shores! Blog about your trip and share it on social media. Share your photos.

Speak up about our shores. Enjoyed your trip? Tell the organisers, agencies managing the shore. You don't need to write only to complain. Written support of existing habitats will strengthen the case for preserving them. Don't wait until they are at risk!

Act for your shores! Join any of the many volunteer opportunities, more about these on on-going opportunities. Get updates emailed to you by subscribing to feeds from the wildsingapore daily news blog which features news, blog updates and volunteer opportunities.

MORE!
About our wild places how to get there, what to see and do, what to prepare.