Singapore has sea turtles! Dolphins!

A hawksbill turtle was filmed making its way back to the sea at East Coast Park about a week ago. It might have come ashore to lay eggs!

From video clip uploaded by WWF Singapore.

Today, a pod of six wild Indo-pacific bottlenose dolphins were spotted at the Singapore Strait by the Singapore Bird Group on their pelagic bird survey.

From photos by the Singapore Bird Group on facebook.

Here's more about these exciting sightings.



SEA TURTLE!

WWF Singapore posted on facebook on 24 Apr 15:

RARE TURTLE SIGHTING: Our supporters, Jackson Chin and Chelsea Toh, sent us this video footage to alert us of a rare turtle sighting at East Coast Park yesterday afternoon. The video shows the turtle making its way back to sea. We suspect that this Hawksbill turtle had come up to shore to lay its eggs as a small dug hole was also seen at the area.

Hawksbill turtles are on the critically endangered list and should you encounter a similar situation, do immediately contact NParks - Let's Make Singapore Our Garden at the hotline: 1800 471 7300 and take note of the following:

• Keep your distance from the turtle and the eggs. Touching the turtle may scare or provoke it. Handling the eggs may damage them, or introduce bacteria into the nest.
• Talk softly and stay out of sight. Do not shine lights at the turtle or use flash photography. Light and noise may scare the turtle, and cause it to leave without laying any eggs.
• Keep clear of tracks left by the turtle. Researchers use the tracks to identify the species of the turtle and to locate the nest.

Kudos to Jackson and Chelsea for alerting us!

RARE TURTLE SIGHTING: Our supporters, Jackson Chin and Chelsea Toh, sent us this video footage to alert us of a rare turtle sighting at East Coast Park yesterday afternoon. The video shows the turtle making its way back to sea. We suspect that this Hawksbill turtle had come up to shore to lay its eggs as a small dug hole was also seen at the area. Hawksbill turtles are on the critically endangered list and should you encounter a similar situation, do immediately contact NParks - Let's Make Singapore Our Garden at the hotline: 1800 471 7300 and take note of the following:- Keep your distance from the turtle and the eggs. Touching the turtle may scare or provoke it. Handling the eggs may damage them, or introduce bacteria into the nest. - Talk softly and stay out of sight. Do not shine lights at the turtle or use flash photography. Light and noise may scare the turtle, and cause it to leave without laying any eggs. - Keep clear of tracks left by the turtle. Researchers use the tracks to identify the species of the turtle and to locate the nest. Kudos to Jackson and Chelsea for alerting us!
Posted by WWF Singapore on Friday, 24 April 2015

More about Singapore's sea turtles.

DOLPHINS!!

The Singapore Bird Group posted on facebook on 3 May 15;

The highlight for our pelagic bird survey today was non-avian in nature. We saw a pod of 6 wild Indo-pacific bottlenose dolphins at the Singapore Strait. A more complete report will be done after all the data's been collated. Enjoy the photos in the meantime.

They also shared this video clip of the dolphins.

Further to Francis' posting, here's a short and shaky video of the Bottlenose Dolphins seen this morning at 7.20am.
Posted by Singapore Bird Group on Sunday, 3 May 2015

More about Singapore's dolphins.

It was not too long ago that I compiled sightings of dolphins and sea turtles!

• December of Dolphins (Dec 2014)
• Wild dolphins! Sea turtles! In Singapore waters! (Sep 2014)

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 balloon 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 blogwhich features news, blog updates and volunteer opportunities.

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