Last Sat morning, I attended a briefing at Labrador Park.
An invitation was send out a couple weeks back, asking volunteer divers to help out in a Singapore Poly Project, to help monitor some corals that were relocated and planted artificially in a stretch of sea nearer to the jetty now.
Late last year, a hydro graphic project was carried out to lay submarine cables near Labrador Park. The dredging work would affect and destroy 100m stretch of marine life and corals. Therefore an initiative by a group of people from SP, with the blessings of a few agencies like NParks and MPA, gave the go-ahead to save and preserve the corals.
The Project Leader, a Section Head in the SP Nautical Studies Sept, gave us (7 that attended) a low-down on the background of the project. He also introduced the other fulltime people and the other Agencies/Authorities rep and external consultants that helped to facilitate the project since the beginning of time. So it was not a one-man cowboy attempt...some other high-level folks up there are supporting it.
One of the sticky 'political issues' that were raised was about all the negative reports and blogs that were posted when this project first started, and some as recent as early this month. Criticising the project, literally from the beach and the jetty, with what they can see with their eyes and cameras at low tide...[But the works are in the sea....]
He and the researchers were all very confident of what was being carried out, how the various authorities had added weight to the project and how he had turned away the many commercial sponsors that hear about the success of the work since.
I was there, I saw the works, the people, the various agencies that were involved and so on.... I trusted my eyes and ears thus far.... I offered to be part of the new research team, to help monitor the relocated corals for the next 6-12 mths.
Coming home that Sat afternoon, I Googled the internet to see for myself what's all the -ve fuzz about this Project.
Apparently, some over zealous environmental groups here had taken some picture and posted them on blogs, forums and on-line paper, condemning this project for throwing and adding junks into Labrador Park's last stretch of natural beach and destroying the natural state of Lab Park.
During the briefing and a visit to the on-site lab, we were shown the great extend and progress of the work from day one. Some of the pictures I saw in the lab documented the initial preparation works carried out last year and past attemtps in other parts of our island.
It was in those earlier times that the pix(in the blogs and forums) were taken and all those comments posted were targeted at, demanding 'why and what' they were doing...
The researchers knew about all the pix and postings.... The pix were outdated because those were the initial prep works near the beach and at the later time.
So with no official answers from the project group, netizens began drawing their own conclusions, and condemnation flew..... (At least that's how I read them as....)
[In fact its the same trend in STomp....netizens there just love to flame and throw remarks just by looking at the pix.]
During the briefing, I asked them why they did not reply to all those -ve remarks and questions?...
Well,according to the researchers and the emails(a few hundreds) she received, it seems some folks out there just want to pick a fight, find trouble and are just too narrow, too protective in their views...
SO.....With such one-sided view, I guess the people behind the project just ignore these group of 'protestors' and would rather spend more productive time doing their works......
I guess the bottom line is, its not exactly a commercial project, its low key and with very limited resources and manpower , they are doing what they can within a limited time frame. Its was experimental initially, cos the situation and environment were different from the Sentosa project.
They have to go by trial and error initially to create the best condition to preserve the corals. But the result they are achieving thus far is impressive ....
With only a handful of volunteer divers and extremely poor visibility (dredging still ongoing), they could not be effective in monitoring the structures stability...
So with an open mind, I'm going in to see the real works with my own eyes (in the sea, not from the jetty or the beach)....
The detractors can stay behind the PC and past judgements on pictures posted or post comments on the views by a couple of 'environmentalists'....
I rather chose to go in to see it for myself, scuba gears on; to see if its really that bad or noble a project....
Talk is always very cheap and convenient...
Report Links:
http://www.innovationmagazine.com/innovation/volumes/v7n1/feature3.shtml
http://sp.edu.sg/resources/docs/publications/SP_RIOT2007.pdf (Pg 28)
