STOMPer Beachcomber shares some pictures he took at East Coast Park near the Bedok Jetty, including this one of a yellow and hairy caterpillar. 'The beauty of East Coast Park', he says.
Personally, I fail to see how these photos bring out the beauty of East Coast Park.
Several of my friends have visited the shores of East Coast Park in recent months, and they certainly had a lot of surprising encounters. Here's a list of blog posts done by these bold explorers.
From Ria:
- East Coast Lagoon is alive! (23rd June 2009)
- Living sands of East Coast Park (23rd June 2009)
- East Coast Park Rocks! (23rd June 2009)
- The Great Walls of the East Coast (19th August 2009)
- East Coast Park shores are alive! (20th August 2009)
From Kok Sheng:
- Searching for secret shores at East Coast (4th June 2009)
- Exploring secret shores of East Coast (24th June 2009)
- East Coast is packed with sea fans! (23rd July 2009)
- Lively East Coast Shore (25th July 2009)
- Living walls of East Coast (19th August 2009)
- New East Coast shore = New surprises (20th August 2009)
From James:
- East coast (22nd June 2009)
- East coast lagoon (28th July 2009)
- East coast lagoon - Where are the fish? (1st August 2009)
- East Coast - Worms in the walls. (18th August 2009)
And finally, from Marcus:
- East Coast life (20th August 2009)
Another person who has helped show that these shores are far from sterile and lifeless is Wong Hoong Wei, who has published quite a number of short papers in Nature in Singapore, documenting new records of molluscs found along this stretch of coastline.
- A new record of Cymbovula segaliana Cate, 1973 (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Ovulidae) in Singapore.
- A new record of Mitrella moleculina (Duclos, 1840) (Gastropoda: Columbellidae) in Singapore, with notes on colour forms.
- A new record of Coralliophila rubrococcinea Melvill & Standen, 1901 (Gastropoda: Muricoidea) in Singapore.
- A new record of Semele sinensis A. Adams, 1853 (Bivalvia: Tellinoidea) in Singapore.
- The Mactridae (Mollusca: Bivalvia) of East Coast Park, Singapore.
At the same time, however, these coastal environments are very heavily impacted by all sorts of human activities. These range from the actions of individuals, such as fishing and littering, to larger beach 'improvement' projects, development for leisure and recreation, and construction of coastal protection features.
This is a shore that I am certainly quite keen to explore further, especially considering that many of us, such as Liana, James, Kok Sheng, Chay Hoon and I live in the eastern half of Singapore. Hopefully the habitats will be able to withstand and recover from all the development that is going on all the time. The more we explore our shores, the more we realise how easy it is for marine life to colonise formerly barren, artificial shores and establish a thriving ecosystem.
