"Labrador Rocky Shore" has shifted to Blogspot

This blog is now located at http://labradorrockyshore.blogspot.com/ and the feed URL is: http://feeds.feedburner.com/LabradorRockyShore

I changed the blog name has been changed to "Labrador Rocky Shore" instead of Labrador Park. Well, "labradorpark.blogspot.com" is occupied by the Seagrass Angels' now defunct 2007 blog as they shifted to wordpress. I did not ask for the blogspot domain either as Labrador Park includes the larger recreational area in addition to the nature reserve. Since the posts here tend to be restricted to the rocky shore organisms, the more accurate name has been adopted.

The blog includes two pages prepared by Leong Wai in 2004 when we started this project - a simple introduction and a photo gallery. I'll shift those to pages later.

This blog was originally switched to the Habitatnews server after Leong Wai encountered difficulties with Blogspot in August 2004.

A few years ago, I had begun shifting most of my active blogs back to blogspot such as Cycling in Singapore and The Biology Refugia . Since this blog has been relatively quiet after Wai and the UROPS students who came after her graduated, I left it alone.

This morning, however, Blogger reminded me that FTP support will end by end-April. So I had to shift. Blogspot is really lovely to use these days. Shifting this small site was instantaneous and widening the html wrapper to accommodate 500-pixel width images was simple and immediate.

Meanwhile, just in case, I left the old index page at:
http://habitatnews.nus.edu.sg/news/labrador/blog/oldindex.html

2nd year NUS ecology students study Labrador Rocky Shore

I introduced an ecology practical at Labrador Rocky Shore with undergraduates in the new second year life science module (LSM2251) to study the diversity and zonation there. I realised almost all the students were unfamiliar with the fauna there and when I checked, I found that about 80% were visiting the park for the first time.

In addition to its characteristic crabs and mollusc, Labrador Rocky Shore is a great place to study marine algae. The animal they were most amazed to encounter was of course, the octopus. Happily there was one individual most nights to fascinate students.

Since there are about 100 students in the class each semester, I split them into two sessions of 50 and divide each session into groups of about 10 each. These groups are then spaced out widely along the rocky shore to reduce impact to any one site. We sent the first two batches (last October and February) and have a better idea of what we can achieve with the class and advise to provide about the reports prior to them writing it.

In future years the students will study the community with the use of Simpson's index to contribute to long-term monitoring of the rocky shore. This will mean boning up during the pre-field trip lab session. It will have to be more rigorous exercise than this year with a greater array of specimens of typical fauna from the Raffles Museum so that they have a grasp of identification before the actual field trip. The intention is to contribute to the monitoring of the rocky shore community which NParks has welcomed.

NParks: Labrador rocky shore gate permanently closed from 10th June 2009

International Coastal Cleanup Singapore coordinator Andy Dinesh alerted me about a notice about closure of the gate leading to the beach and rocky shore. A check with the NParks webpage for Labrador Nature Reserve reveals the following statement (under the section, "History and Attractions"):

*The rocky beach is a fragile marine ecosystem which needs preservation. Gate to the rocky beach will be permanently locked from 10 June 09 onwards.

**For group visit, please write to Nparks_mailbox@nparks.gov.sg with the title 'Application for Visiting Labrador beach' , and furnish following details. Date and time of visit, no. of people, activity detail, organisation name, address and tel no.; contact person's name and h/p no.

Labrador Villa kopi shops are all gone

See "The Labrador kopi shops are no more."


Photo by Kenneth Pinto

A Tale of Survival (2005 paper)

Dolphin carcass on Labrador beach

Read the full report on Habitatnews - "Dolphin carcass on Labrador beach," by N. Sivasothi. Habitatnews, 08 Aug 2008. - link.

Maiden Labrador Walk!

8th March 2008 marks the maiden walk @ Labrador Park with Toddycats! Guides for the day were nature veteran Sivasothi, ever-passionate Oi Yee and Justin...

Divided into 3 groups, the visitors, mostly members of Toddycats, were introduced to the wonderful, yet fragile, wildlife of our last rocky shore habitat on mainland Singapore... The following are the pictorial updates of the event....

In summary, the Labrador walk was indeed a success! First-timers to the place were marvelled by the beauty of the place, while other participants re-experienced the wonderful 'hidden treasures' found on our Nature Reserves....

Note: For those interested to find out more about the Labrador Project under toddycats or want to be part of us, we want to hear from you. Please email us at: labradorpark.tc@gmail.com

Revival of Labrador Project!

Ever since the newspaper article on 29th Oct 2007 featuring the Singapore Polytechnic's SEACILs project. Some wildlife bloggers, upon discovery that the debris they found on the intertidal of Labrador shores were linked to their project, began blogging extensively about their concerns for Labrador habitat.

This subsequently led to the Straits times article on 26th November 2007 titled: 'Nature lovers fear coral project will cause damage'.

Despite all the noise made by the 'nature lovers', there was no improvement in the debris condition of Labrador. Instead, more debris from other sources began appearing as well, which further dampened the natural landscape of Labrador. Apparently situation in Labrador worsen by the day...... until this year...

During the last visit on 8th January 2008, some of the concrete debris began to disappear from the site, apparently removed by some unknown groups. This led to an entry titled: 'A new Hope', showing optimism for the once-dire-state of Labrador. Although there is still much debris to be removed from the shore, the removal of these debris, though may appeared insignificant, do signals a starting point for return of the former glory of Labrador Nature Reserve.

Riding on this new hope, the Toddycats of RMBR has reinstated the Labrador Project with the following aims:

• To raise awareness to the public of our rocky shore in Singapore
• To interest them in the conservation efforts, as well as looking out for our nature reserves
• To create a continuation in imparting nature awareness through training of guides etc

Hence, a team, made up of nature lovers, is formed to fulfil the aims. In the near future, the team will conduct walks, cleanup sessions, training sessions and other events in relation Labrador Nature Reserves. Therefore, look out this space for more updates!

For more information/enquires on the Labrador Project, please email to: labradorpark.tc@gmail.com

Other blogs featuring Labrador:

wildfilms

reddotbeachbum

Justin's dive adventures