Mandai mangroves (9 Sep 2011)

A large team of volunteers headed out today for another muddy Survey!

We're back in the lovely mangroves of Mandai to find out what lives in the mudflats there.

As we head to our start point I realise that not only have the railway tracks been removed, the gravel has been removed too!

Before we start the Survey, Dr Ng gives a short briefing on what to do and look out for.

We then literally plunge right in to take a closer look at the mudflats!

Today, the transect line is laid perpendicular to the big stream. We had already done this big stream during an earlier survey.

Oh wow, Ivan Ong and Jason Ooi found a snake! It's the harmless Dog-faced watersnake, a small one. Jason is taking a photo of it. Earlier on, another pair of volunteers also found another small snake of the same kind.

While we were mucking about in the mud, another team helps Dr Ng to find out what fishes lives in the bigger stream.

There were many little gobies in the small stream too! In the big stream, lots of other larger fishes, shrimps and clams.

Even the ladies try out the heavy net. It's hard work!

Mandai is quite scenic and is one of my favourite mangroves!

Today, a brave team of video folks came by to film the team at work for Shell.

They plunged into the soft mud to take good closeups of what we do.

We highlighted the horseshoe crab that we found.

As usual, after the Survey, Dr Ng shares a little bit more about what we have found. We have found lots of worms, also many mangrove flatworms, many bivalves, some snails, many crabs of all kinds, and lots of fishes  including a Blue-spotted mudskipper found by Elizabeth and Kavita.

And just as we were about to leave, Helen found more of the little yellow horseshoe crab eggs that we saw here on our last survey!

I totally forgot to take a group shot while we were in the mangroves. So here's a team photo on the former railway line outside the mangroves after our Survey. It was muddy but we sure had fun!

Jason Ooi shared MORE about today's exciting trip!

Come join us for lots of muddy fun and help make a difference for our marine biodiversity!

To join us, register your interest in this form and you'll be invited to join the mailing list to receive updates on the Survey and sign up for Survey activities.

Also check out our FAQs for more about the Survey.

To find out more about our common mangrove wildlife, check out the online Guide to the Mangroves of Singapore and the wildsingapore wild fact sheets.