 Sorry for the technical issues. Hi, everyone. My name is Mei Lin. So thank you. Firstly, thank you very much Hafiz for inviting me to come here to give a talk at Tech Tolerate. So it was a very interesting concept. And after I got the invitation, I started to read up. And I also found out about the other series as well. So it's nice to actually emphasize quite a bit of oceans. In particular, like last few years, I think there's a lot of sort of hype and issues that came up with respect to oceans. So I'm a little bit different from the other speakers this evening, so I'm going to share with you a little bit more about the natural environment and what actually some of us are actually doing in Singapore to actually help conserve and protect our reefs. So this title, You, Me and the Reefs. So it's a very interesting title because when I was actually doing some research, I was thinking about what should I share in this talk? And what came up was You, Me and the Oceans. But we all know that the oceans is very big. And even for myself as a marine biologist, it's a vast environment for us to actually try to explore as much as possible. So instead of actually talking about oceans, I scale it down to actually talk about something that's very close to my heart, which is coral reefs. And not just any coral reefs anywhere, but coral reefs in Singapore. And I'm going to show you that we have coral reefs. Just right, I've done our best, yeah. But before I go into some of the things, I want you guys to maybe at the start of this talk, imagine like a world without coral reefs. Like, what do you think it would be like? So maybe before that, like maybe I just want to get an idea of how many of you actually have seen coral reefs or know about what coral reefs are about. Or maybe, yeah, maybe like you know, you Google, you've seen coral reefs or heard about what coral reefs are. So they're actually a very special environment. So that's what I'm going to share with you now. So this is what a really nice, healthy coral reef looks like. But this is not what all coral reefs looks like. Every reef is different. Every place that you go to, they look different. So this is a very nice place. This is a very special opportunity that I had very recently in May. I was able to go on a research expedition at an island called Dongsha. Some people might know it as the Prattus Islands. So you might heard a little bit about it, the South China Sea issue that's ongoing here and there now. So this is a reef that's located right back in the middle of South China Sea. So there are still really very nice reefs in South China Sea, apart from the ones that have been talked about in the news. But going back to the same question, is that what if we don't have these reefs anymore? So sad, it's not really working very well. Okay, yep, got it. Yeah, so this is what probably would look like if we don't have reefs. It's basically just a very flat sandy bottom with no life, nothing. So earlier on from the backdrop, you could see some animals, like the reef fishes. But in this one, you really see almost nothing. So what this tells you a little bit is that reefs are like homes or shelters for many different marine animals that we're gonna talk about and hopefully see. So a little bit of a background. So some of you actually raised your hand earlier to talk about like, oh, about whether you've seen or heard about coral reefs. So let's start with a little very small basic about coral. This is what we call a polyp. So every coral starts off something really very small, like a really tiny larvae, which is microscopic scale. Like even the biggest one is about one millimeter big or millimeter long. So this is a illustration how it looks like. But eventually these coral reefs will grow very big and what you see is like big structures. And these large structures are made up of calcium carbonate. So these are, so corals are actually made up of millions and millions of those single units of polyps and they can look very different when they are completely grown. So some of them can look like a plate-like structure. Some of them actually look a little bit like the soft, like a little bit of soft. This is actually a type of soft corals. Some of them look like boulders, basically like big structures. Some of them actually, if you actually have a closer look, some of them look like they have like brain fissures. So we have very interesting common names for them. Some of them we call the brain coral. Some of them we call the cabbage coral. But basically like kind of relating back to some of the food stuff, but they really do look like that as well. But this, basically this collage of pictures shows you a diversity of what corals would look like and how they occupy some of the spaces on our sea floors. And what's really interesting about this collage is that these are all Singapore's coral reefs. And you look at the names. There are very common names and places that you've seen before. East Coast Park, Tanamera, Chek Jawa, and Raffles Lighthouse. Raffles Lighthouse may be not so well heard of because it's the southernmost point of Singapore. And at that point, there's a lighthouse. And it's actually a very special place for us researchers as well because we've been doing research on that reef for almost 20 years. But not myself, but my colleagues. For myself, I've been working in this place for about eight years. Yeah. So with that, we can see that corals are very unique as well. One aspect of the corals is that they can photosynthesize. So like, in fact, usually when I describe it, I would usually say photosynthesize. So whatever you mean by that. So earlier on, that small picture I showed you, the earlier diagram, is that it looks like an animal. And corals are actually animals, but they are very special animals that actually holds a very small algae cell in their body. So from this picture, you can see that they are mostly brown color. So these cells are brownish in color. And what happens is that these cells can photosynthesize and produce food for the corals. So it's one of the few marine animals that can do that. So not just, basically corals can not only just filter feed from the environment and catch food, but they can also get extra nutrients from this photosynthesis process. So moving on to show you, so I've been talking a bit about coral reefs and now to actually demonstrate how they are important to us on an economic scale, but not just economic scale as well, but there's a lot of other things that comes with it also. So on an economic value like, almost 500 million people rely on coral reef ecosystems as a form of livelihood, as well as a source of food. So economically it's very valuable. And some people actually have put a price tag on this. And not just that, especially for ecotourism. So some places where, for example in Australia and even just around the region as well, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia, where diving is a very big thing in these countries and these are the places where a lot of Singaporeans go to as well when they wanna go diving. And in Australia itself, like it can generate like almost 5 billion of a revenue for them. So by just protecting this coral reef ecosystems, they can actually gain a lot from just that in terms of industries and commercially as well. And what's interesting also is that, although the oceans is so vast, about 70% of our earth surface is covered by the sea water, 25% of marine animals actually rely or depend on the coral reefs itself. So that's one quarter of what we actually already know for marine species. So that's quite a big chunk actually compared to the overall aspects. And not just that. So something about coral reefs is that because these coral reefs are actually, where you usually find them is that around the fringing areas of our islands. So just off Singapore, basically the coastline is usually covered by coral reefs. And coral reefs can actually help protect and become a barrier against coastal sort of wave action and one of the studies actually showed that almost 95% of the wave action is buffered by the presence of coral reefs. And not just coral reefs, but also other ecosystems as well as, such as mangroves. So one example of mangroves in Singapore is Tungai Bulow. So maybe some of you have been there and visited. So those trees there, a very special type of tree is the mangrove trees. But unfortunately, the coral reefs are facing a lot of threats. And these tree numbers are very interesting when I was doing my research as well. And in fact, 0.2% of the ocean's sea bed is covered by coral reefs. And when you look at this map, you can see that the darker colors, the ones in the, basically the legend, the darker purple colors are where coral reefs are found now. And you can see that it's actually very limited in distribution. It's along the equator, not too far from the north, not too far from the south. So a lot of our reefs are actually tropical and subtropical coral reefs. So beyond for the up north or down south towards the either ends of the poles, we don't really find a lot of coral reefs. And despite the fact that when you look at this map, you think that, oh yeah, maybe there's a lot of coral reefs, but when you actually do an actual measurement, it's only 0.2%. It's actually very, very small. And earlier on, we talked about that 25% of marine animals use this environment as a form of home, shelter, and a source of food as well. But unfortunately, today, at least, at least 75% of these coral reefs that you see here are threatened. And they are threatened by a variety of factors. So for example, so before I actually show you the vast number of different words and threats that they face now, but I'd like to share a little bit about this set of photos. Again, these photos are all taken in Singapore. Nothing overseas here. But it's just to share how close these threats are actually to home. So for example, a colleague of mine, when he was out diving, he actually found a carcass of a turtle floating in the sea. So at first, when he saw it, he thought they're like, oh my God, he saw a turtle and the turtle was really close. And for some reason, the turtle was on the surface for a very long time. Because usually what happens is that most of the turtle sightings that we have, it's up and down. They would just go up for air and go back straight down. But this one, strangely, was on the surface for a long time. And by the time he got close enough, he actually saw that it was really badly decomposed. The eyes were already popped out. And this white sort of appendage that you're seeing is a gut that came out of the turtle. So you can imagine, sorry for those who are eating, but you can imagine that this turtle probably has been floating in the sea for quite a while. But on the other hand, it shows you that we have interesting diversity as well. For an environment like Singapore, like looking at just that water, like can anybody just give me a description of color of this water? Greenish brown? Yeah, so I mean, probably in your imagination, you were thinking like, oh, the coral reefs or the oceans that I usually see is very pretty blue, very clear waters. Unfortunately, we're the opposite. So this is due to many different factors. So we'll share a little bit of these factors later. And the center picture is a very interesting one. Some of you might have kept up, or maybe might have heard of Jubilee, the sperm whale. So last year, I think no pun intended, although last year we celebrated our 50th year, which is the Jubilee year. They named this whale, Jubilee. And it was an interesting one also because she came, she's a female. They did the diagnosis, so she's a female. She's actually quite a big whale. You can actually see her whale bone now in the Natural History Museum that's based in NUS. But that aside, she was found stranded on one of the islands, Jurong Island. So immediately, the museum got a phone call saying, like, we got a stranded sperm whale. So, but they thought that maybe she was still alive. But by the time they actually got to her, basically she was bleeding very badly. And actually, one of the things, one of the possible reasons for her death was a propeller cut. So one thing that's very interesting when you actually look out of our seas, like from East Coast Park, what do you usually see? For those who actually have stood out at the beach and look out to the sea, what do you usually see along our East Coast beach? Like, what's the sea line? Ship. Yeah, well, essentially ships and tankers. So we have very high shipping traffic, but also because of our traditional strategic position of our port. So we're actually a very high-frequency sort of shipping lane. So ships move in and out very frequently. So we're not surprised by this diagnosis of her being killed by a propeller cut. So I've seen other animals who were lucky enough to survive propeller cuts, but it's horrible. It's terrible when you actually see one animal that actually has this huge gash on the back. Like, can you imagine, like, you have this huge gash on the back and then you still have to swim around and like still look for food. And then, you know, yeah, so kind of sad. But anyway, she's immortalized now. And I think on an education basis, like, you know, some of the things that they found through this entire sort of salvage of her body, there are some interesting information that are available in the museum. And I'll share one of it later. And the last one over here is, can anyone just quickly tell me what these are? Right from. Yeah, very, very astute observation. So not just the black-tipped reef sharks, but they are actually baby sharks. So this was really an unfortunate one, like another unfortunate incident as well. So this happened last year also. So locally, although we don't really think that people do fishing, but we still have people who actually go out to do recreational fishing, but not just using fish and hook, on basically hook and line. But some of them actually lay out like long fish nets. So basically what happens is that like along a reef, they were laid maybe 100 meter long or fishing line. And then basically these nets will sort of like fall down. So they basically form a barrier. So what happens is that any fish, anything that actually passes through will get captured. So it's a very traditional fishing method, but it's very effective. And unfortunately, it was too effective in this case. We hypothesize or we suspect that maybe it caught these 13 juvenile sharks when they were just about to be sort of going back out to the sea. And unfortunately, all 13 of them were caught in the net. So this is the sort of the end result of what happened, but not just the sharks. They got stingrays, they have crabs, they have other fishes. And it's just a matter of overnight. So this net was only left for 24 hours, but some of the animals, they died because of suffocation. And some of them actually already started to decompose. So I think one of the outcomes, or one of the sharing points about hitting here is that such fishing nets are indiscriminate. They catch anything. And to some extent, some of the animals that people usually fish, they don't really eat as well. Some of the crabs are toxic, so they actually have to release it or throw it back to the sea. But I think one of the good outcomes from this is that the National Parks Board has sort of worked with the local fishing community to actually share with them, talk to them about what are the cans and what are the cannotes. But without further ado, let me show you the doom and gloom words that I have here. Yeah. So these are just some of the major impacts that coral reefs are facing now. So just to briefly go through, not all of them, but some of them which are interesting. So I kind of, in some ways, they are categorized to be something very similar, sedimentation, coastal development, and pollution. So just looking at the color of the sea water, these are the major impacts that are happening in Singapore. So what has happened is that since the 1960s, Singapore has been developing our coastline to provide new land. So the new land that we're sitting on now, maybe not here, but at least where our airport is sitting now, it's actually completely reclaimed. So the entire piece of land where our airport sits is a reclaimed land. And that used to be vases of ecosystems such as the mangroves and something called a seagrass. And so now they are not there. But there are some positive things about, so I'll share the positive things later. With time, coastal development also leads to something called sedimentation. So the idea of sedimentation is that there is a lot of particles in the water. So that kind of gives this greenish color. And not just that, the center block, looking at coral mining, warming oceans, and ocean acidification, this comes to a little bit more of the topic of climate change. So we've all heard about climate change and some of the impacts they are facing now. And in fact, some of the hot and warm humid temperature and the erratic rain patterns that we're seeing now can be closely related to some of these impacts of climate change. And not just happening on land, but in the oceans as well. And I'll share with you a little bit about something that is happening with us now. So in the last three months, so the sea water temperature, the average sea water temperature in Singapore tends to be between 27 to 29 degrees. But unfortunately, in the last couple of months, the temperature has gone up to about 31 degrees. And that has caused a lot of mortality in some of our corals. So without further ado, I heard my bell. So I just wanted to share that actually, some of our daily actions are contributing to the threats that we see. So for example, if you support the aquarium trade, a lot of the animals that you have are actually wild caught and they are caught in an unsustainable manner. So one example would be dynamite fishing. So what they do is they actually put in dynamites and then either they catch the fish, the food that you eat is caught through that manner. And not just dynamite fishing, there's something called cyanide fishing as well. So all these contribute. So imagine, and one of the probably more close to hard one and something that is kind of gaining some traction in Singapore and some support of like against buying and also selling shark's fin as well. The idea is the same thing as well because there's a consumer demand and therefore people go out to continuously fish. So if we actually can effectively reduce the demand to some extent, that is the possibility of actually sort of improving the sort of like reducing demand and then people catch less. Hopefully that's what we see. And so what urban run-offs and drainage, basically what you throw into your sewage and everything that will contribute. This is just generally on marine trash. So a lot of our trash, like while we think that we're throwing them into the bins, but a lot of them actually still goes back to the sea. And there are some very interesting vortexes of marine trash, not here, but in the Pacific Ocean. You can read up about that as well. It's basically like an island of trash. It's quite interesting. And just to give you an idea of statistics of how much trash. So we have an organization called the International Coaster Cleanup Singapore, ICCS. So they do annual cleanups sometime around this time, August to September and October. And just in 2014, and with a volunteer of almost 3,000 people, they collected almost 15,000 kilos of trash. And some of this trash are really interesting like snorkel and mast. A lot of them are plastics. And some of these plastics actually goes back to the whale that we saw earlier. So one of the things that they did was to cut up and see what she ate. So not only found out what she actually ate, but other things that she accidentally ate as well. So very briefly, just to share a little bit about the positive side of things and also a little bit about my research. So Hafiz earlier described that my favorite, one of my favorite animals is the giant clams. So can anyone just kind of point out to me like where do you think the clam is? So if you look quite closely, this giant clams, as his name suggests, is the largest living bivalve in the world now. The largest one can grow up to a meter long and weigh over 300 kgs. So I believe that this is one of the individuals. So over here, this sort of appendage that you see is one of the breeding sort of apparatus of this animal. And this animal shares a very similar relationship with the algae cells that I talked about for the corals. So these animals can photosynthesize as well. And I think studies have shown that this species can live up to almost a hundred years old also. Yeah. So why do I say they are unsung heroes of corals? So like when I started my research, like people have cultured them and they have been sort of like in the market for a very long time as a source of food and also the shells as a source of materials as well. But what I found interesting is that nobody's really actually thought about like, hey, what are the roles? What are the ecological roles and functions that they can have on coral reefs? And very simply, they are important sources of food. So imagine like a very giant sea hum. So it is a giant sea hum literally, the cockles that we eat in our Chakwe Tiao. So imagine one of these, how many Chakwe Tiao can you eat? Yeah, but not just a source of food for humans, but a source of food for a lot of marine animals as well. So maybe the next one as well. But unfortunately they are also facing very similar tracks to coral reef ecosystems. So this one over here, when I talked about bleaching, so the idea of bleaching means that they completely lose their little cells in their body and they become completely white. And not just bleaching on a warming, on climate change scale. So they are actually being illegally harvested in many parts of their distribution. Some of the shells are actually currently used as an ornamental trade and carvings. So this is the reason why, or one of the reasons why the Chinese was so interested in the South China Sea. And not just that as well as the source of food. So this was taken in Sabah. So actually part of many countries in our region, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia, they still eat this animal quite frequently as a source of proteins. But the good thing is we're actually doing something about it. So in Singapore, we've lost a lot of them in the early days. And Singapore being a local fishing island as well, a lot of them will harvest it as a source of food. But as we go into the 60s and 70s, earlier on I shared about the coastal development. So that take precede in terms of what has impacted the survivorship and growth of these animals. So what we're doing here is actually we bring back the parents and then we culture them. So those are the young little clams. So all clams start small, so they don't look this big immediately. So they look like a little tiny microscopic cell and then we grow them up. So these are about two to three years old. So this is just sort of an overview. And now we're actually moving on to the next stage. We have some juveniles that we are planning to actually transplant them back onto our coral reefs. So all these colors and sea water that you're looking at, this is our natural environment. But I think what's really hopeful for me is that despite the fact that there's so much impacts on our reefs, we still see corals, we still see clams. And these are just basically the survivors of what has happened over the last 40 years on our reefs. And we can learn a lot from them because they have survived and they must have learned or adapted to this unique environment of ours. So just to find, hopefully ending soon, is that to share that every one of us can actually do or make a difference. And in your own way, you can explore and learn more about the oceans or about coral reefs. You can share and speak up just like myself. I'm sharing with you guys what I've learned and what you know of. And I think the last one, while it's the most important one, but it's also usually the inertia part for most people. Actions and volunteers, show it in your actions. Some of your daily actions that you do can make a difference. So this is a really nice infographics that I found that is made by the National Ocean, basically the NOAA from the American administration. So some of them are really very simple, 10 ways. So basically don't support buying some of these items as souvenirs back home. So sometimes when you go abroad, you might see them selling this. Very simply as well, choosing sustainable seafood. Look at where your seafood's coming from. Are they dolphin-free, tuner-free, for example? Especially some of the items. And I think one of the things is about volunteering as well. I think there are avenues for everyone to try something different. So I think finally, so what's the environmental legacy that you want to live for your own children and your children's children? Is it this that you can see maybe now in the 1950s? Or is it this in 2020, or maybe even sooner, a graveyard? And then eventually when you're there, you just put a bouquet of flowers. I like to end this talk with a quote that I really like. It reminds me of why I do what I do. And also it reminds me that even as an individual, you can make a difference. So as long as you care for what you believe in and what you're passionate about, you can bring it across, bring across your message and bring across it through your actions as well. So unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better, it's not. So thank you very much.