Guardians of the S.E.A.A. cleared 117.5kg of trash at final beach cleanup of 2018 | S.E.A. Aquarium at Resorts World Sentosa

It was a bright and breezy start to our final beach cleanup of the year on 29 September 2018. 72 volunteers joined Guardians of the S.E.A.A. in clearing 117.5kg of trash from Tanah Merah Beach Site 7.

A warm welcome to the volunteers and a quick run down of the dos and don’ts.
And we’re off!
Team leads handed out gloves to all team members, and reminded them to avoid picking up overly hefty items for safety reasons.
Participants were also reminded to not pick up these plastic bottles with blue paint smeared on them.
These bottles are some of the tools used by the NUS‒NParks Marine Debris Monitoring Programme which collects data on temporal and seasonal variations of macro-debris and microplastics in Singapore. More about the programme here
Here’s the real trash one group picked up in less than 5 minutes after commencing.
Remnants of fishing nets were littered on the beach.
Some of our most enthusiastic (and youngest) participants.

Emptying out a sand-filled plastic water drum before disposing it responsibly – into the trash bag.
The usual suspects at beach cleanups: disposable plastic cups and bottles, single-use plastic straws and plastic packaging.

There was significantly less trash collected from this cleanup, compared to our previous cleanup on 28 July. Some possible reasons might include another group cleaning up the area just 2 weeks earlier, or even a waning of the Southwest monsoon (Jun – Sep).

Time to weigh the trash.
117.5kg of trash cleared in an hour. Big thanks to all who made it happen!
Guardians of the S.E.A.A. with team members from various business units within Resorts World Sentosa.

And here’s 7-year-old Chloe Xilei, a primary one student at Canberra Primary School.

Chloe with Jim Hudson, Senior Manager of Conservation at S.E.A. Aquarium.

Not only did she participate in the beach cleanup, she was so inspired by the experience that she created this amazing drawing.

It’s heartening to know that Guardians of the S.E.A.A. has inspired people as young as Chloe to care for our ocean. This alone drives us to continue organising such meaningful activities to educate and engage everyone.

So if you wish to join us at our future beach clean ups and other conservation-related activities and events, sign up as a Guardian of the S.E.A.A. if you haven’t already.

This October, we have planned a very special conservation night at the S.E.A. Aquarium and it’ll be a lot of fun for the whole family. Stay tuned for details to be released soon!