NUS Undergraduates Raise Alert To Need For Marine Conservation In Singapore

Teo May Lian | teomaylian@nus.edu.sg
the ridge news
A NUS Students’ Union Publication

Story highlights:

• NUS students campaign for marine conservation in Singapore.
• Campaign aims to raise awareness and educate NUS students.
• Organisers hope to motivate students to participate in marine conservation activities.
• NUS students pledge their support for marine conservation.

After implementing movements to reduce plastic usage and to save paper, undergraduates at the National University of Singapore (NUS) are now raising the alert to the need for marine conservation in Singapore.

Code Blue, a marine conservation campaign, aims to raise awareness and educate NUS students on the need for marine conservation and subsequently, encourage them to support or participate in marine conservation activities.

As part of the campaign, there was a full day exhibition on March 31, and April 1 at the Central Forum in NUS. There were mass displays of pictures that showed litter along beaches in Singapore.

Display of turtle trapped in abandoned plastic bag	Display of dolphin trapped in abandoned plastic litter
(photos by Teo May Lian)

Code Blue is organized in conjunction with International Year of the Reef 2008, a global campaign for marine conservation.

According to Kenneth Lee, project director of Code Blue, few people are aware of the diversity of marine life supported on the beaches in Singapore and offshore islands.

“Not many people are aware of the situation of littering on our beaches as well,” added Chia Jialin, art director of Code Blue.

“With Code Blue and the exhibition, we hope students will realize the intensity of the problem,” she said.

The exhibition featured water tanks containing various kinds of rubbish found along local beaches such as a motorcycle helmet, toys and even underwear.

Mass display of pictures of litter-strewn beaches in Singapore and offshore islands	Water tank display containing bra, underwear and condom package found along beaches
(photos by Teo May Lian)

According to Belmont Lay, assistant project director of Code Blue, there are many existing marine conservation activities, such as leading tours as an Underwater World Marine Conservationist.

There are also programmes like ‘Naked Hermit Crabs’, which gathers participants to take part in boardwalks along beaches of Chek Jawa and Semakau every last Sunday of the month.

Lee hopes the campaign can be a platform to bring students to all these external organizations, as many are still unaware of such activities.

“After gaining this knowledge, we hope they [students] will also pledge and take part in the existing activities,” Lee said.

So far, about 550 people have pledged their support, both on paper cards and on the website.

The team is hopeful that they will be able to reach their target of 600 pledges by the end of the campaign.

Students pledging their support for marine conservation and signing up for activities

Juzailah Md. Amin, 23, a fourth-year student from the School of Design and Environment, said that she is willing to do her part to conserve the environment.

She added that she felt the exhibition was creative and useful in promoting awareness among students.

“Through this, students are more aware of what is happening,” she said.

“If not, people will never know what it’s [beach littering] like.”

“We are not only targeting NUS students. Code Blue is open to anyone interested in this case,” said Kenneth Phua, assistant director of public relations of Code Blue.

“Through this campaign, we are also recruiting people to take up leadership roles in the group after we graduate,” said Phua.

“We will definitely keep the group alive after this campaign,” he added.

Code Blue is a marine conservation campaign organized by a group of third- and fourth-year communication and new media (CNM) students.

They also established a tertiary level chapter of Roots & Shoots Youth United, a subsidiary of the institute created by Jane Goodall aimed at promoting global activities on conservation.

Roots & Shoots is also involved in environmental, humanitarian and nature-conserving issues.

Standees placed on canteen tables at The Deck	Code Blue Team
(photos provided from Code Blue Team)