Of Seahorses and Chemical Plants - A Team Charlie PIWP Story

Of all experiences in this world, there is nothing quite like that of having a seahorse curl its tail around your little finger as you pluck it from a seagrass bed.

On the 22^nd to 24^th of January, we from Team Charlie (Dec IW 07) carried out our Post-Introduction Weekend Project, collaborating with Save Our Seahorses (SOS) Malaysia on a three-day volunteering trip down at the SOS Research Station located at Gelang Patah, Johor. Prior to our project, we had organized a few fundraising activities which can be read at this link. During our trip; we participated in a seahorse and pipefish habitat survey, did a coastal cleanup and conducted surveys to gain feedback from local villagers on the proposed construction of a 913 hectare petrochemical plant.

Day 1, Tuesday – January 22nd

After meeting at KL Central in the wee hours of the morning, we wasted no time and we were separated into two cars and were soon on the road, starting our "long drive" all the way down South to Gelang Patah, Johor.

It is about 200 km; and six hours later, coupled with a short stop in Malacca for lunch, we finally reached our destination: the SOS Research Station.

We barely had time to rest before SOS Project Leader Mr. Choo Chee Kuang invited us for a briefing on seahorse and pipefish survey, which we were about to conduct later.

The various species of the seahorse. The one on the top left, Hippocamus Kuda, is the one found in the Pulai River Estuary in Malaysia.

After a boat ride during which we passed under the Singapore-Malaysia Second Link, we reached Pulai River Estuary seagrass bed just as it hit low tide. Wading through the knee-deep waters, we split into two groups and searched for seahorse and pipefish amongst the dense seagrass. After seeking for two hours, our efforts paid off as we were rewarded by the findings of two seahorses and two pipefish. Though it may not have seemed like much, it meant a great deal to us at that time as we were able to contribute to the survey. Both of the seahorses that we found were tagged; meaning that they had been collected in previous surveys, enabling their progress to be recorded.

Trying to find seahorses over such a large area is no mean feat.

Did I mention that they (the seahorse and pipefish) prove to be a challenge; to spot them amongst the seagrass?

Though we were looking for seahorses and pipefish in particular, we came across many other interesting sea creatures as well.

And with some encouragement from our dear Raleigh president, we indulged in a bit of posing as well.

And so as the sky turned dark, we headed back to the jetty, marking the end of our volunteering work for the first day.

Day 2, Wednesday – January 23^rd

We started off our day early, going around the Kampung Ladang area doing surveys. A recent development plan around the Sungai Pulai area involved the proposed construction of a 913 hectare (roughly equivalent to 913 football fields) petrochemical processing plant. The construction of this plant, if carried out, would not only clear the nearby mangrove forests, threatening a fragile ecosystem, but would also bring about adverse effects on the health and livelihood of the local villagers. Thus, our objective was to educate and create awareness amongst the local villagers on the detrimental effects that the petrochemical plant would bring, and also to get their 'official' opinions on this matter so that we could compile these statistics to send to the relevant authorities.

Our members conducting surveys.

During our surveys, we were also obliged to listen to the local’s views on the matter.

After conducting enough surveys on the local villagers of Kampung Ladang, we stopped by Gelang Patah for lunch and headed off to a nearby orang asli kampung to continue our survey.

The orang asli kids swarmed around us as soon as 'words' got out that we had sweets with us.

Us and another volunteer, Mr. Chew, with some of the orang asli kids.

Everywhere we went, they followed us, always eager to squeeze into pictures.

From the feedback that we received from the orang asli, we found that they were very down-to-earth people who preferred to stick to their traditional ways of life rather than going along with development. Thus it wasn’t surprising that most of them were against the building of the petrochemical plant.

Before long, it was time for us to say goodbye to the orang asli children, who by then, were already clinging to our arms; and moving on to our next volunteering activity: a coastal cleanup.

Our coastal cleanup was conducted outside one of those restaurants on stilts, extending out to the sea. Years of neglect had caused rubbish to accumulate by the tonne along the coast where the restaurant was situated and getting rid of it all proved to be an insurmountable challenge. At the end of the day, we only managed to remove most of the rubbish on the surface, but at least we left the place in a much more aesthetic condition.

It was literally a mountain of garbage.

Some of us were assigned to pick up the rubbish.


While others were given the task of documenting the types of waste for record purposes.


After a good few hours of hard work, we collected enough rubbish to fill an entire lorry. Our work there was done.

Grateful of our efforts to clean up the surrounding area, we were treated for dinner by the owner of a restaurant nearby. We then headed back to the research station, calling it a day.

Day 3, Thursday – January 24^th

Unlike the day before, we started out at a slower pace, having a late breakfast before heading off to a different area to do more surveying work. The areas that we visited were mainly fishing jetties, giving us the opportunity to interact with the local fishermen. Before we left the SOS research station, we were presented with certificates acknowledging our contribution to the SOS project.

Our team members, Jer Rei and Li Ling with their certificates.

Us at one of the fishing jetties.

Conducting a survey on a local fisherman.

After finally finishing the last of our surveys, we headed off to the nearby Tanjung Piai National Park, known as the Southern-most peak of Mainland Asia. It was a good way to end our volunteering trip by some relaxing and sightseeing.

Us at the monument outside the National Park.

Taking a picture after we reached the Southern-most tip of mainland Asia.

And so our three-day volunteering stint came to an end. Throughout our trip, we were given many opportunities to learn more about the environment and the conservation work being carried out. Conducting surveys on local villagers was indeed an eye-opening experience as it enabled us to hear and see for ourselves the effects of development on the people. We were able to see firsthand; the many effects that we had previously only read in textbooks or learnt in classrooms. All in all, it was indeed an important lesson and experience for us to be able to carry out this volunteering project.

As much as it has been a success, I am sad to say that the Team Charlie (Dec IW 07) PIWP has come to an end. But it is important to note that this is not the end of the road for us. Six of us are now officially members of Raleigh International KL. A few of us have been actively participating in recent Raleigh activies. One of our members, Jia Loon, has embark on a Raleigh expedition to Sabah. Our PIWP may have ended, but hopefully, for most of the Team Charlie members, this is only the beginning of our Raleigh journey.

I thus end this post by congratulating Team Delta for having successfully carried out their own PIWP and would like to wish good luck to both Team Alpha and Team Bravo for their own PIWPs. We at Team Charlie would also like to thank all Raleigh members who helped make our PIWP a success. Words cannot express our gratitude but maybe this picture can.

Thank you all.

Luke Lim Ming Yuan

Team Charlie