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  Channel NewsAsia 4 Nov 06
70 divers help clean parts of seabed at Pulau Hantu
By May Wong

SINGAPORE : Seventy volunteer divers from the Navy and SCUBA Schools International spent Saturday morning picking up garbage from Pulau Hantu's seabed.

They were doing this as part of their "Save our Sea" Project which started five years ago. The event also marks the start of the Clean and Green Week on November 5.

A group of experienced Navy divers volunteered their day off to do their bit for the environment at Pulau Hantu, about half an hour from Singapore. The work is very different from their usual mission of conducting intensive search and rescue operations.

"30 of our men, the experienced ones, are coming to Pulau Hantu to hunt for rubbish in the sea and to remove them. They (the rubbish) don't belong in the sea, but in the rubbish bin," said LT Colonel Tan Tai Tiong of the Naval Diving Unit.

As they get geared up and head into the water, the divers found rubbish within minutes. "Being divers, the sea is the environment that we work in, and we would like to do our part for the community & society. We used to find a lot of construction materials, long poles, metal bars and rods. Today, most of the items that we find are fish nets and other smaller items," said 2WO Alvin Chia of the naval Diving Unit.

"That means the main culprits who contribute to the bulk of all these things thrown in the sea are actually showing more restraint, looking at the kinds of rubbish they've disposed here."

Divers from SCUBA Schools International, who joined in the search, also noticed less garbage in the water.

"We will feel some sense of satisfaction knowing that we're contributing a bit to the environment, especially in Singapore where the areas to dive is so limited. This (Pulau Hantu) is the only place where we can dive, so we want to make it better. And hopefully, for the future generation, they can see some marine life and underwater environment here," said Tan Chee Wah, regional director of SCUBA Schools International.

For two hours, the volunteer divers went down to a depth of 15 metres - about the height of a five-storey HDB flat. They stayed around the shallow end near the breakwaters because that was where most of the garbage were found. In total, the divers covered an area of three basketball courts as combing the seabed for rubbish. - CNA /ls
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