Field Trip Today

Alright rise and shine people! Today I jumped off from bed with my biological clock striking sharp at 7 am.

Upon reaching : -

The first coastal resource was the river mouth. While it was drizzling and soon getting heavier, lecturers and her dearly students still carried on earnestly and ebulliently. It was around 1220 pm that time, and according to the water tide table, the highest tide would be at 2pm of 209 reading. We noticed that there was on small house, built high up in the middle of the river mouth and the opening of sea. Apparently, the function of the house was to record the tidal level and at the same time, close the gate at the below when necessary, to prevent the flooding of upstream. Whenever high tide was reaching, the opening of the sea which was usually muddy or a mudflat, would be awash by sea water. There was a benefit of such phenomenon which was to allow movement of fisherman's boat to the jetty. The gate, when observed, was closed. Water hyacinth could be found abundant near the gate. This could be a sign of high content of phosphate or nutrient in the river mouth that encouraged the water hyacinth growth. Too much of this water hyacinth would affect the ecosystem as there were floating aquatic plant that would prevent sunlight from reaching lower aquatic or submerged plant. Besides, rubbish like polystyrene could also be observed. There was also a measuring-tape-like parameter found attached on the wall. It was used to measured the height of water.

Next, we proceeded to the jetty. As we walked along the jetty, I observed skipper - a type of fish which can live in both land and water, and had both fins and legs, geopiles, boulders, some mangrove plants and resorts. I realized that the water looked squalid and muddy. The area near the jetty or the nearshore, were more muddy. Fishing nets, net traps, boats were ubiquitous too.

After that, we carried on to the Research and Development area by Forest Research Institute of Malaysia (FRIM) some by truck and us by van. As usual, the rocky path made us jumping/Oppa-gagnam style-ing in the car. Upon reaching, we changed our shoes into boots and headed for our Professor. Apparently, the place where our van stopped or in the other words, parked, was actually a barn/dyke/dike. Barn or dyke was made from earth materials like sand, clay, silt into an elevated structure. It was not a consolidated structure but a fairly loose one as it was made of earth material followed with some rolling or compacting process done by some roller vehicle. We then descended down to the most crucial part of today's field trip : L-shaped breakwater. Before that, we had to go through boulders, armour unit and followed with another boulders.

There are a total of five layers that could be found in the restoration area. First layer was the barn. The main purpose was to prevent the sea water from gushing in and destroyed the agriculture directly, Thus, the elevation was very important. Next, boulders would be placed near the dike. In my opinion, the boulder beside breaking any possible water wave, it was also meant to support the barn. Next, I observed the unit armour, which was a square simen-made block, but with empty space of square-shaped as well placed parallel to each other and obvious 90 degree. Maybe it was due to sedimentation and accretion process, the armour only left with the diagonal point studding upwards.

It interlocked each other for support, then only we saw the boulders and also L-shaped breakwater - a hard engineering structure - and it's restoration area. The main purpose were to of course reduce the wave energy, avoid erosion, encourage accretion and also to allow the restoration area's mud to hardened asap. This was so that we could plant our mangrove there. It looked just the same as what shown in the journal. L-shaped: segment 1, 30 m long, and orientated almost 90 degree to the shoreline, segment 2 the same length as well and it was a bit more to perfect parallel, segment 3 was the shortest which was 20 m. Among these three segments, there were gaps to allow water to still flow in. How to build the breakwater? Well it was actually heaps of large rocks stacked together inside the gabion basket, which was actually a wired-made basket, layered underneath with bamboo mat and topped with armour unit. The function of bamboo mat was to make the breakwater stronger because as the wave came, it would eventually take away the some part of the rocks' particulate.

Thus, there was a total of five layers of protection. For the restoration area, it was observed that there were several mangrove only. What we saw more were actually the geopiles or the failed mangrove seedlings which mimicked geopile a little. Geopiles were a flat-headed but sharp-end wood spike into the mud. There was also three monitoring tower to monitor the temperature, wind, carbon dioxide, etc. The few mangrove trees were probably because the restoration area, or the mud was not hard enough. We might have to wait longer in order for the mud to be more rigid so that it can support the seedling and enable it to grow. Another reason might also due to the inappropriate mangrove species. After all, this a R&D site. Experiments, trial and error were common and constantly occurred.

The bracing wind, the tasty oxygenated-air, the cooling breeze that caressed my skin, and the chilling sensation embracing my body really gave me a kick of escapade out of the concrete jungle! It was so serene, picturesque and green that I did not feel walking on the undergrowth and soggy path for the past 30 minutes was a tedious job. We reached the other end of the shoreline whereby this time, we sighted geotube. Geotube was actually made of fabric and contained numerous sand compacted tightly together. It extruded out of the calciferous beach like a dead enormous whale lying deadly. It functioned like the L-shaped breakwater - practically to prevent erosion and reduce wave energy.

Professor also further explained to us that the the mangrove that we witnessed now was actually part and parcel from the previous larger mangrove swamp. It had been eroded naturally for the past few decades. The proof of erosion was the uprooting of mangrove tree. Erosion at the same time cause accretion, which was why we can observe the shells and also slightly muddy area where mangrove still able to anchor on it. Many reason could cause the current situation. One of it might be the attack by barnacles. Barnacles would be attaching to seedlings for habitat purpose only. No harm will be inflicted. However, due to the weight from the  plethora of barnacles. mangrove seedlings were unable to support them, thus it collapsed. The fauna I spotted to day before stripper and shell, was also monkey. While we, UM students practically treat monkey as a cat or dog, or treat their presence as something acceptable and normal, Professor was very afraid of it. She even told us to avoid looking on the eyes.

Well, that was all for the field trip. We then embarked on the journey back to UM sluggishly. Although I spotted that Prof initially asked whether we should go back now or stop by somewhere first, I never thought the first one she would be approving. So then, after one hour journey, we made a surprise stop at the famous cendol shop. The specialty was none other than cendol durian, Scrumptitious and generous enough because the blended durian flesh given was convincingly just the right amount. No wonder he could earn RM120,000 per year.

Upon reaching at about 5pm, we washed our boots and then headed for EFF screening!! Never thought that we girls except Xin Ling would still hold on til now!And it was considered (for me) the first ice breaking session. Watching movie together and comment professionally about environment. LOL!

GREAT FILMING seriously! and they should do more.

Trash. E-Wasteland. Save the Leaping Tiger Gorge.

(: