It seems like Singapore’s offshore islands are cool again—they’ve have been making headlines recently, and for all the right reasons. The recent island-hopping initiative for this year’s HeritageFest was so heavily oversubscribed that the website had to shut down temporarily to halt registration. Then, there’s been news that The National Parks Board will be setting up a Marine Park (the first of its kind in Singapore) at Sisters Islands.
Called the Sisters’ Islands Marine Park, the 40-hectare enclave will span the land and waters surrounding the islands, as well as the western coasts of St. John’s Island and Pulau Tekukor. It’ll be a natural habitat for native marine creatures like giant clams and blacktip reef sharks, and will be used for outreach, education, conservation and research purposes.
Hold your horses, though—the park is slated to be completed only next year. However, NParks and other nature groups will be organizing twice monthly group visits to the islands from this month onwards. The free guided tours planned for August are already fully booked (urgh, what’s new), but more dates have since been added—mark your calendars for September 10 to 11, November 23 to 24 and December 22 to 23. Registration opens the month before, so sign up for the September dates at the NParks website from August 1. The walks are limited to 45 people per day (due to tide patterns) and registration is on a first-come, first-served basis, so fastest fingers first!
