Singapore scientists join first international Ocean Sampling Day

SINGAPORE - Scientists here joined hundreds of their colleagues around the world on the first international Ocean Sampling Day on Saturday.

The Singapore researchers from Nanyang Technological University will collect water samples from the Singapore Strait, note their data such as temperature and salinity, and filter the water through cartridges that retain living organisms. The data and some of the cartridges will be sent to a European research center for analysis and made publicly available.

Scientists at more than 160 sites across the globe's oceans are participating in the annual sampling day, which aims to track the condition of the oceans and their organisms over time. This would enable researchers to better study a wide range of topics from the waters' relationship to climate change, to how fish stocks are changing. The cartridges will also be preserved at the United States Smithsonian Institute to help future researchers.

The Singapore scientists will also keep a set of cartridges for their own research, which may help determine the health of Singapore's coastal waters.

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