Inez Alsagoff, 24, also known as @limpehloanshark on Instagram, is a graduate of Environmental Studies from NUS who specialises in marine conservation and conducts regular intertidal walks and fishery tours where she shares her passion about marine life in Singapore and spreads awareness about the importance of marine conservation.
Inez has always been passionate about marine conservation and finally got to volunteer with NParks during her university days when she went on her first intertidal walk. “When I went on my first ever intertidal walk, I was amazed that we even had fishes in Singapore, let alone other uncommon species like starfish, octopus and sharks and stingrays,” Inez shared.
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“This was really inspiring for me, and the fact that even I didn’t know about the vast marine life in Singapore despite being so passionate about it meant that not many people in Singapore knew about it either, so all I wanted to do was spread awareness about the fact that we do have marine life in Singapore and that it is worth protecting our waters,” she said.
Inez started her intertidal walks on a freelance basis during Covid-19 and was met with an overwhelming demand, which she assumes is possible because Singaporeans were not able to travel and therefore developed an interest in exploring untypical areas of Singapore.
She has since been carrying out regular intertidal walks where she takes people through the coasts of Singapore, providing them with a unique interactive guided tour along the intertidal zones in Singapore, usually at Changi beach. Inez takes them around to explore the different types of ecosystems, such as sand bars, coral reefs, rocky shores, and seagrass meadows and introduces them to the different types of animals in every ecosystem.
“I take them through the ecology of these creatures — how they live, how they hunt, how they reproduce and much more. I also teach them how to handle the animals. For example, starfish get stressed easily so if you ever interact with them, you have to be very gentle. I wouldn’t recommend handling them unless you’re with an experienced guide,” Inez explained.
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Inez also added fishery tours through Tekka market to her offered programmes in the past year when she realised that Singapore, inherently being a food nation, mostly relates marine life and the ocean to seafood.
“I started bringing people for fishery tours to learn more about how as consumers, we also impact the ocean through our consumption of seafood. When you walk through the fish market when you were younger with your mother or grandparents, you don’t really think about where the fish comes from. But with me, people are able to understand how they’re being caught, where they’re being caught, their impact as a consumers… these are some of the things that I am trying to bring more awareness to through something they’re already familiar with— seafood.”
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Inez believes it is important for people to be informed about marine life and conservation because it impacts every person, whether they can directly see it or not. Humans rely on the ocean for protein, food, carbon capture, leisure, education, etc.
People living in Singapore, a city-state, are often disconnected from the environment, let alone the marine environment. She explains that being informed about marine conservation is important because there are so many threats to the marine ecosystem in Singapore; the biggest threat is development because it is such a small country, and space is needed to build residential areas, resorts, and infrastructure in general.
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“Only when people are educated about the importance of marine conservation are they able to speak up when necessary and do their part to protect our precious ecosystems,” she concluded.
Inez welcomes people of all ages for these tours and even caters for school and corporate excursions. Interested parties can view her Instagram page, where she posts dates for her tours to book a slot.
