Award-winning video game is a dream for the nature lover

Diving. It looks so good, and costs so bad. If you’ve ever dreamed of being surrounded by colourful fishes and accidentally kicking corals (a painful memory of mine), but have been unable to for whatever reason, you still have the next best thing: a $20 video game on the Playstation 4, Microsoft Windows and Xbox One. A simple image search of the game will flood you with the happy chaos and bright colours of a thriving ocean – and you haven’t even played it yet. Players experience diving freely through pristine waters, unencumbered by oxygen tanks and ear-popping pressure. You can explore caves and swim through seagrass. You can – yes – grab hold of a dolphin and let it take you on a ride, all while the joyful calls of its pod surround you.

Released in 2016 by developer Giant Squid, Abzû is hailed for its awe-inspiring beauty and breath-taking soundtrack, but it’s not just another pretty game for virtual tourism. It carries a message. A game like that, at a time like this, when human society is struggling to catch up with its own waste and consumption, when the environment is at breaking point, couldn’t not. Anyone who reads the news – who lives on earth – would notice the lack of trash bobbing in the water, the missing smokestacks on the horizon, and they’d get to experience what marine life would be like without human influence. That is, briefly – the game has a story to tell.

Without spoiling too much, Abzû is adamant about our duty to preserve and return life back to the oceans. But it doesn’t execute this message through guilt and blame in the way many environmental news articles and stories (deliberately or not) do. So few of us now have the privilege of meeting nature face to face, and that affects the way we see ourselves in relation to the environment. There’s no denying the awkwardness in trying to get a city dweller to care about some blue whale a million miles away that they’ve never seen. Abzû gives you a chance to fall in love with the ocean. The game features species of marine creatures from real life, telling us the names of each animal as we swim alongside it. The profound intimacy that the player gets is beyond statistics and reports and academic journals. It’s emotional.

https://www.trustedreviews.com/reviews/abzu

Another aspect of the game that many environmentalists will appreciate is its rejection of anthropocentrism – seeing humans as the centre of the world. Neither does it swing in the other extreme. There’s a deliberate emphasis on togetherness, on the harmony between creatures that vary as dramatically as each colour of the rainbow. And that diversity includes our four-limbed, finless protagonist. At the same time, the player is constantly reminded of their staggering insignificance compared to the leviathans of the deep. Some have raised the player’s lack of control over the game as a flaw (the gameplay mechanisms are simple and repetitive), but maybe it’s the perfect metaphor for our relationship with nature. As the protagonist dives alongside a whale, looking into its eye that’s as big as her torso, it’s difficult not to think about how tiny she is. Her speed of travel underwater is frustratingly slow compared to all the marine creatures gliding effortlessly past. When she grabs hold of a fish to ride it, she goes faster, but loses all control over her direction. This all contributes to the timely reminder that we’re small, but not alone.

Whether you enter this game as an environmentalist, a marine expert or somebody who’s never been to the ocean, the story and experience are one of a kind, so don’t let anyone’s solemn analysis of its real-life relevance stop you from picking it up. That said, I highly doubt that anyone could complete this game and go on without having an extra tenderness for the ocean in their heart. Everyone’s tired of hearing and reading about environmentalism. It’s time they felt it.

Watch the official trailer here.

Source: I played the game and it was incredible.

Hello from the otterside!

We’ve reached the end of May, and what better way to say goodbye to this month than to celebrate World Otter Day? This year, World Otter Day falls on the 31^st of May, and we hope that you’ll be motivated to learn more about these otterly adorable creatures after reading this post. World Otter Day was created with the intention of raising global awareness on these river-loving animals. This is due to the myriad of threats that otters increasingly face such as habitat destruction, hunting and road deaths. Before we talk more about otters, let’s start off with a joke:

I hope you didn’t cringe too much (I tried my best). (Source: Tumblr)

Otters are carnivorous mammals that belong to the weasel family, which includes animals like the badger and wolverine, and there are 13 otter species which can be found all over the world. In North America, you can find the charismatic sea otters, who are often seen relaxing while floating on water. They even hold hands with one another while they’re sleeping to prevent themselves from floating away! In South and Southeast Asia, you can find the Oriental Small-Clawed otter, which is the smallest but one of the more social species among all the otter species.

Hold on tight! (Source: Tumblr)

In our own island home, we’ve become enamoured with the otter families that elicit squeals of excitement whenever they are spotted. These families comprise of smooth-coated otters, which as the name suggests, have smoother and shorter fur as compared to other otter species. These adventurous otters have been seen exploring places such as St Andrew’s Junior College and the i Light festival at Marina Bay, proving themselves to be highly adept in navigating our urban landscape.

Having some fun in the sun (Source: ART-ZOO Facebook)

Other than providing us with an overwhelming amount of cuteness, otters also play significant roles in their ecosystems as well. In the case of sea otters, they significantly influence sea urchin and kelp populations. Sea otters munch on sea urchins which consume kelp. By eating the sea urchins, sea otters keep the populations in check, which prevents kelp forests from being overgrazed on by sea urchins. It’s important to maintain healthy kelp forests as they are rich sources of nutrients to fish and other marine organisms.

Without sea otters, kelp forests would be devastated 😦 (Source: Seaotters.com)

Sadly, most otter species are facing falling population numbers and this can be attributed to a few reasons. One major reason would be pollution which contaminates water bodies where otters are mostly found. Harmful chemicals from the run-offs can accumulate in the otters and their prey are affected by the pollution as well, jeopardising the food sources of the otters.

You may be wondering, how can I contribute to World Otter Day? Well, even a small action is pretty significant! You could aim to spread the message about otters to people around you and raise awareness on their situation. Another simple way of contributing would be being considerate towards our local otters (and all other wildlife in fact!). Some tips include giving the otters adequate space upon encountering them and keeping our waterways clean to give them optimal habitats to thrive in. With that, happy World Otter Day and enjoy the rest of this week 🙂

References:

Asian small-clawed otter | Animal Fact Sheet – Woodland Park Zoo Seattle WA. (2017). Zoo.org. Retrieved 21 May 2017, from https://www.zoo.org/page.aspx?pid=2549#.WSGHxGh942w

Sea Otter | National Geographic. (2010). Nationalgeographic.com. Retrieved 21 May 2017, from http://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/s/sea-otter/

SEAOTTERS.COM – POWERED BY CUTENESS™. (2017). SEAOTTERS.COM – POWERED BY CUTENESS™. Retrieved 21 May 2017, from http://seaotters.com/2013/05/why-are-sea-otters-important-no-sea-otters-no-kelp-forests/

Threats to Sea Otters. (2012). Defenders of Wildlife. Retrieved 21 May 2017, from http://www.defenders.org/sea-otter/threats

Words by: Tan Hui Xin

Whale, whale, whale, what have we here?

A sperm whale recovered by the Lee Kong Chien Natural History Museum. Photos by (clockwise from left): Marcus Chua, Becky Lee, & Letchumi Mani

When a dead whale washed up on Jurong island on the 10th of July, 2015, nature enthusiasts across Singapore were shocked. When you think of Singapore’s marine life, many people would think of fish, crabs or maybe even sea turtles! But a whale? On our tiny island? Never!

But lo and behold, the first large whale carcass found in Singapore for over a hundred years had been found, and on Singapore’s jubilee year no less. The animal itself is a 10.6m long female sperm whale, and it is the first confirmed sighting of its kind in our waters. While it is rather upsetting that the whale was found dead, its death shall not be in vain. As of time of writing, the whale itself is being salvaged by the Lee Kong Chien Natural History museum to be made into a display!

Photo of the old “Singapore Whale”. Photo from the International Year of Biodiversity Singapore

Older readers may remember the old “Singapore whale” that used to hang in the original Raffles Museum at Stamford Road. That specimen was actually recovered in Malacca, and was an impressive 13m long. In 1974, the whale was given to Muzium Negara in Malaysia when the museum had to move to smaller premises. Today, the skeleton stands in the Maritime Museum in Labuan, off Sabah.

The museum was never really quite the same without its awe-inspiring whale skeleton. Which is why the Lee Kong Chien Natural History Museum is calling for donations to do up a new display for the sperm whale!

Jubilee whale fund logo by the Lee Kong Chien Natural History Museum

The museum hopes to inspire future generations with this display, just like how the old Singapore whale fired up imaginations in the past. The display itself will a testament to the biodiversity education, research and conservation efforts by the museum, but to do so they need financial help.

If you are interested in donating, you can do so here! If you are interested in looking at the preservation and salvaging process of the whale, you can look at photos here. Finally, to learn more about the new and old whales, you can read up on them here.

We hope that you are as excited about the whale as we are! After all, we should always remember:

Promotional art by Jacqueline Chua

Words by Jacqueline Chua