On the 5th of June, all DP1s and a handful of keen MYP5s went to Talangama Wetlands to conduct our data collection for our group 4 project. After getting there, we realized that Water Hyacinths had started to spread rapidly around the water in the area.

Water hyacinths are an invasive species and are considered harmful to lakes and other bodies of water as they can cause a number of negative ecological impacts. They are fast-growing aquatic plants that can quickly form dense mats on the surface of the water which can block sunlight from reaching other aquatic plants and can also reduce oxygen levels in the water, harming the fish and other aquatic animals inhabiting the area. The species can also be harmful to human health and livelihoods as they can provide breeding grounds for disease-carrying mosquitoes and can make it difficult for fishermen to access the water and catch fish.

Due to these reasons, we decide that we had to take some action by removing as many of these plants from the waterbody in the time that we had. We did this by going on kayaks, going to areas dense in Water Cyacinths, pulling the plants out of the water, and putting them up onto the body of the kayak. When we would run out of space on the kayak, we would paddle back and put the Water Hyacinths into a pile on land that it far enough away from the water to stop the plants from finding their way back into the lake.

Me holding up a Water Hyacinth from our collective pile (photo taken by Mr. Lockwood)