ABOUT US

March 1, 2004

The Hantu Blog is a non-profit, environmental awareness initiative for Pulau Hantu, an island recognised by most divers as Singapore’s most popular Southern Island, known for its sheltered and biologically diverse reefs.

It is now described as a new-age NGO that utilises modern, free-media, to enhance the awareness of Singapore’s coastal and marine habitat.

Established in March 2004, The Hantu Blog found its origins in a Singapore diving forum, where after several pdiscussions were posted by writer Debby Ng, readers began requesting for her to lead dives out to the island and showcase what several divers never thought existed in Singapore. Encouraged by the response and determined to share with others the natural history and precarious status of Hantu, the inaugural Hantu Bloggers dive was held On 24 April 2004! Ever since, the thread on the forum became so popular and overwhelming that Debby had to seek new ways to communicate with divers and readers, and keep the surge of interest in the island alive!

At a time where Blogging had yet to reach its current popularity, Debby was introduced to Blogger by Siva, an ecologist at the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity (RMBR). The first blog was built at pulauhantu.blogspot.com, and it was sufficient for the posting of Debby’s regular trip dairies (now known as the Blog Log) from visits to Hantu island. However, after Debby acquired an underwater camera in the quest to visually present and document the treasures of Hantu island, a new server was required to host the collection of images that was quickly being complied. That’s when Siva stepped in again, and offered to sponsor data storage space on the NUS server.

In May 2004, the blogspot address was moved to the RMBR’s Habitatnews domain. About a year later, the Habitatnews URL finally became pulauhantu.org!

Over the past three years, the Hantu Blog has been giving public and school talks to share and garner awareness for the island. It has also participated in several movements and campaigns, and has been represented in several local environmental forums.

In 2006 the Blog together with the Blue Water Volunteers (BWV) and Gill Divers, developed a program called Reef Friends Xplore! to train and tutor divers to be savvy with our local diving conditions and familiar with guiding skills. After an intensive written and practical course that bridged two months, only 11 students graduated from the nearly 60 that registered for the course. These graduates are now active volunteers both with the Hantu Blog and BWV, lending their knowledge to the exploration of both topside and underwater habitats in Singapore’s reef and intertidal areas.

The Hantu Blog raises funds primarily buy running monthly trips to the island. The funds generated are channeled towards collecting data on a regular basis from our islands, maintaining the website, and producing media for distribution and display at our talks. Our activities are run solely by committed and dedicated volunteers who have invested huge amounts of time towards raising environmental awareness amongst not only Singaporeans but the countries visitors as well.

The Hantu Blog dives have attracted visitors from the United States of America, Holland, Finland, Germany, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Australia, France, Spain and Sweden. It’s volunteers comprise of Dutch, Malaysian, Swiss and Singaporeans who come from all walks of life!

To make a donation or find out how you can help, email us.

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