Penguins, penguins, penguins.Beautiful creatures, aren't they?These iconic seabirds found along our coast face an uncertain future.With conservationists warning that without intervention they may face extinction as soon as 2030.
This is more than just a loss of a species.It's a profound ecological and cultural tragedy. that affects our marine ecosystems and communities alike.
Now, joining us is an expert from BirdLife South Africa who will shed light on the crucial steps needed to reverse this trend and help protect our penguin population.
We'll explore why these penguins are disappearing, the impacts on the marine environment and practical ways Each of us can contribute their survival.
Our guest is Dr. Alistair McInnes, Seabird Conservation Program Manager at BirdLife South Africa, keen on multidisciplinary projects utilizing modern technology to monitor the status of seabirds in real time.
Alistair is also currently the Seabird Conservation Program Manager at BirdLife South Africa, as I have said, and we welcome him to the program.Alistair, very good morning to you.Morning, Solomon, and morning to your listeners.
So the rapid decline of the African penguin population, what are the primary causes?
The most recent drivers of the rapid decline since the turn of the century in the late last century has been associated with the availability of the specialized food which is anchovy and sardine.
And there's lots of science to demonstrate the link between the availability of that food
given that African penguins specialize on that prey and links between the availability of that prey and their population, their survival, their foraging activity, many aspects of their biology are linked to healthy stocks of this prey.
So the work that BirdLife and other organizations are pushing for is the sustainable management of the Persang fishery.So the Persang fishery is the largest fishery by volume in South Africa.They target anchovy and sardine mostly.
And what we're trying to do is get that fishery to not fish in areas that are hot spots for African penguins, like around their colonies.
So at the moment we're advocating for no-take zones around the last remaining six colonies, which together make up 76% of the global population.But we also need to manage the anchovy and sardine resources more sustainably throughout
So there are various measures that can be done for that but we just need to make sure that our fishery management plans are adequately sensitive to the plight of African penguins but other marine top predators as well that rely on this fish.
What's the impact on the marine ecosystem and on biodiversity if African penguins were to go extinct?
So African penguins are a very good indicator species because they rely on this fish.
And because this fish, anchovy and spardine, feeds so many other marine top predators, other seabirds that are also threatened, but also other dolphins, whales, important line fish for communities, all feed on these small, so-called small pelagic fish.
So when we see numbers of African penguins going down, we know it's directly related to the status of those fish stocks.So we know the signal is not healthy at the moment.The stocks are low, especially sardine.
And we really need to put our minds together to review how we manage these stocks.
What can we do at community level?
So the community level, as you well aware, African penguins are really popular, you know, especially it's one of the biggest draw cards to Cape Town.
You know, I would encourage people to go and look at these animals in their habitat, you know, Betty's Bay or Stony Point, even Robben Island has a colony there as well, to get involved, to
So just try and understand the links of this bird to the ocean.
Now we see them on land, these comical little characters waddling around, but when they actually get in the ocean, these guys are really well adapted at swimming, diving, you know, up to 100 meters dive depths.
And just trying to think about why, what the problems are out at sea. understand them, visit the conservation NGO's websites to then understand what they're doing to mitigate against the threats, support them.
There's also a petition currently going around so people can visit the African penguin petition on Only One and that's a website to give your support to that petition to encourage the government to do the right thing in terms of no-take zones to fishing but also broader
fisheries management interventions.
At a governmental level, organizational level, I mean what kind of initiatives are required?
So at the moment the South African national government has the mandate to manage the fish stocks. but they also mandated to manage them under an ecosystem approach to fisheries management.
So when we manage our stocks, we're supposed to be looking at, we're supposed to be considering the communities that rely on those stocks directly and indirectly, but also the ecosystem.
So what we need is a more effective ecosystem based approach to fisheries management. And there are various fora that the government does have and it does invite members of NGOs and external scientists as observers to those.
And those documents are supposed to be available to the public.So people can get involved if they find the correct channels to see how these stocks are being managed and what we can do about it.
So African penguins, besides the areas in the Cape which you've mentioned, where else can they be found?
So their range extends from all their breeding range, the islands where they breed and a couple of land-based colonies extend from sort of central Namibia all the way around to Algoa Bay near Port Elizabeth.
They do extend further during the non-breeding season, even up to Angola and there's been the odd sighting even in Mozambique.
but they are limited to the sphingyla cold upwelling ecosystem where you do find these fish like sardine and anchovy that dominates the prey for lots of predators.So
Yeah, unfortunately, there's only seven colonies that have around about a thousand pairs or more.That includes boulders as well.The colony at boulders is protected in False Bay.There's no person fishing allowed in False Bay since the 1980s.
And that colony coincidentally is one of the more stable populations.But unfortunately, the other six large colonies haven't got protection around their waters.
What about other parts of the world?I mean, do you find penguins?
Yes, so there's 18 species of penguins globally.Unfortunately, they're all in the southern hemisphere.The most northern one you find is in the Galapagos, Galapagos penguin.
The majority of penguins are found in very cold waters, sub-Antarctic, Antarctica, and then Africa only has one species.Unfortunately, our species is the most threatened species globally.It was recently uplisted to critically endangered.
two weeks ago and that's just one step away from extinction in the wild.So we're concerned that if the current rates of decline persist, the species could be extinct in the wild within our lifetimes by 2035.So we really need to act soon.
There's no time to waste.Yeah.Indeed.
Well, thank you so much for your time, Alistair.We really appreciate it.Thanks for the moment.Thank you.
That was Dr. Alistair McInnes, Senior Programs Manager at Seabird Conservation at BirdLife South Africa, talking to us about penguins running the risk of becoming extinct in the next 10, 11 years if we don't do something.
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