National seabird conservation actions

In June 2009, through BirdLife International's 'Preventing Extinctions' programme, a Species Champion was found for the African Penguin, the Charl van der Merwe Trust.

The African Penguin needs a champion because last year the species' conservation status was downgraded from Vulnerable to Endangered due to the staggering 80% decrease in their population over the last 50 years. When the first official population census was conducted in 1956, there were about 141 000 pairs. Fifty years later, the population is at only 25 000 pairs. These charismatic birds breed only at a few islands along the coast of South Africa and Namibia and their numbers are dwindling.

In the 1900s, penguins were threatened by egg collection and guano scraping at their breeding colonies. These activities were stopped in the 1960s but the penguin populations have continued to decrease. Now penguins are threatened by a myriad of sources from predation by seals (and possibly sharks) to the potential for a catastrophic oil spill to a lack of food. The impact of these threats will only be exacerbated as the penguin population decreases further.

The lack of suitable food is the threat that is the most controversial. Penguins eat mainly sardines and anchovies, which are also the target of the commercial purse-seine fishing industry. However, the role fishing has played in the decrease is hotly debated. In the mid-1990s the distribution of the sardines and anchovies shifted from the west coast of South Africa to the south coast. While this shift has almost certainly contributed to the population decrease, the colonies on the south coast have continued to decrease in numbers.

What BirdLife South Africa is doing:

Significant funding has been received from the Species Champion to ensure that critical interventions can be made. The projects we are involved with work towards our major goal: incorporating the needs of penguins (and other predators) into fishery management. This is known as the Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries (EAF).

We are working on the following projects:

• Policy level: Fishing quotas are set without taking the distribution of fish into account and this may affect the availability of fish for penguins. We are working with government and fisheries to change the way the fishing quota is set.
• Island closures project: Funding University of Cape Town post-doctoral student, Dr. Lorien Pichegru to examine the effects of banning fishing around penguin breeding islands. Preliminary results show that banning fishing 20km around a colony means that penguins don't have to swim as far as before to find food.
• Transponder project: Micro-chipping penguins on Robben Island to gather data on survival rates and the effects of flipper bands on the survival of the penguins.

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it is the project officer in charge of co-ordinating these projects and works closely with the head of the Seabird Division, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . In addition to the work on African Penguins, Ross is responsible for working with the BirdLife Africa Partnership Secretariat in Nairobi, coordinating all seabird conservation matters for the continent.

Map showing African Pengiun colonies in South Africa

Acknowledgements:

None of the Seabird Conservation work would be possible without the contributions from many people and organisations. The RSPB fund the Global Seabird Programme, including all the BirdLife South Africa Seabird Division staff. Major sponsors in recent years include the Charl van der Merwe Trust, the Plastics Federation of South Africa and the Cape Bird Club. A special word of thanks for the energy, time and support for the Seabird Division from Vernon Head, Chairman of BirdLife South Africa.