Threats to African Penguins & Penguin Conservation

[Lisbeth]

South Africa needs a lot of young people like Patrick

[Lisbeth]

BY SIYABONGA SESANT - 24 January 2019

Close to 200 penguins and other coastal birds were rushed to safety after a devastating fire threatened their sanctuary at Cape Recife in Port Elizabeth on Wednesday.

The fire also forced the evacuation of a nearby beachfront resort and Nelson Mandela University’s south campus.

For most of the day large parts of Port Elizabeth were covered in a thick blanket of smoke as the veld fire ravaged a more than 5km stretch on both sides of Marine Drive.

Smoke hung heavily in the air as panicked employees from the SA Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds hurriedly packed the penguins in boxes.



The centre’s manager, Stacey Webb, said the birds would spend Wednesday in the safety of her home.

Nina Voogt, a veterinary nurse, said: “We were alerted that the fire was worsening and that we needed to start evacuating for safety reasons so we’ve been prepping boxes since we saw the fire this morning.

“We loaded all of our birds, including our ICU penguins [and] all of our other birds in the centre, and we’re taking them to a second location where they’ll be safe from the fire,” she said.

“It’s just as a precautionary measure because we don’t want human or bird fatalities – so we’d rather just evacuate.”

Voogt said about 80 of the more than 160 penguins were in rehabilitation and going through the hospitalisation process.

Other species of birds were also removed from the centre.

Webb said the sick penguins would be kept in her garage for the night.

“They’re in my house – it was the next-best solution,” she said on Wednesday evening. “There are about 160 of them and right now we’re trying to make them comfortable for the night and putting them together in groups.

“The firefighters are busy wetting the centre’s roof so that we’ll be able to move the birds back [on Thursday morning], but this is nature we’re talking about.

“You never know, things might change and the wind could pick up again [on Wednesday night].

“The very sick birds, those in intensive care, are being kept in the garage and the others that can be outside are out in my garden,” Webb said.

The nearby Pine Lodge beachfront resort and Nelson Mandela University’s south campus were also evacuated.

University spokesperson Zandile Mbalela said earlier: “Nelson Mandela University staff and students have been evacuated out of the south campus as a precautionary measure, as a veld fire that broke out adjacent to the university has spread onto the nature reserve.

“Strong winds have exacerbated the situation and caused the fire to move rapidly, resulting in heavy smoke cover over the campus.

“Municipal firefighters and emergency personnel, working with a university team, are working hard to contain the fire that broke out in the vicinity of the Noordhoek Ski Boat Club, near the university.

“The situation is being closely monitored and further updates will be shared in due course.”

Nelson Mandela Bay municipality spokesperson Kupido Baron lauded the firefighters for their efforts in containing the blaze.

“We [have] secured Nelson Mandela University and our brave men and women will form a defensive line in an attempt to prevent damage to property. Our thoughts and prayers are with them,” he said.

https://www.heraldlive.co.za/news/2019- ... sanctuary/

[Alf]

So much stress on these poor penguins and birds but rather safe than sorry

[Peter Betts]

200 metres from my house ..It was frightening as we have 2 large Thatch bomas in my garden treated as per insurance requirements ..but our 2 neighbours have 20 year old UNTREATED thatch roofs and if they went the heat would ignore our treated roof and we would all disappear ..selfish people

[Peter Betts]

The wind changed last evening and so the birds were not physically removed as it became safer

[Klipspringer]

12 heavily oiled penguins recovered in Algoa Bay after oil spill

16:50 (GMT+2) Tue, 09 Jul 2019

South African National Parks marine rangers have recovered 12 heavily oiled penguins on the St Croix Island in Algoa Bay.

Tuesday morning's recovery comes after four heavily oiled penguins were rescued on Monday following an oil spillage off-shore from the Port of Nquga in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Authorities say up to 400 litres of oil was spilled during a fuelling transfer from one ship to another.

SANParks spokesperson, Fayroush Ludick, said two heavily oiled birds, a Cape gannet and a Cormorant were also recovered on Bird Island.

She said approximately 20 heavily oiled adult penguins were then later spotted covering their nests and eggs which also appeared to be oiled on St Croix Island.

Ludick said the recovered animals have since been sent to the Seabird Rehabilitation Centre SANCCOB at Cape Recife.

She said another team will be deployed on Wednesday and possibly into Friday as more oiled birds are expected to be recovered.

The vessel from which the oil was spilled remains anchored off Algoa Bay and will be brought into Port either Wednesday night or Thursday morning.

The crew will then be questioned by officials from both the SA Maritime Safety Authority and the Department of Environmental Affairs, who have flown down from Pretoria to investigate the incident.

https://www.algoafm.co.za/article/local ... oil-spill-

[Klipspringer]

https://ewn.co.za/2019/07/10/refuelling ... -oil-spill

REFUELLING UNDER SCRUTINY AS SA PENGUINS HIT BY OIL SPILL
Experts said an unknown number of penguins had been affected on the rocky, uninhabited island, which is home to the largest breeding colony of endangered African penguins in the world.


AFP | about 4 hours ago
ST CROIX ISLAND, South Africa – Rangers in wet suits have been searching for oil-tarred penguins in shallow water around St Croix Island off the South African coast as a refuelling spill highlights conservationists' fears over pollution.

Experts said an unknown number of penguins had been affected on the rocky, uninhabited island, which is home to the largest breeding colony of endangered African penguins in the world.

A Liberian-flagged ship spewed between 200 and 400 litres of oil into the sea off Port Elizabeth city during "bunkering" re-fuelling - the process of filling a ship with fuel from another vessel.

The small-scale leakage from the bulk carrier MV Chrysanthi vessel at dawn on Saturday was the second oil spill in the environmentally-sensitive area in three years.

"This is exactly the concern with offshore 'bunkering' that we have been voicing concerns about," Stacey Webb, of the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (Sanccob) charity, told AFP.

"The danger is not over yet. Penguins forage up to 100 kilometres away from the islands (St Croix Island and Bird Island) so they could run into the spill out at sea."

About 20 penguins covered in black sludge have been rescued by national parks rangers so far.

The weekend spill follows one in August 2016 when about 100 birds were affected by a smaller "bunkering" spill.

"Bunkering" only started in Ngqura port, part of Algoa Bay, in 2016, with the shipping industry promoting it as an economic boost for the area.

Plans to develop the bay into a major re-fuelling hub for international vessels have generated widespread controversy, with conservationists and the tourism sector saying the risk of pollution is too high.

DECLINING POPULATION

African penguins, which are only found in South Africa and Namibia, are also known as jackass penguins for their braying call.

They re-colonised a beach near Cape Town in the 1980s and have since become a major tourist attraction.

But there are only 50,000 mature African penguins alive, according to the UN conservation red list.

"Is the money generated out of 'bunkering' in Algoa Bay worth putting the survival of a species at risk?" asked Jack Peeton, manager of Raggy Charters, a tour operator which organises whale watching and deep-sea excursions.

He said he had taken tourists to St Croix Island on Monday, only to be "greeted by the grim sight of rangers loading penguins covered with thick oil into small boats."

Port Elizabeth tourism consultant Peter Myles said the area plays a unique role in the penguins' survival.

"'Bunkering' in Algoa Bay has been a point of discussion with concerns raised over regulation," he told AFP.

"There are significant environmental risk factors, and St Croix Island supports the largest breeding population of the African penguin on the planet."

The government described the weekend spill as a "tier-one incident" that did not require national intervention, though it added strong winds were hampering operations.

The South African Marine Safety Authority (Samsa) has launched aerial surveillance to determine the extent of the oil spill, which is drifting out to sea rather than onshore.

Neville Noble of Samsa told AFP that bunkering was in line with government policy to opening up the ocean economy under the so-called Operation Phakisa and that operators underwent "a strict auditing process".

[Lisbeth]

Obviously not strict enough

[Lisbeth]

Rangers nab 12 more penguins for cleanup

up to 40 birds believed to be affected by Algoa Bay oil spill so far

BY GUY ROGERS - 10 July 2019




The threat to seabirds from even a small oil spill is becoming apparent in the wake of the bunkering incident in Algoa Bay at the weekend.

https://www.heraldlive.co.za/news/2019- ... r-cleanup/

[Dzombo]

Article from "The Times" newspaper

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