DEAD IN THE WATER OP-ED: Silent crisis — starving penguins, dying sardines and a government gambling with species extinction
South Africa celebrated a landmark agreement to protect African penguins from food scarcity. Eighteen months later, penguins are losing weight, sardines have died along thousands of kilometres of coastline and commercial fishing has continued before the government even knows how many fish remain.
The South African government recently celebrated an agreement to protect African penguins from food scarcity, but 18 months later, the situation has worsened. African penguins are losing weight, sardines have died along thousands of kilometers of coastline, and commercial fishing continues, despite the government lacking knowledge of how many fish remain.
The government established strengthened no-take zones for commercial sardine and anchovy fishing around six important penguin breeding colonies. While this might seem like a decisive action, the issue is more complex. African penguins rely on small pelagic fish, primarily sardine and anchovy, which have been unstable due to several factors.
The government's precautionary measures seem inadequate, as penguins are already losing weight at several breeding colonies and there is uncertainty about the exact number of sardines that have died. Commercial sardine fishing was allowed to continue, even as the mortality event was being investigated and post-event biomass was unknown.
Written by urgent.news from Daily Maverick's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
