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Last-Minute Pact Saves African Penguins From Extinction

Six key breeding areas are to be safeguarded to help save the African penguin, following a landmark court order in South Africa.

Scientists cautioned last year that the population of this species has been decreasing by approximately 8% annually. And might vanish within ten years.

The court has imposed no-fishing zones around the breeding colonies to prevent so-called purse seine fishing vessels, which use large nets, from catching sardines and anchovies for the next 10 years.

The order is the result of an out-of-court settlement reached before a three-day High Court hearing was due to start between conservation groups, the commercial fishing industry and the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE).

Last year, BirdLife South Africa along with the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (Sanccob) initiated this lawsuit - marking the first such case in South Africa’s history.

They alleged that ministers had failed to adequately protect the endangered species after failing to implement key recommendations from a scientific panel brought in by the government to assess the risk to the African penguin.

They argued the continuation of "inadequate" interim closures to fishing vessels around the breeding colonies, which are mainly in the Western Cape, had been allowed.

The Biodiversity Law Centre, representing these organizations, stated that the penguin population decreased from 15,000 in 2018 to fewer than 9,000 by the close of 2023.

If the present rate of decrease continued, the African penguin might vanish by 2035.

The order, issued by the Pretoria High Court on Monday outlines restricted areas for commercial sardine and anchovy fishing boats near six crucial African penguin nesting sites: Dassen Island, Robben Island, Stony Point, Dyer Island, St Croix Island, and Bird Island.

The DFFE has two weeks to make sure the permit conditions and the closures are implemented.

Nicky Stander, who leads conservation efforts at Sanccob, stated that the journey still had a long way to go.

"The challenges confronting the African penguin are intricate and persistent — managing this involves surveillance, implementation of rules, and sustained collaboration between industries and governmental bodies responsible for tracking and distributing sardine and anchovy stocks for commercial use," she stated.

The anchovy and sardine fishing industry said it was pleased an agreement had been made, saying the decision was halfway between the interim closures and the area closures requested by conservation groups.

It also added that the perception that the fishing industry was the primary cause of the decline of the penguin population was false.

The order will last for the next 10 years, bringing it to 2035 which is when scientists predicted the penguin would be extinct.

Its progress will be reviewed six years from now.

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Go to Nation Daily NewsAfrica.com for more news from the African continent.

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