Surprise Move Signals Hope for African Penguins

"Two's Company' © Dan Callister/Penguins & Sharks

From SANCCOB

Cape Town, 21 August 2024– In a surprise move, the Democratic Alliance published a social media announcement this morning stating that the Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment had “instructed department lawyers to settle the matter and secure the Penguin’s fish diet for years to come”. This refers to the widely supported litigation – launched in March 2024, by BirdLife South Africa and SANCCOB, represented by the Biodiversity Law Centre – to challenge the Minister’s “biologically meaningless” island closures to purse-seine fishing around key African Penguin colonies.

Kate Handley, executive director of the Biodiversity Law Centre, says: “We are encouraged by the DA’s statement insofar as it demonstrates commitment to African Penguin conservation. The African Penguin faces extinction by 2035 if more is not done to curb the current rate of population decline. The crisis is driven primarily by their lack of access to prey, for which they must compete with the commercial purse-seine fishery for sardine and anchovy in the waters surrounding the six largest African Penguin breeding colonies, which are home to an estimated 90% of South Africa’s African Penguins.

“The litigation was entered into as a last resort given the previous Minister’s failure to implement adequate island closures. The litigation is ongoing, and in the circumstances, we await a favourable settlement proposal from the Minister’s legal team.”

#savetheafricanpenguin