These rare penguins are said to nest around the southern coastline of the continent are under threat from commercial fishing and oil spills. It is said that in the past century the population of the birds has declined by 90 percent, leaving just 26,000 breeding pairs left in the wild. Conservationists warn that if the decline continues at this rate then the African penguin could be extinct by 2024.
It is observed that commercial fishing of sardines and other pelagic fish has led to this decline. It is told that the fishing of these fish species in the area is unrestricted which means that the penguins have to compete with the trawlers for food. The researchers have attached small GPS devices to some of the adult birds to see how far they are travelling.
Experts said that they have found that the Dyer Island birds are swimming 40 kilometres to fish, and that is at the very limit of the distance they can travel when they have chicks. At the Southern African Foundation For The Conservation Of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB) in Cape Town hundreds of injured and oiled penguins are rescued every year.
The penguins are eventually returned to the wild in the hope that they will help boost the falling numbers. Climate change is exacerbating the problem, shifting the location of the fish and also making the penguins vulnerable to over-heating on the land.
