Efforts to protect African penguins, whose population has declined, continue in South Africa, with the temporary closure to commercial fishing around major penguin colonies extended until mid-April.
Picture: Getaway gallery
Environment Minister Barbara Creecy announced this measure to address the issue of resource competition between the fishing industry and the penguins, which is seen as the biggest threat to the species, as sardine stocks in South African waters remain low.
Creecy has also appointed an international expert review panel to advise on managing and balancing the interactions between the small pelagic fishery and the conservation of African penguins. Decisions on the matter will be made based on the panel’s findings. The Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (Sanccob) welcomed the extension of the closures. Still, it urged the minister to extend the closures until the international panel finalizes its work.
For successful breeding, the penguins require sufficient food throughout the year. Katta Ludynia, Sanccob research manager, explained, ‘Opening the areas to fishing in mid-April could be detrimental as birds may abandon their chicks if they do not find sufficient food later in the season. We hope that the panel will support the need for long-term or permanent closures around the main African penguin breeding islands, based on the evidence that the conservation sector has supplied for over 12 years.’
Sanccob CEO Natalie Maskell and other conservation partners, including BirdLife South Africa, WWF South Africa, and Endangered Wildlife Trust, have collaborated to highlight that island closures could help save the endangered species.
However, SA United Fishing Front national co-ordinator Pedro Garcia argued that in most instances, the fishing rights were owned by major industrial fishing companies, who were already oversubscribed with many other fisheries’ rights, providing them with a cushion from possible negative impacts.
Craig Smith, senior manager of WWF South Africa’s marine programme, said that island closures provided an option to reduce the interaction between the fishing industry and the African penguins. Still, they came too late last year as the penguin breeding season had already been completed, and the fishing industry had already caught most of its yearly quotas.
The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) announced the temporary closure of some areas around major penguin colonies to commercial fishing in September last year until January 14 as a precautionary measure to ensure the survival of the species while balancing ecological and socio-economic interests. Ludynia said the proposed closures covered very small areas of the South African exclusive economic zones and very small parts of the areas where commercial fisheries worked in.
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