Shut-down of fishing around African penguin breeding colonies is ‘too little, too late’

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The announcement by the government that commercial sardine and anchovy fishing will be temporarily closed around South Africa’s six remaining large African penguin colonies, to improve the availability of food for them, has “come too late” this year for the imperilled seabirds.

Katta Ludynia, research manager at the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (Sanccob), said the interim closures would have very little benefit for the endangered species.

“The breeding season for African penguins is coming to an end, so the closures are coming too late for the majority of breeding penguins this year,” she said. “There have been no other closures this year and closures in 2021 were limited to two islands, Dassen Island and St Croix Island, and these were only seasonal.”

But the decision to stop fishing affects fishers badly. There are concerns that it will affect more than 1 000 sea and land-based fishers, who depend on fishing and fish processing. 

Last week, the department of forestry, fisheries and the environment said the restrictions followed prolonged negotiations with seabird conservation groups and representatives of the pelagic fishing industry. 

“While these closures do not represent a consensus position between the two sectors, the department is of the view that this is the best decision we can take at this stage to support penguin populations.”

The closures, which came into effect on 1 September, will run until 23 January 2023, and will be in a “defined area” around the key colonies of Dassen Island, Robben Island, Stony Point and Dyer Island, in the Western Cape, and St Croix and Bird Island in the Eastern Cape. These islands are home to about 88% of breeding pairs along the coastline.

The sardine stock in local waters continues to be at historically low levels, it said. “Competition for food is thought to be one among a set of pressures that are contributing to the decline of the African penguin population. Other pressures include shipping traffic and the associated noise and vibrations, pollution and degradation of suitable nesting habitats through historical removal of guano and coastal commercial and residential developments.”