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Our Burning Planet

Our Burning Planet

On the frontline to save the African penguin from extinction

On the frontline to save the African penguin from extinction
Christina Hagan at De Hoop Nature Reserve where she is responsible for Bird Life South Africa's work towards establishing an African Penguin Colony. (Photo: David Roberts)
Kristin Engel
By Kristin Engel
9 Oct 2024
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Scientist Christina Hagen is at the forefront of one of the most crucial conservation battles of our time – to save the African penguin from extinction. Hagen talks about what it’s like spending almost 10 years behind the scenes, trying to halt the decline of this special species and bring it back from the brink of extinction.

As BirdLife South Africa’s (BLSA) driving force behind the establishment of the new penguin company at De Hoop, Christina Hagen, together with her colleagues at BLSA, the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (Sanccob), CapeNature and others, is working tirelessly to save Africa’s only penguin while it is being pushed to the brink of extinction by a man-made catastrophe.

Hagen is responsible for BLSA’s work in establishing a new African penguin colony at De Hoop, identifying potential sites, investigating techniques that could be used and liaising with other stakeholders on this work. 

Hagen is just one of the many parts in this group of stakeholders and her role goes far beyond research and planning; she is on the ground placing lifelike decoys and playing recorded penguin calls to mimic a thriving colony, all in the hope of attracting African penguins to De Hoop as a breeding ground.

Hagen has been the Pamela Isdell Fellow of Penguin Conservation with BirdLife South Africa since 2015, having worked as their coastal seabird conservation manager since 2012. 

Hagen told Daily Maverick that the African penguin was in big trouble and likely going to be uplisted from “endangered” to “critically endangered” at the end of October – just one category below extinction. 

African penguin African penguins at Boulders in Cape Town. (Photo: Kristin Engel)



Testimony to this is the fact that over the past century, the population of breeding African penguin pairs declined from more than a million to fewer than 10,000 for the first time in history. 

The decline has primarily been attributed to a lack of available food due to climate change and competition from commercial purse seine small pelagic fishing around its breeding colonies. This affects the species’ survival and breeding success. 

Cape gannets and Cape cormorants are also facing these threats, since both feed on sardines and anchovies. Their populations are also decreasing, although not as rapidly as the penguins. 

Alistair McInnes, BLSA’s seabird conservation programme manager, said that when people visit the penguin colonies at Stony Point or Boulders in the Western Cape, they see the birds in vast groups and don’t realise the extent of the threat or what’s hurting the penguin populations. 

“The main issue is their food supply and other threats at sea, which people don’t see,” McInnes said. 

South Africa has implemented no-take zones where fishing is prohibited, to help restore fish populations that penguins feed on, primarily sardines and anchovies. But ornithologists have found that these zones are inadequate for penguin conservation, and that biologically meaningful closures are crucial to ensure the species’ survival. 

This is the basis of a lawsuit currently under way against South Africa’s environment minister, which seeks to have meaningful rather than inadequate closures implemented.  

Working to save such a species from extinction and watching its decline despite all the efforts is demoralising, Hagen said.

“Sometimes it’s hard to always keep a positive outlook when you think about all the threats that are happening and see the state of the colonies,” she said.

But they would not be doing this work if they didn’t think there was hope.

“We have such a committed and dedicated group of people trying to save the species that does give me hope… We can turn the tide. We just need to keep going. We can’t let the penguins down and give up,” Hagen said.

African penguin An African penguin outside the Boulders colony. (Photo: Kristin Engel)


On the ground and in the data


Hagen spends a lot of her time behind a computer, writing reports, analysing and collecting data from the colony. But she also spends a significant amount of time in the De Hoop colony itself.

“When I’m there, the first and most important thing that I do is check the predator-proof fence to make sure that there’s no damage to it, that the electric fence is strong and working.

“Then I go and look at the area where the penguins are and see how many are there. It’s always exciting to see a few penguins hanging around in the rocks and see what they’re doing, if they’re moulting or just sitting, or even just displaying nesting behaviour,” she said.

As South Africans, Hagen believes we have a responsibility to safeguard the species because it’s the only one that occurs on the African continent. Penguins are known indicators of the marine environment.

“By studying penguins and seeing what they are doing, we can get an idea of what state the marine environment is in. They are the sort of canaries in the coal mine, and having them there gives us insight into what is happening. The fact that they’re not doing well is worrying. It tells us that the marine environment is also not doing well,” she said.

Christina Hagen in the De Hoop Nature Reserve where she is responsible for BirdLife South Africa’s work in establishing an African penguin Colony. (Photo: David Roberts)


Call to arms


According to conservation groups, it has never been more critical to get involved and raise awareness if society hopes to save African penguins from the verge of extinction.

The penguins face threats from fishing pressure, increases in noise pollution from ship-to-ship bunkering, general pollution around the coast and climate change – making it difficult for the public to get directly involved to save them.

“It’s hard for people to do something directly, but supporting our efforts and showing the government, and the people in charge, that the public cares and really doesn’t want the penguin to go extinct, is important because it helps apply pressure in the right situations,” Hagen said.

But on Tuesday, 8 October 2024, a new campaign was launched by Sanccob, BLSA and ocean conservation charity Blue Marine, urging the South African government, locals and the international community to take immediate action to save the African Penguin. These groups have launched a petition to build public support for the cause to save this species.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04S2fdhs2lc&source_ve_path=OTY3MTQ

The organisations are also calling on government to adequately enforce existing marine pollution regulations and close legal loopholes that currently enable pollution, particularly noise pollution, to interfere with penguin breeding.



Nicky Stander, head of conservation at Sanccob, said they cannot afford to wait any longer to protect the species properly. 

“In just over a decade they could no longer exist, which not only has an impact on our marine ecosystem, but also on South Africa’s economy and ecotourism… Individuals must come together to save them at all costs.” DM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REeWvTRUpMk

 

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