Dominic Naidoo
Local conservation groups have commended the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment’s recent decision to enforce a partial closure of fishing around some African Penguin breeding colonies.
Together, the World Wildlife Fund South Africa, BirdLife South Africa, SANCCOB and the Endangered Wildlife Trust said that the “announcement explicitly acknowledges the importance of island closures in enhancing successful African Penguin breeding efforts. It is principally based on the recommendations that were made almost a year ago jointly by state fisheries and conservation scientists.”
But this saving grace may have come a little too late, as the closures were only implemented after the small pelagic industry had already caught most of its quota, and therefore the ban may be too late to have the intended effect.
“Had these closures been announced six months earlier, they would likely have had a more positive effect on the penguin breeding efforts of 2022,” the group said.
The delay in decision-making comes after a highly contested and protracted engagement between representatives of the small pelagic fishing industry and conservation NGOs over the future of African Penguins. Significantly, while these discussions were ongoing, there were no special protections in place for penguins and their numbers continued to decline.
The fishing industry has placed much emphasis on the negative social and economic impacts previous experimental closures have had and strongly argued that further closures would have a major impact on their workforce.
Although the NGOs repeatedly expressed their willingness to consider and develop ways of mitigating such claims of social and economic impacts, the fishing industry refused to share the actual social or economic impact data that could objectively be interrogated and potentially mitigated.
During the protracted negotiations, the small pelagic fishing industry continued to harvest fish, thus, by the time the formal interim closures were announced, the closures no longer served the purpose for which they were intended, namely to reduce penguin/industry competition for fish.
Conservationists also worry that the interim closure will lapse on January 14, 2023, after which the industrial fishing season for anchovy and the already depleted sardine stock will continue.
Both the small pelagic fishery and the African Penguin are highly dependent on these resources, but the penguins are at a distinct disadvantage as they can only forage close to their colonies when breeding.
Failing to meet the high energy requirements of rearing chicks results in poor chick condition, chick deaths, the abandonment of the chicks and a failed breeding attempt. In the worst case scenario, this could lead to starvation of adult penguins and ultimately death.
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