Settlement reached that might save the endangered African penguin

Six key breeding areas of SA’s critically endangered African penguins have been protected in a landmark court decision made on Tuesday.

BirdLife SA and the SA Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (Sanccob) were able to secure what they are calling a historic victory for African penguins.

A settlement agreement reached by the two conservation NGOs and commercial sardine and anchovy purse seine fishers, subsequently endorsed by the state, was made an order of court by the Pretoria high court.

The order provides for the delineation of no-take zones for the commercial sardine and anchovy fishery around six key African penguin breeding colonies in coastal areas where the commercial fisheries operate.

The organisations said the six closures worked together to secure biologically meaningful foraging areas for African penguins in the west coast, southern Cape and Algoa Bay regions to help bring the species back from the brink of extinction.

The closures will be at Dassen Island, Robben Island, Stony Point, Dyer Island, St Croix Island and Bird Island.

The settlement followed several weeks of negotiations between the conservation NGOs and the commercial sardine and anchovy fishing industry.

The order provides that the department of forestry, fisheries & the environment will have two weeks to ensure these closures are implemented by amending the permit conditions applicable to commercial sardine and anchovy fishing.

These permit conditions are set to be renewed by the department each January for the next 10 years. The NGOs said the 10-year period took closures to the critical year, 2035, when the African penguin is predicted by scientists to be extinct in the wild.

Birdlife and Sanccob took the decision to resort to the courts in March last year after research showed the penguin numbers dwindled from the 2018 count of 15,187 breeding pairs to an estimated 8,750 at the end of 2023.

The NGOs, represented by the Biodiversity Law Centre, sought to hold the minister accountable to the constitutional and statutory obligations to mitigate the threat posed by sardine and anchovy fishing to the world’s African penguin population, most of which remains in South Africa.

However, the organisations said they had consistently maintained a settlement which benefited African penguins by securing important foraging areas would be considered.

Negotiations with the representatives of the sardine and anchovy commercial fisheries resulted in the settlement, agreed to by the state, the night before the three-day hearing was about to start on Tuesday. 

The order sets out the maps and co-ordinates for the closures which will be in place from the date of the court order for 10 years, subject to a scientific review after six years. These closures will be in place year-round, including during the full fishing season.

Along the west coast, the large existing closure around Dassen Island, which was first implemented as a temporary measure in September 2022, will be retained without extension to an area to the north.

The NGOs said the closure agreed at Dassen Island accommodated the interests of commercial fisheries but had been counterbalanced, in this region, by an extended closure of a 20km radius around Robben Island.

They said the 20km closure at Robben Island had been shown by scientific analysis to be capable of slowing population declines around this breeding colony. They said this closure in place until at least 2033 might reverse the decline of this population.

Kate Handley, executive director of the Biodiversity Law Centre, said the order was an important step in making a significant change in the long impasse between conservation organisations and the industry which has seen inaction since 2018.

“We look to the [department] and the minister to ensure full implementation of this order and to follow through on taking all necessary steps to protect the African penguin.”

Dr Alistair McInnes, BirdLife South Africa’s seabird conservation programme manager, said the court order was an important milestone in the fight to protect African penguins.

“This case has been first and foremost about improving the chances of conserving Africa’s only penguin species, but the outcome of these closures will also benefit other marine predator species such as Cape gannets, Cape cormorants and other socio-economically important fish that also eat sardine and anchovy, as well as the livelihoods of many who derive benefits from marine ecosystems that are equitable and judiciously managed.”

Nicky Stander, head of conservation at Sanccob, said the agreement served as testament to the power of collective action and the dedication of seabird scientists.

Stander said the threats facing the African penguin were complex and ongoing — and the order required monitoring, enforcement and continued co-operation from industry and the government processes which monitored and allocated sardine and anchovy populations for commercial purposes.

The World Wide Fund for Nature congratulated all parties in reaching an agreement on island closures out of court and said it was a huge boost for African penguin conservation. 

TimesLIVE