Latest / How To Protect The Ocean / Mass penguin die off explained, the shocking truth behind why African penguins are disappearing and what it means for our future

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Mass penguin die off explained, the shocking truth behind why African penguins are disappearing and what it means for our future · How To Protect The Ocean

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  What happens when a species that once
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  numbered in the tens of
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  thousands slips into fewer
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  than 10,000 breeding pairs?
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  And almost no one notices
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  until it's nearly too late.
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  New research reveals the silent disaster
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  on South Africa's
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  coastline, where African penguin
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  colonies have collapsed by
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  up to 95% in under a decade.
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  Underbreeding sites once packed with life
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  now sit nearly empty.
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  Their disappearance is not a mystery of
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  predators or disease.
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  It is the story of an ocean food web that
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  has failed at the worst possible moment.
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  And a lot of it is due to us.
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  We're going to talk about that on today's
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  episode of the How to
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  Protect the Ocean podcast.
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  Let's start the show.
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  Hey everybody, welcome back to another
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  exciting episode of the How
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  to Protect the Ocean podcast.
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  I'm your host Andrew Lewin, Marine
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  Biologists and Science Communicator here
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  to tell you what's happening with the
• 1:00:59
  ocean, how you can speak up for the ocean
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  and what you can do to live for a better
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  ocean by taking action.
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  On today's episode, we're going to be
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  talking about what happened to the South
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  African penguins or
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  African penguins in South Africa.
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  This is something that
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  has been very tragic.
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  It happened from 2004 to 2011.
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  95% of the population
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  just disappeared, died off.
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  And now we know the answer is why.
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  And I'm here to explain that.
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  And I just want to say before I start to
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  explain that I've been
• 1:01:26
  doing this for 10 years.
• 1:01:28
  I've been doing on YouTube for on and off
• 1:01:30
  for quite some time, but really for the
• 1:01:31
  last year and a half.
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  And the reason I do this is because I
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  love to hear back from you.
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  So if you have comments or any kind of
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  questions or anything like that, you want
• 1:01:40
  me to cover something, let me know in the
• 1:01:42
  comments below if you've
• 1:01:42
  been watching this on YouTube.
• 1:01:43
  And if you've been with me on audio for
• 1:01:46
  the last 10 years plus, you know, please
• 1:01:48
  let me know if you have any questions.
• 1:01:50
  You can DM me at how
• 1:01:52
  to protect the ocean.
• 1:01:53
  You can go and you can put up a link for
• 1:01:57
  you where you can go
• 1:01:58
  and give me feedback.
• 1:01:59
  We'll speak up for blue dot
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  com forward slash feedback.
• 1:02:02
  And you can have questions or comments.
• 1:02:03
  I love to hear from them.
• 1:02:05
  And if you can hit it like follow in any
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  of your watching, if
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  you're on YouTube, subscribe.
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  If you're on Apple podcast, Spotify,
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  Amazon music, you hit that follow button.
• 1:02:14
  That would make me feel really great.
• 1:02:15
  Not only do I want to reach more people
• 1:02:17
  and consistently on a consistent basis.
• 1:02:19
  I do three episodes a week. I just want
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  people to love the ocean just as much as
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  I do and find out what's
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  happening with this ocean.
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  What are we doing to it and how we can
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  make it better for the long run for not
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  only our health, but the ocean's health.
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  And I think that's
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  something that's really important.
• 1:02:35
  I just want to drive this community.
• 1:02:37
  I want to build this community so that we
• 1:02:39
  can get together and
• 1:02:40
  talk about this more often.
• 1:02:42
  So in the new year, you're going to start
• 1:02:43
  to see some offerings that I'm going to
• 1:02:45
  be offering for community so we can
• 1:02:47
  actually hear from each other and discuss each other.
• 1:02:47
  You know, on the membership
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  sites for YouTube and others.
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  So I just want to be a part of that.
• 1:02:54
  I think it's going to
• 1:02:55
  be really important.
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  So I'm looking forward to doing that.
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  Those live sessions.
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  It'll be a lot of fun.
• 1:02:59
  We get together. So
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  just look out for that.
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  But the biggest thing is, if you've been
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  here for a long time or
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  you've just started, welcome.
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  Thank you for joining us.
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  You're always welcome to be here.
• 1:03:09
  No matter if you agree
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  with me or not, who cares?
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  Let's just have some fun.
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  Let's get to know the ocean.
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  Let's make it better. All right.
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  That's my that's my PSA for today. Again,
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  thank you for being here.
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  But let's let's look at this before 2004.
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  African penguins had roughly fifty seven
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  thousand breeding
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  pairs across their range.
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  Fifty seven thousand that total today has
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  dropped to about ninety nine hundred
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  breeding pairs worldwide from fifty seven
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  thousand breeding pairs to nine hundred
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  nine nine thousand nine
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  hundred breeding pairs worldwide.
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  That's insane. That should not happen.
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  That should be something
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  that we never have to deal with.
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  But unfortunately it happened. And you
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  know, the South Africa holds about eighty
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  seven hundred of those pairs and then
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  Namibia holds around
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  twelve hundred of those pairs.
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  So over the last thirty years, their
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  population has plummeted more than eighty
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  percent with some colonies losing ninety
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  five percent of their
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  birds in fewer than ten years.
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  So now we're trying to find like what's
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  going on because now
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  they're critically endangered.
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  And with those projections, the
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  projections, if it continues to show what
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  we're seeing, they could go extinct from
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  the wild by twenty thirty
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  five if the trends continue.
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  So that's something we don't want to
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  have. So the first question we have to
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  ask is like what happened
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  to these penguins? Right.
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  First, we've got to look at this shocking
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  discovery. The fact that we had fifty
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  seven thousand breeding pairs and we go
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  down to nine nine hundred.
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  So there's two major South African
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  colonies. There's Dassen Island and Robin
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  Island. I hope I'm
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  pronouncing it properly.
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  They lost up to ninety five percent of
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  their breeding pair penguins in under a
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  decade. That's the biggest
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  biggest loss that we saw.
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  More than sixty thousand birds starved
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  during their most vulnerable life stage.
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  A species that once filled the beaches
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  with noise and movements that was nearly
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  vanished from the most
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  important strongholds.
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  The collapse happened quickly and quietly
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  and then most people never even heard
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  about it until scientists started to
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  publish their new findings.
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  So what happened? What caused this the
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  die offs? Well, the biggest thing was the
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  trigger was the dramatic die off like of
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  the sardines of the sardine population on
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  the west coast of South Africa.
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  So sardines are the penguins primary food
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  source. They have they provide the best
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  energy in the long lasting energy and
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  they're not that quick as quit not as
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  quick as penguins and they
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  can get caught pretty easily.
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  And so but a mix of warming seas altered
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  salinity disrupted plankton production
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  and intense fishing pressure wiped out
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  local sardine stocks. The loss happened
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  at the worst possible time during the
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  penguins annual molt.
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  So these sardines disappeared when these
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  these penguins molt their feathers that
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  keep them from being wet and cold and
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  everything. And so when they're land
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  bound, they have to stay in land and they
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  have to use the reserves. They can't go
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  eat and they can't get the energy they
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  need. They have to use the reserves. They
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  just didn't have as many reserves as
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  possible. So when they go out and eat,
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  they build up those reserves so that when
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  they have to actually molt and they stay
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  on land for a little bit, they have to
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  use their stored fat. But if they don't
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  have enough stored fat to
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  eat, they eventually starve.
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  And so when they had these sardines to
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  build those reserves, tens of thousands
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  did not survive and that just continued
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  to happen year after year after year for
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  10 years. Now why 10 years? Why did these
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  penguins not recover? Because even after
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  the initial collapse, the sardine
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  population did not bounce back. Sardine
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  biomass stayed below one quarter of its
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  historical maximum for nearly 20 years.
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  This sardine population really suffered.
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  Anchorvies, which was the next best prey,
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  were not abundant enough to in the West
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  to feed the whole distribution and their
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  distribution actually shifted eastward.
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  So far outside the penguin foraging
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  range, the penguins can only go so far.
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  And when they have their colonies, their
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  breeding colonies, they can't move them
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  and they can't swim that far. So if the
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  sardines are out of range, if the paying
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  of the anchovies are out of
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  range, then they can't eat.
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  Right? They can't move their nesting
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  sites. They cannot travel long distances
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  while they're raising their chicks. So
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  with low energy prey, fewer chicks
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  survived. Adults entered molting under
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  underweight, right? When they enter that
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  molting, they don't have enough the fat
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  storage. And the population spiraled
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  downward every year.
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  Replacement prey species were too fast.
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  So the hake and everything else that's
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  around her too fast or too scarce or too
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  low in fat to support the recovery. So it
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  just wasn't enough. Like the anchovies
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  and the sardines, especially the sardines
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  provided enough for
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  these animals to survive.
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  Now the shift in distribution of sardines
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  and anchovies happen because the shift in
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  plankton happened, which is the main food
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  source during and after and before
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  sardine and anchovy spawning. So if
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  climate change shifts the wind patterns
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  and shifts the current, it shifts the
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  distribution of plankton, which will
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  shift the distribution of the predator
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  species that eat that prey.
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  So you have anchovies, you have sardines
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  that will shift their distribution away
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  from the colonies. So now these animals
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  can't move far because they have chicks
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  that they're raising. They have low fat
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  storage and they're stuck on land while
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  they molt and they have to use the fat
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  reserves and they don't have enough fat
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  reserves. So they start to die and it
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  happens year over year over year.
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  So now that we know what the problem is,
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  we know why is happening for so long
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  because these sardines and anchovies
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  just, you know, the collapse happened for
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  quite some time in that area. What is
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  being done? I should mention before we go
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  into that, we're still seeing fishing
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  pressure on sardines that have stayed
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  around. So even though there's a lower
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  population of sardines that have stayed
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  around, we're still seeing fishing of
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  those sardines. So that adds to the
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  pressure of already dwindling population.
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  So now what is being
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  done to help these penguins?
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  Several conservation measures are
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  underway. So governments introduce
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  fishing closures near the key colonies to
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  reduce competition for sardines. Wildlife
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  groups are protecting nests, improving
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  breeding shelters, managing predators and
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  running rescue programs for injured or
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  starving adults and chicks. Some
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  organizations also hand reared abandoned
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  chicks and release them back into the
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  wild. Research teams are tracking penguin
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  movement to identify new foraging
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  hotspots and understand how they're going to be able to get their own species.
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  So there's a lot of stuff that is going
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  on, but are they actually successful? Do
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  these efforts matter? Is it enough to
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  bring their populations back up to the
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  57,000 breeding pairs that they once had?
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  The honest answer is it's actually mixed.
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  These conservation actions have helped
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  individual penguins and improved
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  conditions around some of the nesting
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  sites. However, the underlining issue is
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  the collapse of the sardine stocks. It hasn't been solved. So how do we solve this sardine?
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  Problem, which is really difficult
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  because you're looking at an entire
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  shifting predator price situation and a
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  food web switch. So without a significant
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  recovery of prey availability, penguin
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  numbers cannot rebound at the scale it
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  once was. The species is listed now as
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  critically endangered and projection so
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  that they could disappear from the wild
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  by 2035 if the trends continue to happen. So that's if the sardine populations remain in the wild.
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  Efforts are slowing the decline rather
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  than reversing it. So the thing is, is
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  sometimes when we talk about
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  conservation, we talk about the efforts
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  that we put together and sometimes they
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  help locally, but they're not going to
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  help overall because you can only do so
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  much as humans in bringing everything
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  back. One is expensive. It's expensive to
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  do all these efforts and two, it's not
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  going to happen at scale, which is because the the the process is not going to happen at scale.
• 1:10:50
  Which is because the the primary problem
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  hasn't been solved. This could help
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  extend their life on this planet by a few
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  years, but it's not going to solve the
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  problem until we can get sardines back in
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  the area or maybe move these colonies to
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  somewhere else, which is a much
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  difficult, much more difficult problem.
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  So like what can you do to help? So even
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  though these these conservation actions
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  may not be the best thing, it is
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  something that we can do in the meantime
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  to kind of give us some time before the
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  sardines population comes back hopefully
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  so you can support any kind of African
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  penguin recovery in
• 1:11:29
  several meaningful ways.
• 1:11:29
  So support organizations working directly
• 1:11:33
  on sardine and penguin conservation share
• 1:11:35
  science based information on how climate
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  change and overfishing affect marine
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  life, which doesn't really happen a lot.
• 1:11:42
  Choose seafood from sustainable
• 1:11:44
  fisheries, of course, and encourage
• 1:11:45
  others to do the same and contact your
• 1:11:48
  elected officials to support marine
• 1:11:50
  protected areas, science driven fish
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  fishing policies and
• 1:11:54
  finally amplify this story.
• 1:11:54
  Share this story. The African penguin
• 1:11:58
  crisis is still invisible to much of the
• 1:12:01
  world. And unless we get it in front of
• 1:12:03
  their eyes or in front of their ears, we
• 1:12:05
  cannot help these penguins at the scale
• 1:12:07
  that they need help.
• 1:12:09
  Far too long, the decline of the penguins
• 1:12:12
  went silent and it's about time that we
• 1:12:14
  speak up and we amplify their story.
• 1:12:16
  That's what this podcast is all about.
• 1:12:18
  That's what this community is all about.
• 1:12:19
  I'll tell you one thing, something that
• 1:12:22
  happened to me recently. I joined an
• 1:12:24
  advocacy group. It was a group on
• 1:12:26
  WhatsApp and it's a bunch of science
• 1:12:27
  communicators and creators content
• 1:12:29
  creators that are to get that work
• 1:12:31
  together to get specific campaigns out
• 1:12:34
  that we all start or somebody starts as
• 1:12:36
  hey, I need someone to help me amplify this.
• 1:12:37
  Can you put it on your story? Can you put
• 1:12:40
  it on your your Instagram, your TikTok?
• 1:12:42
  Can you put on your podcast and let's
• 1:12:44
  talk about this story because with this
• 1:12:46
  amplification, this style of sharing
• 1:12:48
  these stories and putting this on a
• 1:12:51
  platform that can be shared with hundreds
• 1:12:53
  with thousands with hundreds of thousands
• 1:12:55
  of millions, this will help these
• 1:12:58
  populations and people will finally understand the plight.
• 1:12:59
  These penguins are facing and hopefully
• 1:13:03
  we'll get to the point where we can get
• 1:13:05
  policy enacted that can help these fish
• 1:13:08
  at scale as well as these penguins at
• 1:13:11
  scale. That's the
• 1:13:12
  important part of this journey.
• 1:13:14
  That's what I want to get across by
• 1:13:16
  sharing this story. I hope you share this
• 1:13:18
  podcast, whether it's the audio version
• 1:13:21
  or video version. If you have a comment
• 1:13:23
  or a question, it helps with the
• 1:13:25
  algorithm to get to in front of more
• 1:13:26
  people. Please let me know.
• 1:13:27
  I want this to go everywhere. I want
• 1:13:30
  every story to go everywhere and it's
• 1:13:32
  with the help of you, the community and
• 1:13:34
  that we can get together and discuss. I
• 1:13:36
  want to get to know you. I want to hear
• 1:13:37
  your comments. I want to hear your
• 1:13:39
  questions. If you're watching this on
• 1:13:40
  YouTube, put your comment in the comment
• 1:13:42
  section below. If you're listening to
• 1:13:44
  this on your favorite podcast app, just
• 1:13:46
  let me know. Just go to
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  speakupforblue.com forward slash
• 1:13:48
  feedback. Let me know how you feel. You
• 1:13:51
  can also go to speakupforblue.com follow
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  to follow the podcast on your favorite
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  podcast app. I want to thank
• 1:13:56
  you so much for joining me.
• 1:13:57
  On today's episode of the how to protect
• 1:13:59
  the ocean podcast. I'm your host, Andrew
• 1:14:01
  Lune from the true north strong and free.
• 1:14:03
  Have a great day. We'll talk to you next
• 1:14:04
  time and happy conservation.