Penguin waddle opens eyes
WE DON’T want your money honey, we want your love.
The intriguing declaration of the Penguin Promises initiative (borrowed from the 1988 song by British alternative rockers Transvision Vamp) served our waddlers well. They carried it, emblazoned on their hearts and their marching flag, on their recent six-day expedition from Port Elizabeth to St Francis, raising awareness about the plight of the African penguin and planting seeds of commitment to help save this critically endangered seabird.
Joining up with the 2014 Eastern Cape Penguin Waddle was a great adventure. We left in two cars before dawn from PE, drove one to the main carpark at St Francis Bay, left it there and then bundled two adults and five kids into our second car for the trip back to the Seekoei River, west of Jeffreys Bay.
We parked in the carpark at the mouth of the blind Seekoei hardly believing the planned rendezvous was going to work but sure enough 15 minutes later eight waddlers materialised in the early light.
United by their love of penguins and all linked in some way to Bayworld or the SA Marine Rehabilitation and Education Centre (Samrec), they were an interesting bunch -- not least Samrec volunteer Hannah Lohry, 16, the youngest waddler, who walked the whole way in bare feet despite the sharp rocks in parts.
The intention was to link up with the SA Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds team in St Francis and after greetings and introductions we set off briskly. We had three hours to get to the Gamtoos to catch a promised ferry across. It was about 10kms so we probably had plenty of time but we couldn’t afford to be late.
Besides spreading the word about penguins, the waddlers had walked a glorious coastline and had some fascinating tales to tell.
Back along Marine Drive, as they described, there is awesome tourism and recreation potential with seeps, little inlets and plentiful signs of otter. But it was awash with debris from careless anglers, perlemoen poachers, stormwater drains and in-wash from boats.
There were also shucked perlemoen shells everywhere interspersed with the bags which the poacher gangs use to tote their contraband. Lagging behind, waddler Dot Hall, 62, was using one of these bags to collect litter, when she was suddenly confronted by a glowering poacher.
Give here, that’s mine, he said. No, it’s my rubbish bag, pointed out Dot. After more to and fro, things were looking ugly, but by then sturdily built fellow-waddler Hilton Johnson (a member of the Friends of Bayworld and a Livingstone Hospital registered nurse by training) had dropped back and, when he appeared, the poacher shoved off.
Between the Gamtoos River and Jeffreys the waddlers came across dozens of dead pufferfish, probably victims of strong onshore winds and upwelling. Suffering from cold water shock the weak-swimming puffers are pushed towards shore and strand.
There were also a number of dead sand sharks apparently discarded as “pests” by irresponsible anglers instead of being released back into the surf. If these sharks are picked up by the tail their spines can also be damaged, marine biologist Dr Nadine Strydom told me.
Waddler Aaron Spencer, 18, described how along that same stretch they were suddenly and bizarrely engulfed by a cloud of ladybirds. It seems this could have been the result of the strong off-shore wind that day which whisked up the little insects as they were browsing around the adjacent dune fynbos, flipping them seawards.
As we got closer to St Francis we saw increasing evidence of strange black shells. I asked Strydom about this and she explained that these are shells which have been buried for a long time beneath the sand, where they become impregnated with titanium. They surface again when heavy seas gouge into the beach.
The global population of the African penguin, which ranges around the coast from Namibia to Algoa Bay, is tumbling. As waddle leader Dr Greg Hofmeyr reminded me, reasons include over-fishing, pollution and climate change, which is causing the sardines and anchovies they prey upon to move away.
I talked this week to Dr Lorien Pichegreu who is doing pioneering work here in Algoa Bay with a no-fishing zone she helped establish around our biggest colony on St Croix Island. As a consequence of this step the drastic slide of the species we are witnessing globally appears to have been halted in the bay and our 30000-strong population has been stabilised, she says. The further good news is our authorities have agreed to keep this protected area in place again next year.
The bad news is that while this same local protection approach has been implemented in Namibian waters, it’s not working there yet, and it’s not clear why. The South African population of 50000 birds, and global total of 60000, is still declining.
By going to , to which the waddle was alligned, you can make your own pledge, and help to save the African penguin. There are many suggestions, but here are two. Reduce your use of plastic (shopping bags, drinking straws, plastic cutlery, bottled water) which can snag flippers and block intestines and which relies on combustion of oil, driving climate change.
Or what about promising to eat only grain-fed chicken? Most anchovies caught are turned into fishmeal to feed farmed fish or chicken. Our penguins need all the anchovies they can get. - Guy Rogers
