More than half of penguin species in decline
By Michael Graham Richard
Thu Sep 9, 2010 16:14 More than 180 scientists and government officials have recently gathered in Boston for the 7th International Penguin Conference. The conclusions of the conference are rather alarming: the scientists warn that 10 of the 18 penguin species are experiencing population decline and that a variety of things are threatening their long-term survival, with some of these species facing extinction by the end of the 21st century. Four main factors are threatening penguins. The first is over-fishing: Because of the rapid increase in fishing operations in the past decades, penguins are now competing with us for food, and our industrial fishing fleets are simply more effective at catching fish. “The large scale harvesting of anchovy and sardine stocks have directly reduced the prey available to many penguin species including Macaroni and Chinstrap penguins in the South Atlantic” Thousands of penguins are also killed when they are caught in fishing nets. The second factor is climate change: Many penguin species are highly dependent on small schooling fish for food. The changing climate can affect the migratory patterns of these fish, making it harder for penguins to find food. The third factor is pollution by the oil industry: “Large scale oil spills make worldwide headlines, but chronic petroleum pollution has killed thousands of penguins particularly off the coasts of South America and South Africa. The most common sources are illegal operational dumping from ships, long term leaks from sunken ships and some land-based discharges.” The fourth factor is predation by introduced mammals: Many penguin species have evolved in remote environments that didn’t have any mammal predators. But now the penguin populations of places like New Zealand, Australia and Argentina are being attacked by mammals like weasels, feral cats and foxes.
