2023-08-04 15:53:15
South Africa has announced sanctuaries for endangered penguins. Environment Minister Barbara Creecy told reporters on Friday that she has decided to restrict fishing in the waters around penguin colonies for at least ten years. If no countermeasures are taken, the African penguins living in South Africa and Namibia are threatened with extinction by 2035.
In recent decades, the penguin population in southern Africa has declined drastically. While a million penguin pairs lived on the coasts there regarding a hundred years ago, their number has since fallen to 10,000.
According to Environment Minister Creecy, the reasons for the drastic decline include competition for food, but also marine pollution from shipping and the impairment of breeding grounds. The protective measures now announced should be reviewed following six years and their effectiveness evaluated, she announced.
According to the new rules of the South African government, fishing will be banned in sea areas around six areas populated by penguins. Among them are Bird Island and Robben Island, which is also known for the apartheid-era prison where the future head of state Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for years.
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