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PENGUIN POPULATION DECLINE: EXPERT PANEL REPORT PUBLISHED
- 04 August 2023
- Environmental Law
- SA Legal Academy
The Department of Forestry, Fisheries & the Environment has published a report on the outcome of a recent review and assessment of ‘the science related to managing … interactions between the small pelagic (anchovy and sardines) fishery and the conservation of African penguins’. It was prepared by an expert panel appointed in December 2022.
According to a media statement accompanying the report, it is underpinned by a ‘complex and lengthy process of stakeholder consultations in the quest to find science-based measures to protect the critically endangered African penguin from extinction’.
The statement also notes that, in September 2022, the department declared certain areas around South Africa’s ‘major penguin colonies’ closed to commercial fishing for anchovy and sardine. ‘Although not representative of a consensus agreement’, the restrictions were apparently informed by ‘collaboration and negotiation with … seabird conservation groups and … small pelagic fishing industry representatives’.
The department has undertaken to monitor and regularly report on ‘the implementation of these closures, the expanded science plan and also progress on other non-fishery interventions in the penguin management plan’. This is noting that ‘fishing limitations alone will not be sufficient to help the penguins recover’.
Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch