As part of marking World Penguin Day, the Two Oceans Aquarium hosted five of the six semi-finalists for the 2017 Miss Earth SA leadership programme for the Cape Town region yesterday.
Several events across the globe were held to draw attention to the plight of the endangered animals.
The Department of Environmental Affairs says 18 penguin species have been recorded globally and were found to occur only in the southern hemisphere, with the most notable in southern Africa, being the African penguin.
The African penguin (Spheniscus demersus) is the continent’s only extant penguin and is also endemic as a breeding species to both South Africa and Namibia.
The penguin was once South Africa’s most abundant sea bird with pairs of more than amillion in the 1910s recorded dropping to less than 25000 pairs globally today.
The Two Oceans Aquarium houses African penguin and northern rockhopper penguin – both endangered species that need help to survive.
Aquarium spokesperson Renée Leeuwner said the visit by the semi-finalists focused on the value of the oceans and a call for greater consciousness around ocean and marine-related issues.
“Cape Town finds itself home to the African penguin and northern rockhopper penguin - both endangered species that can be seen at the Two Oceans Aquarium. The Boulders Penguin colony in Simon’s Town is also home to a unique and endangered land-based colony of African penguins, which is one of only a few in the world, and the site has become famous and a popular international tourist destination” she said.
Miss Earth South Africa semi-finalist Shannon Williams said: “I realised how important it is to look after the environment as well as how a simple thing like throwing a piece of plastic out the window can end up in the ocean and result in killing animals.
“Like any other sea birds, African penguins have a valuable role to play in the ecosystem and I basically got tired of just complaining. Instead I took it upon myself to make a difference.”
Department of Environmental Affairs spokesperson Zolile Nqayi said cumulative human impacts within the world’s oceans had become increasingly considerable and were the primary threats to the African penguin over the last century.
“These included the harvesting of guano as a source of nitrogen, eggs for human consumption and adults for skin, oil and feathers. Other impacts were resource competition and fisheries bycatch resulting in food shortages; habitat degradation; pollution (such as oil spills and plastics); high levels of predation of eggs, chicks and adults by sea gulls and seals or other land-based predators such as mongoose, feral and domestic cats and caracal,” he said.