Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment celebrates World Penguin Day 2025

Today, on World Penguin Day, we celebrate the African penguin—a beloved symbol of South Africa’s rich biodiversity and a species at the heart of our conservation efforts. As we honour these charismatic seabirds, I am proud to reaffirm the Department of Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment’s (DFFE) unwavering commitment to their preservation, ensuring they thrive for generations to come.

The African penguin faces critical complexities, with fewer than 9,000 breeding pairs remaining in South Africa, earning them a critically endangered status. Climate change, overfishing, oil spills, and maritime noise pollution have driven steep declines, but our department, alongside dedicated partners, is taking bold action to reverse this trajectory.

A landmark achievement came on March 12, 2025, with our historic out of court settlement, resolving a legal challenge brought by BirdLife South Africa and SANCCOB, to secure the future of the African penguin. This agreement, now an order of the court, establishes biologically meaningful no-fishing zones around six key penguin colonies—Dassen Island, Robben Island, Stony Point, Dyer Island, St Croix Island, and Bird Island—covering 76% of South Africa’s penguin population. Notably, 12-mile fishing closures around Robben Island and Bird Island, alongside tailored restrictions at other sites, will secure vital sardine and anchovy stocks for penguins over the next decade. This achievement was forged by the DFFE through dialogue with the fishing industry, and balances ecological and economic needs, proving collaboration can deliver results.

We are also addressing the devastating impact of bunkering in Algoa Bay, near St Croix Island, once the world’s largest African penguin colony. Oil spills and underwater noise from ship-to-ship refuelling have decimated this population. Following a pause in bunkering activities in 2023, we observed a small but encouraging recovery at St Croix. Our department is now advancing stricter bunkering regulations to permanently restrict such activities in sensitive ecological zones, safeguarding penguins from further harm.

Beyond these measures, we are strengthening Marine Protected Areas to bolster fish stocks, supporting SANCCOB’s rehabilitation of injured penguins, and investing in research to monitor and adapt conservation strategies. Partnerships with organisations like SANCCOB, who recently released rehabilitated penguins like Hope back to the wild, inspire us all.

As we mark World Penguin Day, I call on all South Africans to join us in protecting these remarkable creatures. Their survival reflects the health of our oceans and our commitment to a sustainable future. The fight is far from over and through collective resolve, we are writing a new chapter for the African penguin—one of hope and resilience.

For media enquiries please contact: 
Thobile Zulu-Molobi
Cell: +27 82 513 7154
E-mail: tmolobi@dffe.gov.za 

Peter Mbelengwa
Cell: +27 82 611 8197 
E-mail:  pmbelengwa@dffe.gov.za

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