By Ronelle Friend | Algoa Bay Conservation via Raggy Charters

It is with much delight that we received news that the African penguin breeding pairs on St Croix Island in Algoa Bay is on the increase. Last year they reached rock-bottom, with only 700 pairs left. This year the colony has grown to 1200 pairs, this is fantastic news!

The main reason for this increase in the penguin colony is that Ship-to-Ship (STS) bunkering has been prohibited since September 2023. This was due to financial issues where the tax man was wanting his fair share of the oil transfers that are taken place in the bay. It seems that an impasse occurred between SARS and the operators, to such an extend that the taxman impounded some of the bunkering vessels, and prohibited any further STS transfers.

We had a long and hard battle for more than 5 years against this extremely hazardous fuel transferring operation occurring, on the open sea, in our bay. In this time we have seen the world’s largest colony of African penguins plummeting, losing 85% of the colony. This was a catastrophic ecological disaster, caused by the selfish and possibly unlawful STS bunkering operations.

Not only has the numerous oil spills influenced the marine environment, it also led to oiled penguins that had to be rescued. Many did not make it. Furthermore, the visiting vessels moved across the foraging area of the penguins, negatively influencing their feeding habits, and causing pollution, emissions, noise and contaminated water discharges.

From the beginning we have voiced our utmost resistance to the bunkering vessels in the bay, transferring oil close to the marine protected area and St Croix Island. We organized public meetings, submitted concern letters and reports to the ministers and operators, obtained legal opinion, used printed, television, radio and social media, all while protesting the inconceivable deed by government to permit this hazardous operation. We did not stop and used every opportunity to address this injustice done to our bay, tenaciously fighting to protect our penguins.

In the end, in 2022, Minister Barbara Creecy (then minister of DEFF) had to agree with us, and ordered a risk assessment to be done. The results of the assessment put specific restriction to the STS bunkering operations. Possibly the restrictions, together with the financial mess that they found themselves in, were too much for the bunkering fraternity. The operators vanished overnight- leaving the bay to recover from the damage caused by them.

And recover it did.. to our delight!

Now, after less than a year, the colony has grown by 70%! This is an indication of just how huge and absolute devastating impact STS bunkering had on the penguin population for so long. As soon as bunkering was gone, the population bounced back and flourished. We are holding our breath, hoping that this trend will continue year-on-year.

We would like to thank each and every one who helped us in various ways on the path to protect our penguins. From being in despair, we are now cautiously optimistic for the future of the penguins in Algoa Bay.

Who knows, maybe one day we will again be able to claim the accolade for the largest colony of African penguins in the world!

I hope that day will come soon.

Ronelle Friend Algoa Bay Conservation

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