News
Oil spill along Namibia's southern coast
The worst oil spill in Namibia to date (in terms of oiled birds) is currently affecting penguins along Namibia's southern coast.
On Wednesday 8 April, the first oiled African Penguin, an endangered seabird which only breeds in Namibia and South Africa, was spotted at Ichaboe Island. By early evening another three had arrived at the island. A day later, oiled penguins began arriving at the three other main penguin breeding islands, i.e. Mercury, Halifax and Possession islands.
Over 150 African Penguins have so far been found oiled and have been collected by staff of the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources at four different islands in southern Namibia. However, more oiled penguins are found every day and it is too early to tell whether this may be the beginning of something unprecedented. Some oil, suspected to be heavy bunker oil from a large vessel, was spotted around Mercury Island on the 16th of April. The consequences of oil arriving close to Mercury Island would be catastrophic. Mercury Island is the home of the largest African Penguin colony in Namibia with about 11,000 penguins. It also supports one of only three colonies of endangered Cape Gannets as well as about 70% of the world's population of endangered Bank Cormorants.
Most of the penguins that have been oiled so far have been sent in to Lüderitz for cleaning and rehabilitation. So far, over 80 of the birds have been washed by staff of MFMR and volunteers in Lüderitz.
Now that the penguins have been scrubbed clean, their feathers have been stripped of their natural waterproofing and they cannot be released until their feathers are in top condition. This means that they have to be held in captivity for at least a month before they can be released again. This is quite costly and a healthy penguin will eat about 6 pilchards a day. This means that funds are needed to buy vast quantities of fish to nurse the penguins, many of which were close to starvation when they were found, back to health. A rough calculation reveals that about N$42,000 will be needed for fish alone if no more birds are found.
As a last resort, penguins may have to be evacuated to Cape Town, where a well-equipped and permanently staffed rehabilitation centre will be able to handle an influx of large numbers of oiled penguins. MFMR is in contact with the centre and are exploring options of evacuating birds by plane.
We are asking the Namibian public to help us raise funds to buy pilchards to feed these penguins. A special bank account has been opened by the Namibia Nature Foundation for penguin support. The details of this account are:
NNF Project Support Fund: Penguin Conservation
Account number: 11000049923
Nedbank Namibia
Main Branch, code 461609
Further information can be obtained from Dr Chris Brown at 248345. The NNF is in close contact with relevant people at Lüderitz and will provide updates on the situation as it unfolds.
[23 April 2009]