Penguin colony’s breeding season ‘like Tarantino does Happy Feet’

ALL but two penguin chicks from an Antarctic colony of 36,000 birds died during a catastrophic breeding season, according to scientists who say Antarctic waters need greater protection.

The disaster was caused by unusually extensive sea ice late in the summer, they said, forcing birds from Terre Adelie in East Antarctica to roam further and further for food.

While parents searched for krill, the tiny shrimp-like crustaceans that make up much of their diet, their offspring were dying in extraordinary numbers.

WWF, the wildlife preservation group, is demanding increased protections for the waters around East Antarctica to ensure penguins do not face the added pressure from fishing fleets on top of the deadly effects of climate change.

Rod Downie, head of polar programmes at WWF said: “Adelie penguins are one of the hardiest and most amazing animals on our planet.

“This devastating event contrasts with the Disney image that many people might have of penguins. It’s more like ‘Tarantino does Happy Feet’, with dead penguin chicks strewn across a beach in Adelie Land.

“The risk of opening up this area to exploratory krill fisheries, which would compete with the Adelie penguins for food as they recover from two catastrophic breeding failures in four years, is unthinkable.” The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), made up of 25 member states and the EU, will meet on Monday to consider a proposal for a new marine protected area for the waters off East Antarctica. It would ban krill fishing and help secure marine wildlife, including Adelie and emperor penguins, according to WWF.

Adelie penguins are generally faring well in East Antarctica but declining overall in the Antarctic peninsula region, where climate change is already established, the conservation group said. In some places, the species has benefited from climate change, which has made it easier to access rock breeding grounds and the sea for feeding. In other places, the collapse of ice shelves and melting glaciers has forced them to move or perish.

Yan Ropert-coudert, who leads the Adelie penguin programme at Dumont D’urville research station, which is adjacent to the colony, said a protected area would shield the colonies from local human activities but would do little to change the more serious, underlying problems.

“The region is impacted by environmental changes that are linked to the break-up of the Mertz glacier since 2010,” he said. “A marine protected area will not remedy these changes but it could prevent further impacts that direct anthropogenic pressures, such as tourism and proposed fisheries, could bring.”