Help Saving African Penguin Comes From Florida Aquarium Donation

TAMPA, FL — The Florida Aquarium is paying tribute to Penguin Awareness Day on Jan. 20 by providing to allow a South African nonprofit to group to treat the imperiled bird.

With The Florida Aquarium’s focus on saving animals from extinction, African penguin conservation is at the heart of its mission programs," said Roger Germann, president and CEO of The Florida Aquarium.

Delivering on that mission, The Florida Aquarium provided funding to its conservation partner, the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds for the purchase of two hydraulic veterinary tables.

The foundation is among the world’s preeminent seabird rescue and rehabilitation organization with a primary objective of reversing the decline of seabird populations through the rescue, rehabilitation and release of ill, injured, abandoned and oiled seabirds.

Once a thriving wild population, the number of African penguins is rapidly declining due to threats such as oil spills, habitat loss, climate change, invasive species and overfishing.

Unless these threats are mitigated, environmentalists say the African penguin could face extinction.

On Nov. 17, the South African nonprofit responded to an oil spill in Algoa Bay when the Croatian-flagged MV Solin vessel's fuel tank overflowed, causing more than 105 gallons of heavy fuel oil to escape into the bay.

Four oiled birds, including three Cape gannets and one African penguin were rescued. One Cape gannet died of malnutrition in transport and another had to be euthanized due to a leg injury. But the African penguin was successfully treated and released.

This is the third oil spill since 2016 that has occurred in the region, and advocates fear that as the industrialization of the South African bay continues these spills will become more frequent.

In 2021, a census of the African penguin population on the island of St Croix, in Algoa Bay, found around 1,500 breeding pairs on the Island, a decline of 70 percent from the 2014 census.

The new hydraulic tables will help the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds deliver much-needed care to African penguins and other seabirds that come through the rescue program, allowing the team of veterinary professionals to stabilize, diagnose and treat birds.

“The tables are a big improvement for our surgical theaters,” said Dr. David Roberts, the foundation's clinical veterinarian. “They are made from high-quality, corrosion-resistant stainless steel which allows regular, thorough disinfection. We can also adjust the table height to suit different surgeons, patients and surgical procedures.”

In 2019, a member of The Florida Aquarium’s animal care team traveled to South Africa to work on the front lines of the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds’s rescue efforts. Unable to send staff since the start of the global pandemic, the aquarium is hopeful to return to South Africa in 2022 to support rescue and rehabilitation efforts.

“With the fate of the African penguin at a crossroads, it’s our responsibility as a leading wildlife conservation organization to increase our efforts in support of saving these magnificent birds,” Germann said. “Today that means providing financial resources to our conservation partners and lending our voice to support penguin conservation. We are committed to conservation efforts here in Tampa Bay and in South Africa, now and into the future.”