South Africa’s environment minister, Dion George, said: “This agreement is a testament to what can be achieved when industries and conservationists unite for a common cause. It delivers on the DFFE’s vision of protecting our penguins and preserving our biodiversity, while ensuring the sustainability of our fishing industry.”
Two NGOs – BirdLife South Africa and SANCCOB – had taken George’s predecessor, Barbara Creecy, to court in May 2024, arguing she had failed to implement “biologically meaningful [fishing] closures” around the six penguin colonies, which are home to 76% of the bird’s population. George had sought an out-of-court settlement after taking office in July.
“It is good to hear that the island closures have been agreed at last,” said Bob Furness, a University of Glasgow emeritus professor, who was part of an independent panel that in 2023 recommended the fishing closures but said the conservation benefits would be “small”.
“These alone may not be sufficient if penguins continue to be under pressure from many factors and in particular if sardine total stock biomass remains vulnerable to overexploitation at low stock abundances.”
Other factors affecting the penguin population include the climate crisis, land predators and noise pollution from ship-to-ship refuelling near Gqeberha.
The fishing closures now needed to be monitored, said Phil Trathan, a visiting professor at Southampton University, who was also part of the expert panel: “It is now critical that the focus now turn to examining the industrial fisheries for sardine and anchovy.”
The environment ministry did not answer questions about whether it was considering further sardine fishing control measures.
