REUTERS/Sumaya Hisham/File Photo
A disturbing report from Reuters:
The already endangered African penguin is being driven away from its natural habitat off the east coast of South Africa due to noise from ship refueling, a scientific study has found.
The number of African penguins on St Croix island in Algoa Bay, once the world’s largest breeding colony of the birds, has plummeted since South Africa started to allow ships in the area to refuel at sea, a process known as bunkering, six years ago, the study found.
Situated in a busy shipping lane along South Africa’s east coast, Algoa Bay is rich in marine and bird life where southern right whales roam in its sheltered waters.
“We found the noise levels, which were already high, to have doubled,” since bunkering began, Lorien Pichegru, acting director of the Coastal and Marine Research Institute at Nelson Mandela University, which led the study, told Reuters.
“This year we are at 1,200 breeding pairs at St Croix from 8,500 pairs in 2016, an almost 85% decrease since bunkering started in South Africa,” Pichegru said. “I was counting the dead birds every month on the beach of the bay.”
The new study, published on Aug. 10 in the peer-reviewed ‘Science of the Total Environment’ journal, is the first to explore the impact of maritime traffic noise pollution on a seabird, and the consequence of offshore bunkering activities on underwater noise levels, researchers said.