Overview
- More than 60,000 African penguins starved in the Robben and Dassen Island colonies between 2004 and the early 2010s, according to the new analysis.
- Since 2004, sardine biomass has hovered around one-quarter of earlier averages, with changes in sea temperature and salinity undermining spawning success.
- Local fleets concentrated effort on west-coast stocks and, as reported, removed up to 80% of remaining sardines, worsening food scarcity for the birds.
- In 2025, authorities and two conservation organisations established permanent protected zones around six key colonies that ban commercial sardine and anchovy fishing.
- The population has dropped by about 80% over roughly three decades to fewer than 10,000 breeding pairs, and experts say the new bans must be paired with broader, climate-aware fishery management.