Deal Offers New Hope Over Rare African Penguins

Efforts to save the critically endangered African penguin from extinction took a step forward yesterday after South African conservationists and fishing industry groups reached a legal settlement on no-fishing zones around six of the penguins' major breeding colonies.

- Rachel Savage

Sardine and anchovy fishing will not be allowed for 12 miles around the penguin colony off Cape Town on Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned, and Bird Island, across the bay from Gqeberha, also known as Port Elizabeth. There will be more limited closures around four other colonies, according to a court order formalising the agreement.

Conservationists and the fishing industry had been at loggerheads for years over how much commercial fishing contributed to the African penguin population's precipitous decline and to what extent fishing restrictions would arrest the fall.

African penguins are threatened with extinction by 2035 if their population continues falling at the current rate of 7.9% a year. There are now fewer than 10,000 breeding pairs. A century ago there were 1 million.