Artivism for African Penguins!

I rarely share my nature journal entries. When I do, I am more than a bit reluctant. All that changed in July this year, when my feelings about the seemingly certain fate of the African Penguins met the public platforms of the GeoARTBlitz on iNaturalist and Eriko Koyabashi and the Japan Nature Club’s Nature Journal Exhibition.

Yes, Penguins in Africa

Yes there are penguins in Africa, African Penguins (Spheniscus demersus)! They only live and breed in the wild around the southernmost coasts of South Africa and Namibia. These unique birds are a must see for any visitor to the Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth) in the Eastern Cape or to the Western Cape where they can be viewed on land at Boulders or Betty’s Beach within less than 2 hour drive from Cape Town.

The African Penguin is often described as iconic and charismatic. They are considered a sentinel species of the marine environment (a signal of the health of the ecosystem). They are important in both the marine ecosystem and ecotourism economies. So they are a big deal for such small penguins.

I find them fascinating, a bit goofey (which I love) and cute! I don’t say that about many animals, but African penguins, they have so much personality. On my first visit to a beach near Boulders, I found it mind blowing to see penguins everywhere. They were walking in the streets,

down stairs,

swimming with people.

So I was surprised, when all these years later, I learned about their conservation status.

On the Brink? Yes in a Blink they could be Extinct!

I had heard about the dangers faced by rhino, wild dog, pangolins, conophytums (group of succulent plants), chameleons, Cape Flats Sand Fynbos Ecosystem and more, but I was distressed to first learn of the impending predicted extinction of African Penguins by 2035 in a news report about a court case May 2024.

My distress was as much about the conservation status as the causes that led to African Penguins being Endangered, and possibly Critically Endangered.

Deep Dives

So what is going on here? I did a series of deep dives into the court case, African penguins and used my nature journal as tool for understanding and activism.

I started to read, ask and talk about African Penguins. I use my nature journal for taking notes and trying to understand issues including the court case. I started to pay more attention to African penguins in any public communications I was creating.

Then when we (NJSA community) heard about the GeoART Blitz, I knew that I want to try to raise awareness both about the avoidable plight of the African Penguin, and support for the Court Case.

The requirements of the GeoARTBlitz were straightforward. Between 21 and 28 July 2024 create and share some form of creative expression in response to your observations of nature. Make an accurate record of: longitude, latitude, time, date, and elevation. On the iNaturalist website, join the Global GeoARTBlitz 2024 Project. Share your creative expression (or a photo) as an observation! I already had an account, so I joined the project.

In Cape Town, it rained almost the entire week of the GeoART Blitz. So when there was one clear day, Yousuf and I went to Boulders Beach where we spent several hours observing and recording chicks, juvenile and adults on land and in the water.

And there were so many people. From the languages I was hearing, they seemed to be visitors from many parts of the world. It was the middle of winter, notoriously unpleasant in Cape Town. Yet here they were. Queued up, walking on this one beautiful day of the week, to see the incredible sight of wild penguins breeding on an African beach. Ecotourism was alive and well, despite the odds.

The creative expression could be anything. My plan was to create a nature journal entry with a twist. I wanted it to be a piece of artivism – art as activism. I had never tried this before. As there was so little time, I wanted to do something simple. So I took the media statement for the court case and add it to one of my pages in modified form. It was like a pullout explanation with the key points that I would want to share to explain why the court case was so important. I take my nature journal with me everywhere. I am often asked what I am doing when I am nature journaling. I show people entries in my journal. This allows me to highlight the issue of African Penguins.

This is what it looked like.

The advantages were that is was relatively quick to do and used the information as shared by the groups involved in the court case in their own words, with just a bit of additional visual context. But somehow it did not seem clear enough. It turned out that we could still add creative expressions to the end of August, as long as they were based on observations done during the week. Here are some of the observations and the additional nature journal entries.

Then when I saw Eriko Kobayashi and the Japan Nature Journal Club's invitation to submit a page or two for their exhibition, I tried my hand again.

Here's what that looks like.

“The lack of the species’ prey availability – anchovy and sardine – is one of the most significant drivers of population decline for the African penguin.”

It took me quite a bit of effort to get the information that was meaningful to me. The words used all seemed clear, but from an activist perspective I longed for a more specific call. So when I learn that 4 of the 6 breeding colonies in South Africa have less than half of their essential feeding area protected, the call is clear -

Protect 100% of Essential Feeding Areas around All Breeding Colonies.

This is the key issue in the court case. It is the single most important action we can take to protect the African Penguin from extinction in our lifetimes. It is within our human means to achieve. It has been studied independently and scientifically and accepted by government.

Please Act Now to Protect

African Penguins from Extinction

Support the court case by:

• Signing the petition here to support the demands of the court case, to adequately address marine pollution including noise pollution, that interferes with breeding.

• Supporting the organisations who have brought the litigation and are working to protect African penguins, seabirds and oceans by donating your time, money and expertise to

  SANCCOB

  BirdLife South Africa

  Biodiversity Law Centre

  
  

• Sending an email to the Minister here expressing your views on the issues.

• "Ask(ing) your parliamentarian to put forward a parliamentary question as to why we are failing to protect the penguins from the threat of extinction, or a more specific question about the island closures or catch limits on sardine stocks or ship bunkering or offshore oil and gas." - suggestion from Extinction Rebellion

  
  

• Learning more about the court case from the Biodiversity Law Centre website. They have all of the legal papers available for download here. You can download a copy of the media release here.

• Learn about how not addressing overfishing led to the collapse of fisheries in Namibia, with huge job losses, declines in sea bird numbers, and after "more than five years of fisheries being completely closed, anchovy and sardine have not recovered." Read more here.

Show your love

• Show up for the 2024 Waddle on 12 October and bring a placard. Print one from here.

• Show it on your shirt! Not On Our Watch (#NOOW) has awesome designs here.

• If you eat fish, use the SASSI app and eat in the green zone. You can read more here.

• Check if the meat you eat is fed on wild caught anchovy.

Nature journal the penguins

Get your nature journaling kit out and visit these awesome birds, if you get a chance.

• What's the story with "I notice + I wonder + It reminds me of + I feel?

• Zoom In: Zoom Out

• Do a lifecycle.

• Compare different individuals - how can you record and track the different spot patterns?

• Make a count - how many are on their own (as individuals)? in each group? how many are in pairs? how many of the pairs are 2 adults, 2 juveniles, 1juvenile+1adult? How many on sand? how many in the water?

• Make a map

• What can you sense in the ecosystem?

• What would Artivism for the African Penguins look like from you?

In South Africa

Algoa Bay

Betty's Bay

Boulders Beach, Simon's Town

In Namibia

"Tourists are encouraged to take a Halifax Island boat trip to see these endearing animals. Zeepaard Boat Tours and Penguin Catamaran Tours are the two boat operators that offer boat trips to Halifax Island and around Lüderitz Bay." source

Can't make it in person here is a short video for you

Learn more

There is so much to learn about African Penguins and the amazing shores and ocean ecosystems of which they are an integral part. Take some deep dives and share what you learn with us. Here are a few starting points.

SANCCOB here and here

BirdLife South Africa here

Not On Our Watch (#NOOW)

#RememberThePenguins #SaveTheAfricanPenguin ##africanpenguins #endangeredspecies #biodiversity #conservation #litigation

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