Issued by the Ministry of Environmental Affairs and Tourism
28 June 2000
The Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Mohammed Valli Moosa today requested that the Minister of Defence mobilise the SANDF to evacuate penguins from Dassen Island off the West Coast of the Western Cape.
Minister Moosa today briefed the President and Cabinet on the crisis facing the penguin population of the Western Cape as the wind changed to a north westerly yesterday resulting in oil from the sunken bulk carrier, the Treasure, washing up on Dassen Island.
Minister Moosa also requested that conservation officers from the South African National Parks also join the rescue mission, which is the largest of its kind in the world. Officers from both the West Coast and Peninsula National Parks will join the task team tomorrow.
Minister Moosa said that this new crisis had prompted his request for the army and the SANP to assist Cape Nature Conservation, the authority in charge of Dassen Island, which has a penguin population of about 40,000. There is thus a threat to 40% of the worlds' Jackass Penguins at the moment.
Moosa said that the contamination of Dassen Island in the early hours of this morning constitutes an ecological crisis and places a heavy responsibility on South Africa as the home to most of the world population of Jackass penguins.
Moosa said that the Department would co-ordinate with Cape Nature Conservation and the SANDF to save as many of these birds as possible. Our first priority would be to keep the unoiled birds out of the sea and then evacuate them to safe areas for release later.
Moosa said that SANCCOB with the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism have evacuated about half of the penguin population from Robben Island (about 6,500 birds to date). They are now held in various emergency shelters near Cape Town where they are de-oiled and receive what medical support they may need.
The first consignment of 150 penguins that were not oiled arrived safely in Port Elizabeth this morning and successfully returned to the sea. They will swim back to Robben Island over the next 8 to 10 days. This will hopefully give us enough time to clean the polluted areas. It also stops us from having to feed the birds, a process that is labour intensive and for which we lack enough experts.
Today staff from the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism also started cleaning the rocks and beaches off Robben Island using specialist oil absorbent material. This is part of the broader contingency plans with the coastal municipalities to clean up after an oil spill.
Horst Kleinschmidt, the deputy director general of the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism’s Marine and Coastal Management branch, has been instructed by the Minister to give this crisis his full attention and Jerry Lengoasa, the chief director of Environmental Quality and Protection, is in Cape Town to oversee the clean up operations.
The Minister thanked the people of Cape Town who have risen to the occasion by volunteering to help clean up and take part in the penguin rescue mission.
Media Alert
There will be a Media Conference attended by the DEAT, Cape Nature Conservation and SANCOB on the details of the evacuation of penguins from Dassen Island. The Conference will be held at 120 Plein Street at 12:00 in the Rainforest Auditorium on Thursday 29 June 2000.
For More Information Please Contact
The Media Liaison Director: Onkgopotse J.J Tabane:
082 465 6166/ 021 465 7240