Penguins from across the world were at the heart of the 12th International Penguin Conference (IPC12), held on Phillip Island, Australia, bringing together scientists, conservationists, environmentalists, students and communities under the theme “Advancing global research, conservation and action.”
Among those attending were Marine Dynamics CEO and Dyer Island Conservation Trust (DICT) founder, Wilfred Chivell, and Marine Dynamics and DICT Head of Research, Dr Loraine Shuttleworth.
For Wilfred and Loraine, the conference offered an important opportunity to look beyond the African penguin and understand the challenges facing penguin species around the world.
From Australia’s little penguins and rockhopper penguins to yellow-eyed penguins of Aotearoa New Zealand and the iconic emperor penguins of Antarctica, the diversity of species was striking. Yet there was also a common thread.
Not one penguin species is currently doing well.
Climate change is emerging as a major challenge across penguin populations, affecting food availability, breeding success, habitat and the wider marine ecosystems on which these birds depend.
The conference also highlighted the importance of something that can sound deceptively simple: counting penguins. Regular and accurate colony counts provide vital information on population trends and help researchers understand whether conservation interventions are working.
For Loraine, whose work focuses heavily on research and monitoring, the opportunity to connect with researchers using new technologies to monitor penguin colonies was particularly valuable. Advances in technology are opening new possibilities for collecting data, following population changes and understanding what is happening within colonies that can be difficult to monitor through traditional methods.
There were also strong parallels between the Humboldt and Magellanic penguins of South America and South Africa’s critically endangered African penguin. Although separated by thousands of kilometres, these species share many of the pressures associated with changing marine environments and declining food resources.
For Wilfred and Loraine, IPC12 was therefore about much more than learning about penguins from different parts of the world. It was about making connections, sharing knowledge and finding common ground between researchers and conservation practitioners working with different species but facing increasingly similar challenges.
The conference reinforced an important message: penguin conservation cannot happen in isolation. Protecting penguins means understanding and protecting the marine ecosystems they depend on — and that requires research, collaboration and action across borders.
For the team at Marine Dynamics and DICT, the conversations and connections made at IPC12 will contribute to the ongoing work to better understand, monitor and protect the African penguin and the wider marine ecosystem around the Greater Dyer Island area.
Christine Wessels – [email protected]
