Lebanese Ministry of Information
Only two Adélie penguin chicks out of a colony of 40,000 in Antarctica survived what researchers are calling a “catastrophic breeding event.”
For the second time in four years, the Adélie penguins of Antarctica have suffered a devastating blow to their population. French researchers found the two surviving chicks on Petrels Island, Antarctica, and about 18,000 adult penguin pairs with their thousands of unhatched eggs and starved-to-death offspring.
Scientists are expected to call for a marine protected area in East Antarctica, where the birds live, to be established at the European Union and Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources meeting of 24 countries next week, the Guardian reported.
The deaths of the penguin chicks are being attributed to a large amount of sea ice — a phenomenon on the island during a time when sea ice is not always easy to come by, thanks to climate change. The ice forces the penguins to travel great distances to try and forage for food.
“For the moment, sea ice is increasing and this is a problem for this species as it pushes the feeding place — the sea ice edge — farther away from their nesting place,” French National Center for Scientific Research scientist Yan Ropert-Coudert told the Guardian. “If it shrinks it would help but if it shrinks too much then the food chain they rely on may be impacted. Basically, as a creature of the sea ice they need an optimum sea-ice cover to thrive.”
The Adélie penguin population is already in a dire situation. Some researchers have suggested that they may become extinct along the Antarctic Peninsula because of climate change, but other human-related dangers pose a threat as well.
“An MPA (marine protected area) will not remedy these changes but it could prevent further impacts that direct anthropogenic pressures, such as tourism and proposed fisheries, could bring,” Ropert-Coudert said.
He and others are hopeful for the conservation possibilities that could come out of next week’s E.U. and CCAMLR meeting. Last year, members agreed to create the world’s largest marine protected area in Antarctica’s Ross Sea and an effort to save East Antarctica’s Adélie penguins could be next.
“Adélie penguins are one of the hardiest and most amazing animals on our planet,” World Wildlife Fund’s head of polar programs, Rod Downie, told the Guardian. “This devastating event contrasts with the image that many people might have of penguins. It’s more like ‘Tarantino does Happy Feet,’ with dead penguin chicks strewn across a beach in Adélie Land.”
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