A welcome increase of 92 breeding pairs (or 13%) of African Penguins at the Boulders Beach colony is positive news for this popular species which was declared Critically Endangered in 2024. All penguin colonies, including this popular tourist destination within the Table Mountain National Park managed by SANParks, are counted annually using standardized and scientific census methods. The 2026 census revealed 782 pairs breeding compared to 690 last year.
The DA hopes that this positive pattern will be replicated across other colonies. While some breeding colonies have been counted already and the initial impression appears to be a positive one, there are still more colonies that must be assessed. A final report from the Department of Forestry, Fisheries, and Environment is expected towards the end of July.
Penguin populations fluctuate in response to several environmental variables and other drivers. Primarily, their breeding is driven by the availability of food in the form of small, shoaling pelagic fish such as sardines and anchovies. Ten years ago, the sardine stock crashed to a critical level, posing a serious threat to penguins and other seabirds. While sardines appear to be recovering somewhat in the last two years, anchovies have since crashed. This uncertain food availability and the general downwards population trend would have tempered any optimism for this year’s penguin surveys.
On the flipside, the securing of areas around penguin breeding colonies through fishing exclosures in 2025 is considered by seabird biologists to be a milestone moment for penguins and it is hoped that penguins will respond positively to this. This landmark settlement was delivered during the term of Minister Dion George. While the colony at Boulders Beach is not one of the colonies for which a no-take zone was declared, it has benefitted from the inadvertent limitation to industrial fishing within False Bay for some years. Individual penguins often forage outside of the bay and may have benefitted from increased availability of fish around areas like Stony Point and Robben Island, though this remains to be proven through tracking data.
One swallow might not make a summer, and one penguin colony does not make a population, it is important that good conservation stories around threatened species are shared and celebrated. The DA congratulates the management authority, SANParks, and the scientific team from the DFFE on this result. We hope for more positive news when the full census results are released later this year.