Fate of island penguins appears sealed as hunted become hunters

• Graham Lloyd, Environment editor
• From: The Australian
• March 26, 2011 12:00AM

Simone Somerfield runs the Penneshaw Penguin Centre on Kangaroo Island. Picture: Vanessa Hunter Source: The Australian

 

IF Simone Somerfield had her way, she would teach the little penguins that come to nest at her Penneshaw Penguin Centre on Kangaroo Island not to swim. 

It is the only way she can think of stopping what she says is the wholesale slaughter of her flock by an exploding population of New Zealand fur seals on Kangaroo Island, south of Adelaide.

Numbers of little penguins -- also known as fairy penguins on the eastern seaboard -- at Ms Somerfield's Penneshaw centre have collapsed from 200 birds three years ago to less than half a dozen today.

Ms Somerfield says visitors to her penguin-viewing business have watched in horror as seals ambushed birds in the shallows of Penneshaw, on the eastern end of the island, and even followed them onshore to attack.
"Every now and again you would see one penguin being taken and I would say, 'Gee, that's amazing, it's like David Attenborough," Ms Somerfield said. "But then it was more and more and more, and then mass kills in which the seals were not even eating them. It was happening within 100m and you have a complete view, it is was like watching a horror movie."

No one disputes that fur seals have an appetite for penguins. But what is seen as a feral seal problem by some is considered a natural phenomena by South Australia's wildlife authorities who have no taste for what they say would be futile attempts to intervene. Bill Haddrill, Kangaroo Island's conservation program manager with the Department for Environment and Heritage, said New Zealand fur seal numbers were simply rebuilding after being all but wiped out by commercial sealers between 1800 and 1830.

It was likely that penguin numbers and distribution were returning to historical norms, he said.
Penguins are spread widely along the southern coastline of Australia and are not on any endangered list.
Mr Haddrill said, of the South Australian penguin population, 70 per cent were found in the Spencer Gulf, Gulf St Vincent and along the state's west coast to Western Australia. The remaining 30 per cent were located on Kangaroo Island, the Encounter Bay area on the mainland and east to the Victoria border.
While most people can understand the concern of penguin tourism operators at Penneshaw and the island capital of Kingscote, many speculate that the improved facilities had allowed penguin numbers to expand, acting like a honey pot for predatory seals.

"On Kangaroo Island, little penguins are primarily distributed in small groups of between six and 20 birds," Mr Haddrill said. He said Kingscote, on the northern side of the island, now had a steady population of 700 to 800 breeding birds. And while there had been a significant reduction of penguins on the main beach area of Penneshaw, there were higher numbers at the nearby North Shore. "It is not clear if there has been a decline in the overall population or in the distribution along the shore line," Mr Hadrill said.

There is no dispute about the explosion in the number of New Zealand fur seals which, despite their name, are endemic to Australian waters. Simon Goldsworthy, associate professor at Flinders University's School of Biological Sciences, said fur seals were close to wiped out by early colonial sealing. More than 100,000 animals were taken from Kangaroo Island.

Mr Haddrill said there was currently about 25,000 New Zealand fur seals in Kangaroo Island waters, with the population expanding at a compound rate of 10 to 12 per cent a year.With the explosion in seal numbers, Ms Somerfield said she was at a loss to know how the penguins would survive as a species on Kangaroo Island because of the way they were being attacked. "Even if something happened to the seals, the penguin numbers would take a very, very, very long time to recover," she said.

According to Professor Goldsworthy, there will always be little penguin colonies breeding on Kangaroo Island "but large colonies may be a thing of the past because of the recovery of fur seals". That is unless the penguins take Ms Somerfield's advice and stay out of the water.

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