We can Still Save the Penguins

Nemanja Besevic

Mr. Youell

Science Ext.

31/8/14

We can Still Save the Penguins

                The penguin population has been rapidly in decline for the last two decades according to a Sciencemag article. A news letter from the Huffington Post confirms by giving evidence of the amount of amount of African Penguins in 1900, 2000 and 2014. The number has dropped from 3 million in the 1900’s to 100,000 at the beginning of the 2000’s. The decline quickened in 2009 when the Seli 1 had an oil spill near the penguin’s habitat, the population now is a little more than 50,000. The accuracy of the measurements was determined because penguins can’t fly so they are generally fairly easy to count. Scientists are saying that most things leading to the fall of the penguin population can be controlled by man and can be used to stop the extinction of not only penguins but countless other species that live in the ocean. This can be seen in Fig 1.

Fig 1. This shows a dead penguin being surrounded by other penguins

                The largest and most difficult factor to deal with is the oil spills and marine debris. This is the most dangerous to all penguins, living in Africa or Antarctica. The fish that the penguins dine on are infected from the spills and debris; this makes the penguins eating them intoxicated which eventually leads to death. Other dangers include but do not exclude: food scarcity, injuries leading to increased fishing pressure and climate change. Scientists have stated that conservation on actions that can be changed will be very important in the future if we want to save the penguins and many other species living near or in the ocean. To stop this we need world leaders to come out and say that this can be ignored no longer.