This is heartbreaking.
How horrible it is to hear of an animal as beautiful as the yellow-eyed penguin, set to become extinct due to commercial fishing trawlers drowning penguins in their nets.
Now with only 1,600 of this rare species left in the world, 5,000 less than in 2000, it is expected that this breed of penguin will not live through the next decade.
The penguin, native to New Zealand has seen a massive decline throughout the years with half the breeding population disappearing from the area.
And Whenua Hou in New Zealand (where 14 of these penguins live) believes that this massive decline is due to commercial fishing trawlers catching the penguins and drowning them, despite the island being predator free.
Kevin Hague, chief executive of Forest & Bird, told The Guardian: “There is an active set net fishery within the penguins’ Whenua Hou foraging ground, and the indications are that nearly half the Whenua Hou yellow-eyed penguin population has been drowned in one or more of these nets.”
In order to combat this problem, the MPI (Ministry for Primary Industries) has put observers on vessels commercially fishing in New Zealand waters and the high seas. That person independently confirms catch and effort to catch fish. It also collects information about marine mammals and bird interactions including marine life caught in set nets however, people believe the MPI needs to get more observers onto set net vessels and prioritise putting cameras on set netting boats.
In information obtained under the Official Information Act, MPI recorded 14 penguin deaths nationwide in the year from October 2015 to October 2016. All the penguins were caught in a net.
However, there are growing concerns that this statistic is under-reported and a demand for more cation and observers when fishing right now is a necessity to protect our wildlife.
