Threats to our Penguins
Why are they Endangered?
There are lots of threats to our lovely Northern Rockhopper Penguins and lots of these are caused by humans in pursuit of money.
Lots of species of penguins have been and still are being killed and harvested for oil, skin, and feathers people then use this as bait for commercial fisheries. On top of these attempts at killing this species of penguin, they also contribute to lots of emissions as well as harming other organisms with harmful fishing practices all to make more money.
While the use of this type of bait has declined over the 18th 19th and early 20th centuries a scar has been left on the species and it will take years to heal. Nevertheless, there are still illegal uses of this type of bait.
There's even more that the relentless fisheries have done to lower the numbers of the Northern rockhoppers. One example is bycatch is where fisheries and penguins are competing for the same food and fishing nets causes incidental mortality. Fishing nets are a major threat to all penguins but it mainly depends on where they are being used and what type of net. We should be able to make nets that allow for penguins to escape or even create nets that make it impossible for penguins to enter the nets. We can also practice paying attention to where we buy our food and try to cut down on meat consumption.
Egging is another practice that has been active into the 1950s and is continuing to this day illegally. Because rockhoppers only have one to two babies at a time this can harm the numbers of penguins in the next generation. It is also little to no research around egging numbers in relation to rockhopper penguins which is why we need to bring more awareness to get more research around this species.
“Oil pollution through shipwrecks and oil spills is possibly the major anthropogenic-induced cause of death among penguins worldwide”
- (García-Borboroglu et al. 2008)
Effects of Pollution
The biggest destroyer of habitat, species richness, and diversity is marine pollution. This comes from the pollution of plastics, and oil spills from things like pipelines, Transportation ships, and more. This causes the worldwide death of tons of organisms especially penguins. Penguins are extremely susceptible to oil spills because of their adaptations to the sea and their need to keep their plumage in good condition. Oil spills continue to occur near penguin colonies and will continue to occur if we don't do something about it.
In October of 2021, a study by Statista found that In 2020, the total revenue of the United States' oil and gas industry was around 110.7 billion U.S. dollars, this whopping number was a decrease because of the covid-19 pandemic. Oil and gas contribute heavily to the destruction of environments, habitats, and according to IEAs methane tracker, the total indirect greenhouse gas emissions from oil and gas operations are around 5,200 million tons. These huge companies are profiting from the destruction of habitat.
