Lack of food and rough weather responsible for the "biggest penguin die-off in many years" along with other birds and fish in New Zealand
A little blue penguin washed up on Mount Maunganui Main Beach. Photo / George Novak
24
April, 2018
Marine
advocates are calling a large number of little blue penguins washing
up along the Bay of Plenty coastline the "biggest penguin
die-off in many years".
The
Department of Conservation (DoC) Tauranga office had answered an
average of five calls each week since February, and Western Bay
Wildlife Trust's Julia Graham said the trust had 58 calls about dead
penguins in two weeks.
"All
of the penguins were dead, or died within a short time of arriving on
land," Graham said. Hundreds of shearwaters, petrels, prions,
shags and penguins, including dead poisonous pufferfish, were
reported to have washed up along the coastline in January this year.
Graham
said a combination of factors including lack of food, rough weather
and moulting had triggered the mass little blue penguin fatalities.
"The
combination of all of these events have led to the biggest penguin
die off in many years.
"There
is very little we can do to help these birds apart from offering them
peace and quiet," she said. Katikati community ranger for DoC
Tracy Mezger said the Tauranga office had received a higher number of
calls about dead penguins than this time last year.
Mezger
said it had received an average of five calls each week for dead,
injured, or unwell penguins since February.
"About
half the calls have been for penguins already dead," she said.
"They
are a combination of single penguins or multiple penguins dead and
washed ashore, both juvenile and adults."
Most of the calls were about penguins washed up on Mount Maunganui Main Beach, which Mezger said was likely because more people visited that beach than others.
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