Little blue penguins on the West Coast of the South Island appear to be surviving La Nina weather conditions, unlike penguins on the East Coast which are reportedly dying in their hundreds.
A January 22 story in the Christchurch Press reported hundreds of little blue penguins have died at Banks Peninsula. Leading conservationists fear they are starving as a result of the La Nina weather system.
Ecologist and West Coast Blue Penguin Chair Kerry-Jayne Wilson says seabirds have good and bad years.
“On the West Coast this appears to have been a poorer than average year but not one of those really bad years, and certainly not nearly as bad for penguins as it has been on Banks Peninsula”, she says.
“So far we have not seen dead chicks washed up on beaches as happened at Okarito two years ago when a lot were reported dead in South Westland”.
La Nina brings unusually warm currents and the calm seas mean fewer small fish and plankton are close to the surface. Adult penguins find in difficult to find food for their young, the chicks either die in their burrows or head to sea too early and don’t survive.
Kerry-Jayne Wilson says at this stage it is impossible to say with any certainty how climate change could affect West Coast penguins.
“If there is an increase in the frequency of La Nina events as some scientists predict then there is certainly concern for the wellbeing of many species of seabirds but if this year is any indication it may not be too bad for blue penguins on the West Coast.”
“In the meantime dogs and roadkills remain the most immediate threats to West Coast penguins and these are threats we can control”, she says.
