South Africa celebrated a landmark agreement to protect African penguins from food scarcity. Eighteen months later, penguins are losing weight, sardines have died along thousands of kilometres of coastline and commercial fishing has continued before the government even knows how many fish remain.

In March 2025, South Africa appeared finally to have done something decisive for the African penguin.

Following litigation brought by BirdLife South Africa and the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (Sanccob), an agreement was reached, establishing strengthened no-take zones for commercial sardine and anchovy fishing around six of the country's most important African penguin breeding colonies: Dassen Island, Robben Island, Stony Point, Dyer Island, St Croix Island and Bird Island.

The environment minister at the time, Dion George, proclaimed it a "pivotal moment". Permit conditions in the small pelagic fishery were amended with immediate effect. The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) said the measures would secure more fish for penguins and demonstrate the government's commitment to preventing the extinction of a species that had, by then, been classified as critically endangered.

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That was the promise. But conservation is not achieved by drawing lines on a map. A fishing exclusion zone is useful only if there are sufficient fish left for the animals it is supposed to protect. And on that measure, the picture in 2026 is considerably less reassuring.

The penguins are telling us something

During the extraordinary sardine mortality event...