CAPE TOWN - The South African High court in Pretoria has issued an order in favour of the preservation of the endangered African Penguin.
The order issued Tuesday barred commercial fishing at key breeding colonies for at least 10 years.
This comes after a settlement agreement was reached between two conservation NGOs and the commercial anchovy and sardine fishery.
For six years, conservation groups have been battling disagreements from scientists on the declining penguin numbers.
There has been a downward trajectory from 2018 where numbers were at just over fifteen thousand breeding pairs to almost half of that in 2023.
READ | South Africa court bars fishing to protect endangered African Penguins
BirdLife South Africa and the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds cast their net to the courts for intervention to save the African Penguin.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature listed the African Penguin critically endangered in October 2024.
Conservationists say that 97 percent of the population is already lost and, at the current rate of population decrease, the bird could be extinct in the wild by 2035.
The dwindling numbers are due to a combination of factors including disturbances and oil spills, but the biggest threat is linked to their nutrition, conservationists say.