12-05-2025
Environment changes at heart of deaths, penguin trust says
Unexplained mortalities where yellow-eyed penguins "seem to drop dead out of the blue" have been blamed on harmful environmental changes, prompting the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust to endorse a co-ordinated response to the future health of Otago's coastline.
Otago's coast was experiencing "some of the most intense ocean warming" anywhere in New Zealand, according to the Environmental Defence Society (EDS), which last week released a 52-page report focused on the Otago coast as part of its ongoing project to develop concrete recommendations for reform of New Zealand's oceans management system.
Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust general manager Anna Campbell said the report demonstrated the need to better manage cumulative impacts on the Otago coast.
"We have been monitoring yellow-eyed penguins [hoiho] along the Otago coast for nearly four decades.
"These penguins are special indicators of ocean health and in recent years our team have seen a number of unexplained mortalities where hoiho seem to drop dead out of the blue.
"Whilst this season our programme has succeeded in raising up to 75% of chicks to fledge, most of them will not return home to breed and will be lost at sea.
"We endorse the EDS report's conclusion that hoiho deaths are the effects of the harmful environmental changes."
She said the trust was "deeply concerned" about the proposed national standard for wastewater discharge, as well as harmful, fast-tracked initiatives which bypassed community consultation.
"Government approvals which further degrade the marine environment could be the most significant contributing factor to the plight of the hoiho in Aotearoa," she said.
Report author and EDS policy director Raewyn Peart said the effects of climate change were more extreme off the Otago coast than would otherwise be the case, because they came on top of existing pressures on the marine environment, including sedimentation and the impacts of fishing activity.
"Keystone species such as bull and bladder kelp are suffering badly, with likely cascading impacts for other marine life," she said.
Endemic species such as Hector's dolphin, hoiho and Otago shag were now threatened with extinction, "thought to be partly due to depletion of their preferred fish prey".
"Exotic plantation forests, which have been identified as a major cause of sedimentation along the coast, are increasing in extent."
Ms Peart said the Otago Regional Council's attempts to apply more rigorous rules to the sector had been "stymied" by recent amendments to the Resource Management Act.
