Penguins warn the status of the world's oceans

Just like the image of a golden bird in the canary in the coal mine idiom, penguins are also ringing a potential disaster warning ring in the oceans. on the world. According to biology conservation expert at the University of Washington, the cause is not only climate change.

According to Dee Boersma, a professor of biology at the University of Washington and an expert in the study of flying birds: oil pollution, declining fish stocks, widespread forms of coastal development along with the Earth's climate. gradually warming is threatening the habitat of many penguins that make their populations shrink quickly.

She said: 'Penguins are among the species that show us that we are making great changes to our world. The fate of the species is extinct. But some species will become extinct before their era ends. And we are facing the fact that penguins are at risk. '

In an article published in the July 8 issue of BioScience, Boersma emphasized that there are 16 to 19 species of majority penguins living in 43 whole locations belonging to the southern hemisphere. But we still know very little about the world of penguins, even their population development trend is still in the veil of mystery. As a result, only a few people realize their populations are rapidly declining.

Boersma claimed that the penguins acted as guards for environmental changes. She supports a global effort to regularly survey the largest groups of penguins of each species, at least every five years, to understand the status of their populations, the most dangerous threat to them is What, as well as how changes signal the state of the ocean.

'We must understand the world we live in and depend on. Governments must be responsible for collecting information that helps us be aware and perform. But if the Government cannot undertake the work then we need to go to non-governmental organizations. '

Rainwater wetted the coat of Adélie penguin in Antarctica before its fur was water resistant.Although the icy continent is actually an ideal place for penguins, the changing climate has caused more rain on the coasts.(Photo: Dee Boersma)

During 25 collaborations with the Wildlife Conservation Society and colleagues at the University of Washington, Boersma studied the world's largest group of Magellanic penguins at Punta Tombo on Argentina's national Atlantic coast. . In the late 1960s and early 1980s, penguins reached a maximum number of individuals of about 400,000 pairs. But their populations today are only half as much as before.

The situation is similar in other areas. African penguins dropped from 1.5 million pairs a century ago to 63,000 pairs in 2005. The number of penguins lives on the Galapagos island - the only species whose territory stretches to the hemisphere north, reduced to about 2,500, only a quarter of the population when Boersma first studied in the 1970s.

The number of Adélie penguins and Chinstrap living on the Antarctic peninsula - the northernmost region of the continent, has dropped by 50% since the mid-70s. According to Boersma, other species in Africa, South America, Australia , New Zealand, Falklands and Antarctica also suffer from this situation.

She recalls the time of 2006 when the climate changes had caused a catastrophe for the reproductive activities of the emperor penguins. The event was portrayed in the highly acclaimed 2005 film 'March of the Penguins' (roughly translated as 'Operation of the Penguins' ) . The flock of penguins breeds at the same place every year where the ice blocks are sheltered by the ocean, and the winds that block the snow do not bury and numb the eggs. But in September, when the baby penguins were only halfway through their development stage, the adult birds sensed the danger. The whole group suddenly marched more than 3 miles to another block of ice. The ice block they chose was the largest, still intact. But by the end of September, a major storm caused the only remaining iceberg to collapse. Baby penguins are forced to sink under water. While adults can survive, the chicks need more than two months to help their fur complete, while forming extra layers of insulation fat under the skin, they can exist independently. According to Boersma, the erratic climate in that year led to unsuccessful spawning seasons of penguins.

Climate change also seems to be the key to reducing the number of Galapagos penguins. Because the climate and the ocean become warmer, the El Niño phenomenon, also known as the Southern Oscillation (El Niño Southern Oscillation), affects weather patterns around the world that seem to be happening at higher frequencies. . During that time, ocean currents carried small fish stocks that feed penguins pushed away from the islands. The birds are often hungry or too weak to reproduce.

The above problems raise the question of whether humans cause too much difficulty for other organisms to coexist. Penguins residing in Argentina, the Falklands and Africa are facing the risk of increasing oil pollution from oil platforms at sea or from passing boats. Their oil poisoning capacity is increasing because they have to go much farther than before to find food for themselves.

'When the fish that we still catch are becoming increasingly scarce, we must also look to the end of the food chain. We are now starting to compete directly with smaller creatures to save their food. '

As the world population is increasing, more and more people reside in coastal areas, the negative impacts on the coastal and ocean habitats of many species are increasing. According to Boersma, controlling these negative impacts is extremely urgent. She said: 'I don't think we have time to wait. In 1960, the world population was 3 billion people. It is currently 6.7 billion. By 2025 the population is estimated at 8 billion. We have been waiting for a long time. Obviously humans have changed the face of the Earth, we have also changed the appearance of the ocean but we cannot see it. We have hesitated for too long. '

' The Discovery Channel and TV channels regularly broadcast programs about the natural world, and penguins are also frequently mentioned. But we do not want that we can only see them through television. We want them to exist in the world. '

The research is supported by the Wildlife Conservation Association, grants and some sponsors.