Yahoo News Thousand of penguin chicks die of starvation in Antarctica breeding 'catastrophe'
A huge colony of 18,000 pairs of penguins in Antarctica has suffered a major breeding disaster with only two chicks surviving the season.
The rest perished through hunger, claim experts.
They are claiming that the catastrophe is down to unusually extensive sea ice late in the summer.
This meant parent Adelie penguins had to travel further to find food and by they returned to the colony, almost every single chick had died.
The disaster happened in the Terre Adelie region of Antarctica.
Conservation group WWF is calling for greater protection for the waters off East Antarctica, as a result of the incident, so penguins do not face any added pressure of competition from fishing fleets for their main food source, krill.
Next week there will be a meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), made up 25 member states and the EU, to consider a proposal for a new marine protected area for the waters off East Antarctica.
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This would prevent krill fishing, the WWF said.
The same Adelie penguin colony which failed to breed chicks this year, failed to produce a single chick four years ago from 20,196 adult pairs, thanks to heavy sea ice and unusually warm weather.
Rod Downie, head of polar programmes at WWF said: ‘Adelie penguins are one of the hardiest and most amazing animals on our planet.
‘This devastating event contrasts with the Disney image that many people might have of penguins. It’s more like “Tarantino does Happy Feet”, with dead penguin chicks strewn across a beach in Adelie Land.
‘The risk of opening up this area to exploratory krill fisheries, which would compete with the Adelie penguins for food as they recover from two catastrophic breeding failures in four years, is unthinkable.’
