Only two penguin chicks survive horrific breeding season in the arctic

Adelie penguins are badly affected by climate change. Photo / 123rf

A horrific breeding season left penguin colony strewn with dead babies.

All but two Adelie penguin chicks from an Antarctic colony of 36,000 birds died during a catastrophic breeding season, according to scientists who say Antarctic waters need greater protection.

The disaster was caused by unusually extensive sea ice late in the summer, they said, forcing birds from Terre Adelie in East Antarctica to roam further for food.

While parents searched for the krill that make up much of their diet, their offspring were dying in extraordinary numbers.

Wildlife preservation group WWF is demanding increased protection for the waters around East Antarctica to ensure penguins do not face the added pressure from fishing fleets on top of the deadly effects of climate change.

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." The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, made up of 25 member states and the EU, will meet tomorrow to consider a proposal for a new marine protected area for the waters off East Antarctica.

It would ban krill fishing and help secure marine wildlife, including Adelie and emperor penguins, according to WWF.

Adelie penguins are generally faring well in East Antarctica but declining overall in the Antarctic peninsula region, where climate change is already established, the conservation group said. In some places, the species has benefited from climate change, which has made it easier to access breeding grounds and the sea for feeding. In other places, the collapse of ice shelves and melting glaciers has forced them to move or die.

Yan Ropert-Coudert, who leads the Adelie penguin programme at Dumont D'Urville research station adjacent to the colony, said a protected area would shield the colonies from local human activities such as tourism or fishing but would do little to change the more serious, underlying problems.

"The region is impacted by environmental changes that are linked to the break-up of the Mertz glacier since 2010," he said. "A marine protected area will not remedy these changes."