Collaboration between the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB)and the City of Cape Town is expected to result in better protection and restoration of habitats essential to the endangered African Penguin and to avian and marine ecosystems.
by Blue Africa News
The Executive Mayor of the City of Cape Town, Geordin Hill-Lewis, has praised the city’s partnership with the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB), describing it as a tailor-made initiative aimed at protecting South Africa’s seabird populations.
“I have just had the pleasure and the privilege of being part of a penguin release here at Simon’s Town. And this is why we love SANCCOB so much in Cape Town,” the mayor said, in a video shared by the organisation after Lewis joined SANCCOB officials at the release of rehabilitated African penguins back into their natural habitat.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has listed the African penguin as endangered, with reports indicating that its population has declined by over 95% in the last century.
As a registered non-profit organisation, SANCCOB’s mission is to conserve seabirds – the African penguin being the flagship species of focus, and, upon identification thereof, other complementary marine species.
The organisation collaborates with conservation authorities such as CapeNature, South African National Parks (SANParks) and the City of Cape Town among others to work toward the protection and restoration of the natural habitat, essential for seabirds to survive and the marine ecosystem to function.
“SANCCOB has such a simple but powerful value proposition. SANCCOB saves sea birds and chief amongst the seabirds are the beautiful and unique African penguins. I am really so grateful for the partnership that the City of Cape Town has had with SANCCOB. We appreciate the work that SANCCOB does for penguins in our city,” Hill-Lewis added, after the release at Seaforth Beach, near Cape Town.
In 2025 alone, SANCCOB says it hatched, hand-reared and released over 100 African penguins into their natural habitat.
“In 2025 alone, SANCCOB hatched, hand-reared and released 107 African penguin chicks that would not have survived without intervention. In addition, our Cape Town and Gqeberha facilities rescued and treated a combined total of 1924 seabird patients. Each one matters. Each one is a second chance for a species on the brink,” the organisation noted in a media statement.
An African penguin, according to multiple online searches, is also known as the Jackass penguin because of its donkey-like braying call, and is the only penguin species found in Africa. It is native to the southern African coastline, along the coasts of South Africa and Namibia.
The height of an African penguin is between 60–70 centimeters, with a weight of between 2.2–3.5 kilograms. Conservation measures are being stepped up to save the African penguin from extinction.
The penguin mainly feeds on sardines and small fish. Collapsing stock from overfishing and climate change are some of the long-standing issues linked to the declining penguin population.
In December 2025, The Guardian reported research results showing that 60,000 African penguins starved to death after sardine numbers collapsed in South Africa.
They died in just eight years due to collapsing sardine stocks in two most crucial breeding colonies — Dassen Island and Robben Island — between 2004 and 2012.
Additionally, the researchers noted that the majority of the deaths occurred during the penguins’ annual molting process, a period of around three weeks where the birds replace their worn-out feathers with new ones.
They say sustainable fisheries management practices could improve the penguins’ chances of survival, as conservationists like SANCCOB take action to increase the number of the African penguin.
The Biodiversity Law Centre (BLC) notes that the African penguin faces extinction in the wild by 2035, if more is not done to curb the current rate of population decline.
Oliver Ochieng, Blue Africa News
