West Coast Penguin Trust

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Kia Ora,

We hope you are all keeping warm and dry in this wintery weather we have been having. It is a great opportunity to curl up in front of the fire, read the latest news from our team, some stories and some interesting and informative articles.

We had some good accounts of penguin sightings and footprint spotting in reply to our latest newsletter, which was great. Thank you to all of those people who took the time to share their stories; it all helps in creating the picture of our penguins on the West Coast.

In the coming weeks and if they haven't already done so, kororā and tawaki will be preparing burrows for this year's breeding season, with egg laying due in July-August. I have noticed an increase in footprints at the local Hokitika Beach on my morning walks, so fingers crossed they are getting ready for a successful breeding season. We are always keen to know about any experiences the community have, so please do share your stories with us.

Some of our team enjoyed a trip to Oamaru recently for the biennial Oamaru Penguin Symposium and I have shared a few notes from that with you in this newsletter. A great learning, connecting, sharing experience for us.

One of the big discussions at the Oamaru symposium was about the impacts of climate change on the marine and coastal environments and what that might mean for our seabirds as well as for other wildlife and humans. There are thousands of articles we could share with you on this 'hot' and crucial topic, but for now, I've included a couple of interesting ones relating to penguins and their role as indicator of the health of our oceans.

With a rocky season in 2022 for our little penguins but a good season for our tawaki, we are all very curious to see what will happen this year as we move from La Niña to El Niño conditions. Why it might have been such the poor season for the kororā but not the tawaki seems likely to be related to the marine heatwave and the fact that prey fish will have stayed in cooler water, perhaps going deeper, out of reach of little penguins. We hope more light will be shed on this by marine and penguin scientists. We will continue to keep an eye on the effects of the climate crisis around the world and in our own backyard as we aim to understand and then determine what, if anything, we can do to help penguins in future breeding seasons.

There was very sad news of dog related penguin deaths in Otago and Golden Bay recently. In fact, locally, for our penguins in particular, the message of keeping dogs under close control at and near the beach seems to be paying off with news of penguins being killed by dogs becoming rarer in recent years. We thank all our readers and the community for making this happen and we hope the trend continues to zero this year and in future. The other cautionary measure we always remind people about is our roads. With dark evenings again, driving a little slower and keeping an eye out for penguins on coast roads will be safer and more economical for you and potentially save a penguin's life.

Thank you again for your interest and support so far in 2023 and we continue to be grateful for any donations and penguin sighting stories that we receive.

Stay warm and well this winter.

Lucy Waller

Ranger, West Coast Penguin Trust

PS We will continue to give you the DOC hotline each time so that it's handy if you come across an injured penguin or any wildlife that seems to be struggling whilst out there on the beach, river mouths or roads: 0800 DOCHOT (362 468), and again, do all you can to ensure sick or injured wildlife are safe from dogs.

Also, if you see or hear about a dead penguin, please let us know using our simple reporting form or drop us an email, ideally with a photograph, and, if you can have a look and it's obvious or apparent, your thoughts on possible cause of death. We can then add the information to our database - which informs our conservation actions.

News from our Rangers

Preparing for the upcoming season

Rangers are preparing for the upcoming season, making sure burrowscopes, tag readers, cameras and traps are all working, replacing old nest boxes, and getting ready to record all the important data from nest monitoring. Catherine down in Gorge River, Lucy up in Charleston and the Buller area and our tawaki rangers down south in the Haast area.

We'll bring you early season news in the next newsletter.

News from the schools

We are excited to welcome back some old schools we worked with when we first started our education journey on the West Coast as well as newcomers to the programme. We look forward to supporting those schools in their projects and penguin journeys.

It is a great opportunity to fit the national curriculum's new 'local' element into lesson planning, with penguin education and a project to help protect a very local declining seabird species.

It is also very timely to learn about seabirds at the end of the marine heatwave we experienced last summer here on the West Coast. It is likely that it directly affected the breeding success of little penguins. This is an opportunity for conversations about climate change with the students and its impact on our marine environment, on our beloved penguins as well as on us humans.

Read more on our Education page here

Collaborating internationally on impacts of climate change on education

COPE (Council of Pacific Educators) held an international conference through Education International in Fiji this month and our West Coast kororā made their way into discussion. The West Coast Penguin Trust's education project was used in an example of how climate change is being considered through New Zealand education in schools.

The Trust received a formal thank you in front of at least 12 different nations, from Japan to Papa New Guinea, for helping with the New Zealand delegations' presentation. We are always pleased to share our work and make connections outside New Zealand; we are all in this climate crisis together.

News from the Trust

"Conservation based on data research, not on gut feeling"

Most of the West Coast Penguin Trust team attended the biennial Oamaru Penguin Symposium last month. It is always a fantastic opportunity to share research, observations, talk issues and problem solve and make connections in the penguin world.

By keeping up to date with the research, we ensure that all our work is based on sound science and, by being part of the penguin conservation community here in Aotearoa New Zealand, we learn from those more experienced than us and support the new kids on the block, so better outcomes all round.

There were many great discussions on the risks posed by climate change and commercial fisheries on seabird populations, the latest penguin research from around the country and beyond, and new, interesting ways to collaborate with groups bringing fresh, new ideas to the table.

The programme with presentation abstracts is available here

Young penguin scientist recognised and Kerry-Jayne Wilson remembered

The Oamaru Penguin Symposium was fabulous in many ways.

Dr Thomas Mattern, a long time collaborator with Kerry-Jayne Wilson and co-author with her of the seminal work New Zealand penguins - current
knowledge and research priorities, opened the symposium with a lovely tribute. The tribute was continued in presenting a copy of her book Seabirds - A Natural History to one of the excellent young scientists who presented their research at the event.

Blake Hornblow was selected for his work on tawaki.

Find out more and watch a short video clip here

Penguin protection fence extended

Little penguins appear to be thriving on the sea side of the fence north of Punakaiki. So much so that they are now finding their way beyond the three colonies and through gaps that were not a problem nine years ago when the fence was built.

We're delighted that the first of the gaps has just been filled ready for the new breeding season and

Read the story here

A little blue bach is making a difference for little blue penguins

The Little Blue Bach and in fact four other baches owned by Daniel Beetham and his Mum, Anna McKay, are contributing to penguin conservation and we want to thank them and share the story!

Daniel and Anna are penguin champions, making donations to the Trust as their baches, in stunning coastal locations between Punakaiki and Charleston, are booked for short breaks and holidays.

Read the tale of generosity here

In other penguin news ...

DOC again urges dog owners to keep their dogs under control after kororā found in bin

"DOC Coastal Otago Senior Ranger Shay van der Hurk says the incident shows how vulnerable our native wildlife can be and highlights the importance of keeping dogs on lead when native species like penguins are around.

He says at least three penguins have been killed by dogs in Otago this year, and it's disappointing these preventable incidents keep happening."

Read the story here

Penguin health equals ocean health

"Penguins do far more than make us smile, however; they also play important roles in ecosystems both in the ocean and on land.

They carry nutrients between land and sea, and enrich both with their faeces. Some burrowing species even modify the landscape as they dig nests into the ground. But many species of penguins are declining in numbers and, because they feed in the ocean and breed on land, they face threats in both realms. Of the 18 species of penguins alive today, 11 are listed as threatened with extinction by the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature)."

This is just one of many interesting articles discussing why and how penguins are sentinels or indicator species of the sea.

Read more here

Mena has found her last penguin

We were saddened to learn that Mena, the wonderful penguin detection conservation dog, became very ill recently and her handler Alastair Judkins and his family, had to say goodbye to her earlier this week.

Mena and Alastair helped the Trust with penguin surveys at a variety of coastal sites between Mount Oneone near Harihari and Granity in recent years, and together they visited schools as they travelled up the coast, introducing the role of conservation dogs and finding penguins in particular.

Many children will have had a chance to meet her and she will be missed by us all.

Find out more about Mena and her work here

Other news...

Take 3 for the Sea - a Week of Action

This week, the first week of June, includes World Environment Day and World Oceans Day.

Take 3 for the Sea has a mission to reduce plastic pollution and promote cleaner oceans - every small action counts.

For Take 3's Week of Action, they are encouraging us all to make simple changes to reduce our plastic footprint and thus the risk of plastic pollution reaching the sea and potentially killing seabirds and other marine wildlife.

Find out more here and make a difference now

And have a look at this 59sec video for a rethink

Wondering what causes marine heatwaves?

"Marine heatwaves have doubled in frequency, and have become longer-lasting, more intense and extensive. The IPCC says that human influence has been the main driver of marine heatwaves increase observed since the 1970s.

"The majority of heatwaves took place between 2006 and 2015, causing widespread coral bleaching and reef degradation. In 2021, nearly 60 percent of the world's ocean surface experienced at least one spell of marine heatwaves."

As "the planet's greatest carbon sink", the ocean is massively affected by climate change, not just by marine heatwaves and rising sea-levels, but also by huge changes in marine biodiversity.

Find out more here

And this is a fascinating article from The Guardian.com with kororā sadly featuring:

Are New Zealand's marine heatwaves a warning to the world?

Fundraising efforts

Fundraising is behind all that we do

Donations are going to be critical for our Trust in this difficult financial climate. We rely on donations and grants to complete projects such as filling gaps in our most valuable asset, our penguin protection fence along the Coast Road north of Punakaiki, as penguin colonies there are growing.

With more normal marine conditions, we expect penguins to have a better breeding season this year and we are hoping to extend our foraging study, tracking penguins at sea both where they go and how deep they dive.

Our education programme with West Coast Schools is highly valued and we need funds to continue to support teachers to use our education resource. Please help support our local tamariki in learning to become kaitiaki of our taonga species.

And our business as usual always needs support, including monitoring breeding success and analysing the data, so that we can put actions and strategies in place to protect their future - and that of our trust.

Thank you very much - you can donate here.

Match funding in memory of Kerry-Jayne

Thank you to all those who made donations in memory of Kerry-Jayne Wilson MNZM. We invited you to donate after she died in March 2022 and again around the time of her memorial in March this year. Together, donations came to a very generous $4,606.01.

And then our wonderful match funder stepped in and doubled that for twice the impact, so $9,212.02 donated to the trust in memory and honour of Kerry-Jayne. Thank you all, we're immensely grateful.

For those of you who would like to donate by buying a gift

Stay warm this winter with these beautiful, handmade, personalised penguin hats, made by our very own Gorge River tawaki ranger Catherine Stewart, with a luxurious mix of NZ wool, possum, merino, mohair, alpaca, silk, dog, bamboo etc.

They are a bargain at $100, of which $50 goes to the West Coast Penguin Trust, $5 postage within NZ. (Please add $20 for International.)

Adult plain version, baby and child sizes, $85.

Email us and we'll connect you to Catherine.

Or some gorgeous kororā and tawaki penguin earrings and magnets for sale by Meena of Meena.nzcraft. These earrings with wonderful detail are $15 a pair, made from recycled rimu with stainless steel hypoallergenic hooks. Magnets are made from craft wood and only $8 each.

Meena generously donates 10% of every purchase of penguin earrings and magnets to the West Coast Penguin Trust. Find her at Greymouth markets or on facebook.

Visit her facebook page here.

We thank you for your support and

look forward to a successful year for penguins and everyone!

Don't forget to follow us on Facebook to keep up to date with all the important and fun local penguin news!

And remember our website also has all the latest news, up-to-date information about the Trust, our projects and much more!

Stay connected....

www.westcoastpenguintrust.org.nz/

Coming soon:

An update from our rangers who will have started the new season
News from our local schools about their penguin projects
More interesting articles relating to seabirds and our marine environment
And much more - local as well as some other penguin news and interesting stories from around the globe

West Coast Penguin Trust

info@westcoastpenguintrust.org.nz | www.westcoastpenguintrust.org.nz

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