Earthwatch 2002 Project: South African Penguins
Diary of Team 2
Thursday April 4th: The team met at Two Oceans Aquarium and were taken to lunch at Docks Restaurant before embarking on the ferry to Robben Island. At lunch were Peter Barham and Leshia Upfold, the PIs for this team. Mario Leshoro from Robben Island and Phil Whittington and Sue Kuyper from UCT were also there. The volunteer team was Ethne Conlin, Alicia Katsur and Thomas Wood. This team will be spending most of its time on Dassen Island doing a penguin census.
Friday April 5th: An enjoyable day was spent on Robben Island watching penguins and touring the prison and other significant sites. Preparations were made for the transfer to Dassen Island the next day.
Saturday April 6th: The team left Robben Island on the midday ferry and met up with Leshia, Phil and Barbara (Pete's partner and field assistant) at the ferry terminal at the Waterfront. Jane Underhill had very kindly obtained all the food supplies for the trip to Dassen Island and volunteered to drive us up to Yzerfontein to catch the boat which Leshia had organised. We had so much stuff we thought we would never have room to get it all in the van, never mind on the boat!
We arrived at Yzerfontein at about 2:30 and having met up with our boat, made our way down to the harbour. There we packed everything into plastic bags before loading it onto the boat. The sea looked rather choppy, so we were a little worried about the journey across. We all climbed in and the boat was launched. We were truly on our way to Dassen Island at last!
The journey was quite rough, but once we got out from the coast, we all settled down, every now and then getting well sprayed! We saw lots of penguins in the water and after about half an hour we pulled into the jetty at Dassen Island. There we met Johan (the manager of Dassen Island) and Johny (the Foreman). We all helped unload the supplies and then made our way to our accommodation which is in the old guano scrapers cottages which have now been refurbished. After we had settled in we were invited to Johann's for a braai before finally turning in, tired but enthusiastically awaiting the start of the count tomorrow!
Sunday April 7th: We all rose bright and early, eager to get on with the job we had come for, counting the penguins. The day was fine and sunny. We met for a briefing from Johan and Leshia at 9:00 and were then driven down to the other end of the island (Area C) to begin the count. At first we all had lots of questions about what makes an active nest, what makes a potential nest, etc. But we soon got the hang of it, and had finished this area by lunchtime. We returned to the office where we tallied up the numbers recorded by each member of the team, and were delighted to find that overall the numbers were an increase on last year. However, there was a very significant increase in the number of potential nests recorded, which prompted a discussion as to whether we were using accurate criteria for defining a potential nest.
In the afternoon we had time to ourselves. Some team members went out spotting penguin numbers while others went for a swim, or just caught up on their rest!
For dinner, Ethne cooked a very fine chicken satay (Tony was sous-chef), then we all retired feeling very proud of our day's work!
Monday April 8th: Again the weather was bright and sunny. Today we were asked to count Area B in the morning. This is an area of mainly rocky beach along the west coast of the island. Again we found the numbers to be a small increase on last year. After lunch we moved around to Area D (another beach area on the south side of the island) which consisted of a mixture of terrains, some very rocky, and some sandy areas filled with penguin burrows. We recorded another small increase in numbers over last year.
This evening we dined on spaghetti bolognese prepared by Barbara.
Tuesday April 9th: Today we planned to make flags to use to mark out Area H, the next sector to be counted. This is one of two very large inland areas, which are very hard to map out without markers to guide us. The island was due for a stocktake, so Leshia, Johann and Johnny could not join us. We spent the morning trying to work out how to make improvised flags from the materials available. Tony not only came up with a plan of how to construct the flags, but also the tools to do the job in the form of two Swiss Army knives! Peter, Phil and Alicia went out to spot penguin tags.
About lunchtime, the weather took a turn for the worse, and it began to rain quite hard - which meant the stocktaking was delayed to later in the week. Eventually about 3:30 it eased off enough for us to go out and plant the flags in Area H ready to start counting the nests in the area tomorrow. Everybody had got thoroughly wet, so we had a rather miserable time trying to dry off all our clothing.
Leshia had sent across to the mainland an order for additional supplies - our order for 2kg of cheese had been misinterpreted as 12kg so we had rather a lot! Therefore in the evening Peter took on the challenge of making a fondue, which was ok but seemed to be enjoyed by all.
Several of us then retired to bed, leaving the others to discuss the problems of the world. Suddenly about 10:00pm Alicia saw some red flares go up just off the jetty area, and raised the alarm. A real drama was unfolding before our very eyes, as a fishing boat had run aground on the reef and was rapidly sinking! Everyone was mustered to help, the island's 'lifeboat' was launched, and all 10 people were rescued from the stricken 'Sail Fisher'. They were brought ashore and given towels, hot coffee and biscuits, and a bunk to rest in until the NSRI arrived from Cape Town to take them home. They eventually left the island at about 2:20 in the morning.
Meantime, without many of us realising, it had become Stephanie's birthday, and we all wished her many happy returns, and hoped that her future birthdays would not be so dramatic!
Wednesday April 10th: In the cold light of day we were all able to see the results of the previous night's drama. The fishing boat was lying on her side about 100m from the end of the jetty. We all realised how lucky the crew had been to survive.
Today we could not even contemplate counting penguin nests - the day was mostly spent firstly watching, then helping out with the salvage operation. We started by clearing all the jetsam which had washed up on the beach during the night, then later, after the boat had been towed up to the beach, helping to extract the contents, particularly the drums of diesel which of course it was vital to remove as soon as possible to avoid any potential danger to the wildlife.
Leshia alerted SANCCOB early in the morning of a potential oil spill. During the afternoon, everybody went out to watch penguins coming in from the sea to assess whether any oil had been spilt. Fortunately, nobody spotted any badly oiled penguins.
In the evening we had a braai of Snoek and salad, ending with a chocolate birthday cake for Stephanie and Johann, which Peter had 'knocked up' from the ingredients available.
Thursday April 11th: Today we did what we had planned for yesterday - counting Area H. This is a large inland area, mostly covered with tetragonia bushes, other vegetation, or bare rocks. We found the flags we had planted tremendously useful in determining our direction - it would have been very easy to go wrong otherwise, and miss some areas. This area was a long day, it was slow work, and we didn't finish until about 6:00pm. We were all very tired, but when we arrived home, Peter got stuck into cooking roast beef with all the trimmings. Unfortunately, there was a problem with the generator, and he ended u doing it by candle and torchlight! We invited Leshia and Johan to join us for dinner, and just before it was served, the generator came on, so we were able to see what we were eating! We all thoroughly enjoyed our meal that night, but most of us fell into bed straight afterwards.
Friday April 12th: We were up bright and early, ready to find out what Leshia had planned for us today. We all groaned when she said we would count Area I. This is the other large inland area, this time on the west side of the island, and seemed likely to be just as hard work as H had been yesterday, and promised to be another long day.
We were driven down to the lighthouse end of the island, where we started by counting all the odd shaped parts of the area. Then we lined up for a systematic traverse of the regular shaped part. Unfortunately, we had not used the flags this time, and the landmarks were a little confusing, and we got in a bit of a muddle as to where we were going. However, we decided to make our traverse along the island instead of across, so that we had the road parallel to us on one side, and this made the job much easier. Eventually we finished the area about 5:00pm, a little earlier than yesterday.
We finished the day with a delicious meal of lamb chops, mashed potato, sweetcorn and onions, beautifully prepared and served by Ethne and Tony. Another early night was called for, as we knew that tomorrow we would be doing Area A, the most densely populated area on the island.
Saturday April 13th: Today would be our last day together as a full team, as Stephanie, Alicia and Ethne had arranged to leave the island on Sunday to return to Cape Town. We made packed lunches and prepared to go out to tackle the most difficult area of the island. Johan, Leshia and Johny took the most difficult burrowed parts while the rest of us walked along the coast counting amongst the rocks. We were now finding different types of vegetation and different terrain. The weather was bright and sunny, and even Stephanie agreed that it was warm! After we had covered about half the area we stopped for a picnic lunch amongst the penguins.
After lunch we continued down the other rocky coast, past the wreck of the 'Namaqua' heading towards the rocky outcrop where a colony of White-breasted cormorants nest. We had to be particularly careful not to disturb the cormorants - if they flew away, the gulls would almost certainly take the eggs. We stopped about 50m short of the colony and took a diversion down to the beach until we were an equivalent distance past. Fortunately the cormorants stood their ground. We made an estimate of the number of penguin nests we had missed in this area, by counting how many there were in an equivalent area of the rocks.
We finished this area about 4:30 and returned exhausted to the office. We were disappointed that the numbers for this area were significantly down on last year's figures.
Peter made a 'Boeuf Bourguignonne' for supper which was much appreciated. Stephanie, Alicia and Ethne packed their bags ready for departure tomorrow.
Sunday April 14th: The day was bright and sunny yet again. At about 9:00am the boat arrived which was to take Stephanie, Alicia and Ethne back to the mainland later in the day. It arrived with a surprise visitor, Estelle van der Merwe, previous manager of SANCCOB. Peter and Barbara were especially pleased to see her, as they had thought they would not be seeing her on this trip to South Africa. Estelle had a scheduled trip out to Dassen to bring Ahmed Kathrada, but it had been called off at the last minute. Estelle thought she might as well come out to visit Dassen Island anyway as the boat was all arranged.
Leshia asked us to count Area G in the morning, as there should be enough time before the lunchtime departure. Estelle helped us count, and with so many of us participating, the job was quickly done. Two events were of interest - the first was a penguin Barbara discovered which had fishing line wrapped all round its body, flippers and one foot. With the help of Tony's Swiss army knife, the fishing line was quickly removed from the penguin, who seemed happy to return to the nest and continue to incubate his/her egg. The second event came near the end of the morning, when Peter found a particularly scrawny looking bird laying on the shore apparently very sick. He was able to catch it quite easily, and carried it back to the treatment room. It was particularly useful that Estelle was here, as she was able to treat it straightaway, with a dose of Darrows and injections. The penguin immediately perked up a little and was able to stand up on its own. Estelle's diagnosis was that the penguin had had a bad moult, had not fattened up enough beforehand, and as a result was simply starving.
The time was rapidly approaching for the departure of three of the team. Their luggage was loaded on the 'rubber duck', along with a SANCCOB box containing the sick penguin. Goodbyes were said all round, and soon they were disappearing out across the sea towards the mainland.
The rest of the day was spent relaxing, doing washing etc, and a little time out reading band numbers of penguins returning from the sea.
Monday April 15th: Leshia decided that we would try and complete the count today, and do Areas E and F in one day. We walked down to the south end of the island, and began with the smaller area, E. Peter spotted a 'new' type of penguin - a bird was nesting in the wreck of a boat which was going rusty. The rust was dripping down onto the nest, and the bird had its feathers stained a brownish red colour all round its neck. We christened it the 'russet throated penguin'!
We moved on to the final area - F. This is a long thin, mostly rocky area on the east coast of the island, with some heavily burrowed areas. Leshia, Johan and Johny took the coastal rocks and the burrows, while Phil, Peter, Tony and Barbara took the area nearest the wall. The day was very hot, and we were all wilting under the bright sun with a temperature over 30°C. Eventually we reached the end of the area about 2:00pm, and we all cheered as this meant the entire count was now complete!
We returned to the office where we were all keen to find out the final tally for the island for 2002. We did all the sums, tallied it up, and found that the total count of active nests was only 5 less than last year! We could not believe how close the numbers were. We had registered an increase in 'recently active / potential' nests making an overall increase of about 1000 nests.
We finally sat down to a late lunch at about 3:15, all feeling well pleased with the results of our efforts of the last 9 days. Later we worked out that each member of the team had walked about 100km during the count, covering the entire length and breadth of Dassen Island.
In the late afternoon, all of a sudden a thick fog came down, obscuring the bright sunlight we had enjoyed during the day.
Tuesday April 16th and Wednesday April 17th: The remaining members of the team did final packing and clearing up. On Wednesday the boat brought them back to Yzerfontein and so back to Cape Town thus bringing to an end a memorable two weeks!
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