The History
The Straits of Magellan is a long sea channel that separates mainland South America from the island of Tierra del Fuego. The Straits was discovered by the Portuguese sailor Ferdinand de Magellanes in 1520. The discovery of this sea channel was very important, because it allowed ships to sail between the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean without going around the treacherous Cape Horn. Before this discovery, many ships were sunk in terrible storms trying to navigate around Cape Horn.
The North American gold rush during the 1800s made this route especially important, linking the Pacific coast of the USA with the Atlantic coast and Europe. The Straits of Magellan, as mentioned, is very long and has lots of branches that lead to nowhere, making it easy for ships to get lost. So, during that time a series of lighthouses were built to help ships find their way from one end to the other without getting lost. The opening of the Panama Canal in 1914 created a shorter route for international shipping, but the Straits still remains an important shipping route for South America.
The Penguins
What the history books do not say is that penguins discovered the Straits of Magellan long before Ferdinand de Magellanes was even born. Penguins have been living in the Straits of Magellan for thousands of years. For penguins, the Straits is not important because it is a shipping route, but rather because it has enormous quantities of fish. That is why penguins live here in large numbers.
Patagonia has an underwater platform of relatively shallow water, that extends from the South Atlantic coast of Argentina and across to the Falkland Islands. This shallow seabed retains the minerals running off the South American continent via rivers, and prevents them from falling into the deep abyss, making them available for surface-living plankton. In the Austral summer the days are very long, and this abundance of sunlight and nutrients causes a bloom of microscopic plants which feed a huge food web of tiny creatures. This in turn feeds an abundance of crustaceans and fish, which provide food for large populations of seabirds, whales and dolphins.
Amongst the animals that benefit from this food web are penguins. The coast of Patagonia, from Peninsula Valdes in Argentina to the sub-Antarctic islands of Cape Horn and Diego Ramirez, are home to millions of penguins, as well as other seabirds such as albatross, gulls, terns and cormorants.
I have been studying penguins in this region since 1993, firstly in the Falkland Islands, and then from 1998 in Argentina and Chile. The first thing I discovered was that commercial fishing has a devastating effect on penguin populations.
In 1984 the British Antarctic Survey conducted a census of penguin populations in the Falkland Islands. Afterwards, between 1986 and 1988, the Falkland Islands government established a commercial fishing industry in the 200 miles of territorial waters around the Falklands, to generate a better standard of living for the Falklands’ 2,500 inhabitants. When I repeated the Falkland Islands penguin census in 1996, I discovered that penguins had declined by 85% in the 12 years since the 1984 census. An 85% decline in just 12 years. This decline was due to the commercial fishing industry removing food which the penguins needed to raise their chicks.
With fish stocks being depleted by thousands of large commercial fishing vessels during the critical chick rearing season, penguins were unable to feed their chicks. Chick survival dropped to very low levels, and the population declined as older penguins died and were not replaced by youngsters.
In 1998, I expanded my studies to the Straits of Magellan, first in Chile and then in Argentina, covering sites at Magdalena Island, Contramaestra Island, Cabo Virgenes, and Punta Dungeness. Because the Straits of Magellan has laws preventing large-scale commercial fishing, fish stocks are not being disturbed, making it an ideal location to compare with the adjacent Falkland Islands. My research since 1998 has confirmed that penguins in the Straits of Magellan have increased, whilst penguins in the adjacent Falkland Islands have continued to decline due to commercial fishing.
One of the most popular tourist destinations in the Straits of Magellan is Magdalena Island, near to the city of Punta Arenas. Tourism began here in 1998, which is also the year that I set up penguin monitoring on the island. This monitoring program was initially funded for three years by the British Government’s Darwin Initiative. By the end of that term our penguin adoption program had become established, and since 2003 our work at all our locations has been entirely funded by our penguin adoption program.
Due to the lack of commercial fishing, the population on Magdalena Island initially flourished. Its numbers increased from 59,000 breeding pairs in 1998 to 69,000 in 2005. However, a severe drought hit the island in 2009. It lasted 18 months and killed virtually all the vegetation on the island, turning the island into a desert of loose sandy soil. The almost constant Patagonian wind then blew that loose soil across the island in dust storms. The soil trickled into the burrows like an egg timer, around the clock, day after day, causing eggs to become buried, and nests to become abandoned. Breeding success dropped dramatically from 0.96 chicks per nest in 2008, to just 0.46 chicks per nest in 2009.
By 2020, the population had dropped from 69,000 pairs to just 43,000 pairs, not because the adult penguins had died, but rather because many penguins decided to move to a nearby colony 100km along the coast, where conditions were more suitable for nesting. This happened to be another colony where I have been studying penguins, which lies between Cabo Virgenes and Punta Dungeness.
In 2003 the population at Punta Dungeness was 120,000 pairs. It remained stable until 2010 when penguins began moving from Magdalena Island to Punta Dungeness. Since then, the population has increased to 146,000 pairs, an increase of 26,000 pairs. That is precisely how much the population has declined on Magdalena Island over the same period.
There is also a colony on Contramaestra Island, only 15km from Magdalena Island. In 1998 this island had virtually no penguins, but as the population on Magdalena Island rapidly expanded between 1998 and 2002, penguins looking for more space moved to Contramaestra Island, and the population increased from a few hundred to about 25,000 pairs.
This island is small, and the penguins compete with rabbits for burrows, so further expansion would not be easy. The population has remained stable at 25,000 pairs since 2002. When penguins began leaving Magdalena Island following the drought, the population on Contramaestra Island did not increase any further. The increase only occurred at Punta Dungeness, which has plenty of space for expansion.
So, despite the drought on Magdalena Island, the total penguin population in the Straits of Magellan has actually increased by about 25,000 pairs over the last 25 years, whilst the population in the Falkland Islands has continued to decline as a result of commercial fishing.
Where to Visit
For people interested in visiting penguins in this region, I would not hesitate in recommending Magdalena Island. It is by far the easiest to reach and is also the most impressive in terms of the number of penguins that one can actually see.
Throughout the summer there are day trips from Punta Arenas which require no advanced booking. Even though the population has declined, there is still a very large number of penguins in a small area. The penguins have become so adapted to seeing visitors that they remain sleeping as tourists pass by, allowing tourists to get very close to the penguins.
Tourists should not worry that their presence is harming the penguins. Our work has always including studying the effects of tourism, and our work has clearly shown that penguins actually do better when tourists are present. This may sound strange, but it is easily explained.
One of the primary causes of nest failure is predation of the penguins’ eggs and chicks, and on Magdalena Island the principal predators are skuas. Whilst the penguins have no fear of people, the skuas do. So, there is a very low presence of skuas in the sector of the island where tourists visit. The presence of tourists therefore reduces predation and allows the penguins near to the tourist path to raise more chicks. You can visit freely and know that you are helping to protect penguins just by being there.
The colony on Contramaestra Island is similar to Magdalena Island, except that it is further from Punta Arenas and there are no commercial tours visiting the island. There are no buildings on the island for shelter, and no water. The only structure is a very small automatic lighthouse. This makes visiting difficult and extremely expensive, since private charter is the only option. The island is also small, flat and less interesting than Magdalena Island, so there is really no advantage to paying a special charter to visit.
The colony extending from Cabo Virgenes to Punta Dungeness can only be reached by a 120km long degraded dirt track road, full of enormous potholes that become muddy ponds after rain. There are no commercial tours, so renting your own 4×4 is the only option. The colony is larger than Magdalena Island, but it is hidden amongst thorn bushes, so regardless of which part of the colony you stand, you can only see a few penguins. By contrast Magdalena Island has no bushes, and you can see thousands of penguins from any location, making it much more spectacular for tourists.
Adopt a Penguin
Our penguin adoption program was established in 1997. We received three years of funding from the British government to set up our studies in Chile, but since then all our work has been entirely funded by our penguin adoption program.
Our program is the only adoption program to give each adoptee their very own penguin. All other adoption programs are what is known as ‘symbolic’ adoptions, which are essentially a donation to the cause, for which you get a cuddly toy and photos of the same penguin as other adoptees. The reason that our program is different is because sending each person photos of their very own penguin is so difficult, that other organizations simply do not do it.
We begin when the penguins are sitting on the nest incubating the eggs. Each nest is marked with the name chosen by the adoptee, so we know which penguin is which. Our penguins are like people. You find them by going to their home. Each Magellanic penguin has its own home, and it remains faithfully to that home throughout its life. We visit each nest and take several photos of each penguin using our digital camera. For each photo we write down the photo number displayed by the camera, and the name of the penguin, using a ‘Write-in-the-Rain’ notebook and pen.
Back at the office we download all the photos to our computer. We then use our notebook to rename the camera’s file names (which are numbers) to the name of the penguin for each photo. There are thousands of penguins, and each one has to be done by hand. There is no computer program that can do this automatically. It takes two or three days to rename the photo files.
Then with all the photos named after the penguin, we send out emails one by one, attaching the photo to the correct email, so that each adoptee gets the correct photo of ‘their’ penguin. This part of the process would take about four weeks to complete if one person did it. You can see why all our competitors prefer to just send out the same photo to everyone.
We also offer two categories of adoption so that it is tailored to the age of the adoptee. For adults and older children, we send out detailed information about the activities of each penguin, our work, photos of your penguin, and even a map to show where your penguin lives in case you wish to visit. For children under about nine years of age, we send out the same things, but the information is written as though the penguin is writing to the child. Receiving letters and photos from ‘their’ penguin pen-pal is something that young children love.
If you wish to sign up to adopt a penguin, for yourself or as a unique gift for any animal lover, then visit us at www.seabirds.org. You will not only receive a unique and entertaining adoption experience, but you will also be helping to fund our work to protect penguins.
Just Google the phrase “penguin research publications.” Ours will always be the top results. I have numerous publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals, which give you more detailed information about exactly what we do with our adoption fee. Other penguin adoption programs are nowhere to be found.
