In November 2024 the African penguin was officially listed as Critically Endangered — one step from extinction. Once 1.5 million strong, fewer than 10,000 breeding pairs survive. Greenpeace is fighting for the fishing exclusion zones that could still save them.
The Last Step Before Gone
In November 2024, the IUCN made it official: the African penguin — the only penguin species that breeds on the African continent — was uplisted to Critically Endangered. That is the final category before Extinct in the Wild.
The number tells the story. At the turn of the 20th century, roughly 1.5 million African penguins nested along the coasts of South Africa and Namibia. Today, fewer than 10,000 breeding pairs remain. That is a collapse of more than 97% in a little over a century.
>> "At current rates, African penguins could be functionally extinct in the wild by 2035."
Hungry Waters
The penguin has survived oil spills, egg collection, and guano harvesting. What it cannot survive is an empty ocean.
African penguins feed almost exclusively on sardines and anchovies — the same fish targeted by South Africa's industrial purse-seine fleet. As climate change shifts shoals of fish further from breeding colonies and industrial vessels compete for what remains, penguin parents are forced to swim further and further to feed their chicks. Many chicks starve before they fledge.
The solution is well understood: Exclusion Protection Zones (EPZs) — areas of ocean around key breeding colonies where industrial fishing is temporarily banned during the breeding season. When EPZs were trialled around Robben Island and other key sites from 2008 onwards, penguin breeding success measurably improved. When the South African government declined to extend mandatory exclusion zones in 2023 under pressure from the fishing industry, colonies began failing again.
Greenpeace at the Waterline
Greenpeace Africa has made the African penguin a flagship campaign. They have documented the collapse with field surveys, challenged the government's fishing policies in the courts, and mobilised hundreds of thousands of signatures demanding permanent exclusion zones around all major colonies.
>> "The fishing industry argues that exclusion zones cost jobs. Greenpeace argues that a species going extinct costs the ocean — and every job that depends on it — far more."
The science is on their side. Independent modelling shows that protecting foraging habitat around colonies during breeding season would cost the purse-seine industry a fraction of its catch while giving penguin populations a fighting chance to recover.
What Still Has to Happen
The IUCN Critically Endangered listing is not a death sentence — it is a warning. Mountain gorillas were once in the same category. So was the California condor. Both pulled back.
For the African penguin, the window is narrow. Permanent, legally enforced exclusion zones around the 28 remaining breeding colonies are the single most impactful intervention available. Combined with oiled-penguin rehabilitation (SANCCOB has released over 100,000 rehabilitated birds), chick-bolstering programmes, and captive insurance populations, scientists believe a recovery is still possible.
But only if it happens now.