In October 2024 the African penguin was officially listed as Critically Endangered, one step from extinction. Once numbering in the millions, it is down to fewer than 10,000 breeding pairs. In 2025 a South African court ordered the fishing closures that could still save it.
The Last Step Before Gone
In October 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. A century ago, African penguins numbered in the millions along the coasts of South Africa and Namibia. Today, fewer than 10,000 breeding pairs remain, and South Africa's colonies were down to about 8,300 pairs by 2024. Some 97% of the population has been lost.
>> "Without urgent action, the African penguin could vanish from 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: no-take fishing closures, areas of ocean around key breeding colonies where industrial fishing is temporarily banned during the breeding season. Trial closures began in 2008 around Dassen and Robben islands on the west coast and St Croix and Bird islands in Algoa Bay, and a 2018 study found they made a meaningful difference for penguins, although fisheries scientists contested the result. In 2023 the government announced 10-year closures but left their boundaries unresolved, and the interim zones that ended up in fishing permits in 2024 were too small to cover the penguins' key feeding grounds.
The Fight in Court
In March 2024, BirdLife South Africa and SANCCOB, represented by the Biodiversity Law Centre, took the environment minister and the fishing industry to court, arguing that the closures did not protect the places where penguins actually feed. A week before the hearing, the parties reached a settlement, and on 18 March 2025 the High Court made it an order: 10-year no-take zones around six key colonies, with a scientific review after six years.
>> "Protect the penguins' most critical feeding grounds while allowing sustainable fishing elsewhere."
The new zones were negotiated with the fishing industry. Around Robben Island and Stony Point, they now cover about three times more of the penguins' foraging areas than the previous closures.
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, and in 2018 they were moved down to Endangered thanks to conservation action.
For the African penguin, the window is narrow. Enforcing the court-ordered no-take zones, and keeping them in place, is the most important step available. Combined with oiled-penguin rehabilitation, new colonies such as the one at De Hoop Nature Reserve, chick-bolstering programmes, and captive insurance populations, scientists believe a recovery is still possible.
But only if it happens now.
_Sources: BirdLife South Africa, "African Penguin newly classified as Critically Endangered as breeding pairs fall below 10,000", 28 October 2024. BirdLife International, "African Penguin on the Brink of Extinction", 20 November 2024. McInnes et al., "A long road, but a win for African Penguins", African Birdlife, May/June 2025. BirdLife International, "Landmark Court Victory Secures Critical Protection for African Penguins", 23 March 2025. IUCN, "Fin Whale, Mountain Gorilla recovering thanks to conservation action", 14 November 2018._