Patagonian Penguins Face Uncertain Future

A newly approved plan to open the Patagonian coast to anchovy fishing could have serious effects on penguins, right whales, elephant seals, and other animals that live there, researchers report.

Patagonia is the southern-most portion of South America. A wide variety of animals lives in the area, but the coast is especially famous for its marine animals, such as Magellanic penguins, which are much smaller than their emperor cousins on Antarctica. Many of these animals depend on anchovies for food.

In 2003, the Argentinean government approved a plan to start up a small-scale fishery for anchovy, partly because another fish that lives in these waters, called hake, has already been over fished. The proposed area where the fishing would take place is near the world's largest continental Magellanic penguin colony.

Unfortunately, the plan does not include specific ways to study the fishery's effect on the fish and wildlife species that depend on anchovy.

In an article published in the Jan. 5 issue of the journal Science, researchers say that the effects this plan on other fisheries, risks to wildlife and ecotourism, and food-web interactions need to be studied prior to continuing the project.

---LiveScience Staff

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Credit: E. Skewgar