South American Wildlife

Humboldt Penguin Welfare and Fishing Bycatch off Peru

Humboldt penguins breed along the Pacific coast of Peru and Chile and are classified as Vulnerable. Gillnet and purse seine fishing entanglement is a significant cause of mortality alongside El Nino-driven prey collapse events.

Key Facts

Humboldt penguins are classified as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List with fewer than 32,000 mature individuals
They depend on anchovies and sardines concentrated by the cold Humboldt Current
El Nino events cause prey to disperse, causing mass starvation in breeding colonies
Gillnet entanglement kills penguins that dive for fish within nets
Peru's commercial fishery is among the largest in the world and operates in penguin foraging habitat

Welfare Considerations

Penguins entangled in gillnets drown within minutes of entrapment. Adults that survive El Nino events in starved condition but recover sufficiently to breed may then fail to provision chicks due to persistent prey scarcity. Chicks that starve in nests die over multiple days from progressive starvation. The combination of entanglement mortality and climate-driven starvation creates compound welfare pressure on already declining populations.

What You Can Do

Support Sphenisco-Humboldt penguin monitoring and protection programs
Donate to ACOREMA marine conservation in Peru
Advocate for gillnet restrictions in critical Humboldt penguin foraging areas
Engage with Peruvian and Chilean fisheries management on bycatch reduction
Choose Peruvian seafood certified to minimise bycatch of marine wildlife