Suzuki outboards are used for the conservation of African penguins

The Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town and researcher Dr Lorien Pichegru have been working for 5 years on the world largest colonies of African penguins, located in Algoa Bay, off Port Elizabeth.
The boat used for penguin research and conservation is equipped with Suzuki DF140’s. The research vessel requires being out for long days very regularly and the engines have proven to be very reliable.

During one of their researches out at sea, they captured this picture with the Orcas!

In collaboration with other researchers and students, they are trying to understand why penguins are dying so quickly. About 60% of their global population was lost since 2004, which has never been witnessed before. It is thought to be mostly due to a food problem, with not enough sardines and anchovies available for the birds and adult and chick penguins starving to death. A world-unique experience was designed on a national scale, together with governmental institutions and fishermen, to determine if closing industrial fishing over a small area around the penguin colonies could increase the amount of fish available for penguins.

It was discovered that after closing the area for fishing, penguins rapidly decreased their energy spent at sea to find food, which was a very exciting finding. Not only for our penguins but also for other marine predators in the world, as it was the first time that a study showed a positive effect of a marine protected area, even a small one, on a marine top predator.

The following year, however, they discovered that fishermen were increasing their catches around the border of the reserve, which was affecting the penguins and disappointing the conservationists.

The researchers now realized that they need to know the scale of movement of the penguins prey. If the fish go in and out the reserve constantly, they have all the chance to be caught by fishermen waiting at the border of the reserve. If that's the case, either a larger reserve or a larger zone with limited fishing catches around the reserve would be required.

Suzuki is proud that the researchers are using Suzuki products to further understand the penguins prey movement at sea in order to protect the population of African penguins!