The survey found 44 nests across Stewart Island and its offshore islands over the past year, which was a drastic fall from 154 active nests in 2008, and 183 nests in 1999.
There were 18 people and one dog that were part of the survey teams who accessed nest sites by boat, helicopter, or simply by tramping in.
Dr Webster said several projects were under way to try to turn the tide on declining numbers, and work had begun to establish a penguin rehabilitation facility at Mamaku Point. Collaboration with Predator Free Rakiura was continuing.
Department of Conservation (Doc) senior ranger, biodiversity, Murihiku Ros Cole followed Dr Webster’s talk with information about collaboration with Ngai Tahu on the survey.
Some of the Titi Islands around Stewart Island were vested with Ngai Tahu, who were willing partners in the conservation efforts.
"Those islands are intrinsic to them ... there’s so much whakapapa and history in those islands."
Doc technical adviser ecology Bruce McKinlay said the symposium was in its 32nd year, and was a unique opportunity for everyone involved in yellow-eyed penguin conservation to come together.
About 90 people attended the symposium, from Christchurch down to Stewart Island.
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It is ironic that the battle to save one speciee of bird is taking place on the same islands that allow the mass slaughter of hundreds of thousands of another. The harvesting of sooty shearwater chicks on 36 islands, known as the Titi or Muttonbird Islands, around Rakiura (Stewart Island).
The young birds are harvested for food and oil by being extracted by hand from the nesting burrows before they fledge.
The sooty shearwater (Ardenna grisea) is a medium-large shearwater in the seabird family Procellariidae. In New Zealand, it is also known by its Māori name tītī, and as muttonbird. They start breeding in October, and incubate their young for about 54 days. Once the chick hatches, the parents raise their chick for 86 to 109 days.Young birds just about to fledge are collected from the burrows, plucked, and often preserved in salt.
They are spectacular long-distance migrants, Recent tagging experiments have shown that birds breeding in New Zealand may travel 74,000 km in a year, reaching Japan, Alaska, and California, averaging more than 500 km per day.
Its numbers have been declining in recent decades, and it is presently classified as near threatened by the IUCN.-Wikipedia