The volunteers who deal with the 50,000 people who visit Sandfly Bay on Otago Peninsula annually to view the wildlife were named winners of the 2014 Coastal Otago Conservation Awards at a ceremony in Dunedin last night. Rebecca Fox asked some of the volunteers about their work in the reserve.
What is it about the project you are involved in that got you interested in conservation and drives your work?
The yellow-eyed penguins' constant struggle for survival in the face of habitat loss, predation, disease and starvation, even without the disruption caused by the countless people who visit the beach, is very strong motivation to do something to help their plight.
How do the project/s you're involved in benefit conservation?
This volunteer programme is an opportunity for us to educate visitors to the beach on appropriate behaviour to the penguins and sea lions in particular, and to ensure minimum disruption to the penguins during the crucial breeding and moulting seasons. Our presence has been shown to be a deterrent to bad behaviour by visitors and there has been an increase in chick weights as well.
Our main priority is to ensure penguins get to their nests without delay. Any disturbance to penguins walking back to their nests after a day feeding at sea can be detrimental to the feeding of chicks. Consequently, hearing about the numbers of chicks fledged and their fledging weights is always a highly anticipated event. The weight of fledged chicks is a strong indicator for their future survival.
We can also be on hand to ensure that penguins are not harassed during their most vulnerable time at moulting and if they have chosen open positions to moult we can, in conjunction with Doc, have them moved to a safer place.
What do you get out of your work in conservation?
It is immensely satisfying to know that our work helps the survival of the yellow-eyed penguins. We also get satisfaction from knowing that our educational stance has a positive impact on visitors to the beach. We have been able to learn from Doc's experts and to be involved in other projects involving the yellow-eyed penguins such as pest-trapping, searching for nests, data input and even painting penguin decoys to help attract more penguins to the beaches with colonies.
We are also a lot fitter that when we first started volunteering. Sometimes we have to walk the beach up to 4-6 times and then there's the trek up the hill back to the car park.
What challenges have you faced and how have they been overcome?
Some visitors can be challenging, particularly photographers who feel the need to get close to the penguins and sea lions. Talking to them about how their behaviour can negatively impact on the wildlife helps. This could be a life-and-death situation for a compromised chick. Diplomacy works better than haranguing and we find that visitors are suitably contrite and apologetic after our little chats.
We sometimes have to deal with sick or dead penguins. Usually a call to Doc will help us manage this. Even us volunteers find sea lions a challenge, especially in November when their numbers are the highest. Sandfly Bay has a high percentage of male sea lions that can become aggressive. The changeable weather can be a challenge. At the height of the breeding season, we can be on the beach for more than five hours. We have learnt to dress accordingly and to ensure our backpacks have appropriate clothing and gear.
Although Doc encourages us to work in pairs, it's not always possible. It would be great to have more volunteers so that working in pairs is the norm. This will allow us to do a better job at patrolling the beach and educating and managing visitors to improve the outcome for the penguins.
