Skip to main content Skip to navigation
Home
Today's Show: The Alula
A Peregrine Falcon perched on a branch in the sunshine, holding its wings up, its tail fanned out
Listen In
  • Today's Show
  • Listen
    • Daily Shows
    • Threatened
    • Grouse
    • BirdNote Presents
    • How to Listen
  • Explore
    • Field Notes
    • Sights & Sounds
    • Birdwatching
    • Resources for Educators
  • How to Help Birds
    • At Home
    • In Your Community
    • Success Stories
  • About
    • The BirdNote Story
    • The Team
    • Partners
    • For Radio Stations
    • Funding
    • Contact Us
    • FAQs
    • Support BirdNote
  • Donate

Life Improved for Penguins in Argentina

Professor Dee Boersma rallied a community to help Magellanic Penguins
Subscribe to the Podcast
Download
  • Share This:
  • Share to Facebook
  • Share to Twitter
  • Share to Email
Dee with Magellanic Penguins
© The Penguin Project

Professor Dee Boersma, working with the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Province of Chubut, has been studying the Magellanic Penguins of Argentina. "In 1983, we realized that oil pollution was really a huge problem for these birds. We were seeing birds coming ashore, covered in oil. We started bringing this to the government's attention. And in 1997, they moved the tanker lanes further offshore. Some years we get no penguins dead on the beach covered in oil." To learn more visit the Center for Ecosystem Sentinels website.

  • Full Transcript
  • Credits

BirdNote®

Life Improved for Penguins in Argentina:
An Interview with Professor Dee Boersma

By Chris Peterson

Mary McCann:  This is BirdNote.

[Calls of Magellanic Penguins + waves throughout the show]

With the right information and motivation, people will come to the aid of birds in trouble. Professor Dee Boersma has been studying Magellanic Penguins along the coast of Argentina for more than 30 years. She describes how people speaking out helped the birds there:

Dee Boersma: When I started working on Magellanic Penguins in 1983 at Punta Tombo…. which has the largest Magellanic Penguin colony in the world, we realized that oil pollution was really a huge problem for these birds. …We were seeing birds coming ashore, covered in oil.

The reason there was so much illegal dumping is because it’s cheaper…. If you dump the ballast water from your oil tankers  [just releasing it at sea before you go in] you save a whole day of time – so you don’t have to pay the crew, you don’t have to treat the oil – It’s the penguins that pay the price.

This is a tragedy, and of course we started bringing this to the government’s attention … and we had pictures on the newspapers and in the local radio programs… and in 1997 they moved the tanker lanes further offshore. Since then, some years we get NO penguins dead on the beach covered in oil. There’s not so much of that release of the illegal ballast water, and in large part it’s because of public outcry.

I think the true motivation for conservation is when people care. And people care about penguins.

Mary McCann: There’s more to the story at birdnote.org.

###
Sounds of provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York.
Producer: John Kessler
Executive Producer: Chris Peterson
© 2011 Tune In to Nature.org     October 2018   Narrator: Mary McCann

ID# MAGPEN-boersmad-01-2011-11-30    MAGPEN-boersmad-01b
 

Chris Peterson
Writer
Mary McCann
Narrator
Support More Shows Like This
TagsArgentina environmental champion pollution ocean South America

Related Resources

Check out the current research about Magellanic Penguins, 2019More about saving Magellanic PenguinsPenguin Project newsSmithsonian article "The Magellanic Penguins of Punta Tumbo"Travel with Dee to the Galapagos - via video!

More About These Birds

Magellanic Penguin (Spheniscus magellanicus)

Spheniscus magellanicus

Related Field Notes

July 14, 2015

Kingfisher Perches

By BirdNote Gallery
For better and for worse, humans can have a huge impact on the lives of birds.
April 28, 2015

Champions for Birds

By BirdNote Gallery
CELEBRATING BIRD CHAMPIONS ACROSS THE COUNTRY

Birds connect us with the joy and wonder of nature. By telling vivid, sound-rich stories about birds and the challenges they face, BirdNote inspires listeners to care about the natural world – and take steps to protect it.

Support BirdNote

  • Daily Shows
  • Field Notes
  • BirdNote Presents
  • Sights & Sounds
  • About BirdNote
  • Contact BirdNote
Sign up for our newsletter!
  • BirdNote on Facebook
  • BirdNote on Twitter
  • BirdNote on Instagram

Copyright 2021. All rights reserved.

  • Privacy Policy