Illegal fishing slaughter: 138 penguins wash up dead off Argentina’s coast

A heartbreaking image of a huge group of dead penguins that highlights the plague of illegal fishing in protected areas has gone viral online.

A total of 138 penguin corpses were found off the coast of Santa Cruz Province in Argentina’s south last week.

Local authorities said that the flightless birds washed up on the coast and had been captured by a fishing net illegally placed in a protected area at Puerto San Julián, a port city in Patagonia.

Santa Cruz provincial authorities indicated that this is the largest-known slaughter of penguins in the area, which is managed jointly with the national government.

According to local residents, fishing firms in the area have recently been using trammel dragnets, a special type of net that does not distinguish between types of animals and destroys everything it captures from the ocean. 

The use of such nets requires authorisation from the local authorities, who say permission was not granted.

The net was reportedly placed in ‘Faro Negro,’ an area close to Isla Pingüino (“Penguin Island”).

"Police investigation is non-existent, there is a lot of environmental neglect in the province. These protected areas depend on the provinces and there is a lack of resources to look after them properly," one local official told the TN news channel.

After the gruesome discovery, the Provincial Agrarian Council of Santa Cruz said it had filed a complaint with the provincial Fisheries Secretariat.

"The number of dead penguins is very large and happens at a crucial time because they are breeding," said Amanda Manero, the outgoing director general of the Wildlife section of the Agrarian Council. 

– TIMES/NA