Penguin safety worries as navy readies Simon’s Town underwater demolition training exercise

A planned ‘underwater explosive exercise’ by the South African Navy has raised concern among local residents and environmental activists. Scheduled to take place near Seaforth Beach from Monday, 22 January 2024, the exercise has sparked alarm due to its potential impact on the African penguin colony at Boulders Beach.

Penguin safety worries as navy readies Simon’s Town underwater demolition training exercise

A coastal warning was issued on the South African Navy website on 15 January 2024 indicating that the navy will be conducting the exercise between 22 January and 1 February near Seaforth in Simon’s Town, and all vessels were requested to keep clear.

This triggered an immediate outcry from residents as fears were raised over the potential effects on marine life, particularly the African penguin colony at Boulders Beach, which is close to the exercise area.

Residents have expressed dismay at the lack of transparency and communication regarding the nature and necessity of the exercise, as well as the potential harm to threatened marine wildlife.

The demolition range where the exercise will take place was gazetted for the navy’s use more than 60 years ago and it uses the range to train navy divers.

A major concern among residents is the potential impacts on the penguins — the African penguin is listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature on its Red Data list of threatened species.

The species, endemic to South Africa and Namibia, is marching towards extinction, with a population that is critically low. A century ago, the African penguin boasted more than a million breeding pairs, but the number has dwindled to fewer than 10,000 today. This current trajectory suggests it could become functionally extinct by 2035.

This means the population will be so diminished that it won’t be able to breed sufficiently to replenish and increase its numbers.

We don’t know enough to just blindly continue doing a practice just because we’ve done it for 60 years.

Nick Stander, head of conservation at the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (Sanccob), told Daily Maverick: “Sanccob is engaging with stakeholders on the matter, and we share concerns regarding the noise implications on endangered African penguins at the Simon’s Town colony.”

Stander said they have been conducting ongoing bioacoustics research with their partners to better understand how noise affects seabirds under and above water.

Underwater demolitions training exercise for divers

Commander Theo Mabina, acting senior staff officer of naval public relations, told Daily Maverick that the navy will undertake an “underwater demolitions training exercise for divers” to prepare and train them for some of their responsibilities.

This includes clearing harbour entrances, underwater canals, beach landings, and any other underwater demolition jobs that may arise.

Mabina said that “at all times, the South African Navy should maintain a capable force ready to respond to any hostile circumstance, which could include economic sabotage situations in which sea mines are put in the country’s major ports, necessitating the use of navy divers. As a result, training and force preparation are critical components of members’ competency and certification. This is what the organisation has been doing since its inception, as required by the Constitution and Defence Act.”

The training exercise would take place in a designated and charted “Shallow Water Demolitions Range Military Practice Area”, which is mainly used for such training and exercises.

“The range’s limit for underwater demolitions is 5kg, which has been in effect since its inception in the 1980s. This training will last only one day, between January 22 and February 1, 2024. As a norm, the SA Navy does and will always send navigational warnings on these and other related activities,” said Mabina.

Questions about whether an environmental impact assessment (EIA) had been done, and whether the potential harm of this activity on the nearby African penguin colony and other marine life had been considered, went unanswered in the navy’s response. As were questions about what safety measures were implemented to minimise the impact on marine life and the surrounding environment.

Outcry from locals and objections

Simon’s Town resident Jenny Cullinan questioned the environmental impact studies conducted by the navy, expressing concern that outdated practices fail to account for the changing environmental conditions and the increasing threats to marine life.

Cullinan lives just above the demarcated area and said “it’s a big sound that comes from it; huge explosive blows where even my windows rattle and my animals get pretty distressed by it. I would say it has a massive impact on the animals in the ocean; one knows that sound travels in a particular way underwater.

“The South African Navy has to comply with South African law, environmental laws too… from my point of view, we’re looking at a government entity that seems to override the law. They do their own thing,” she said.

Cullinan said the environment has changed drastically over the past 60 years with climate change, biodiversity loss, urbanisation, pollution and ocean changes.

“We can’t just carry on behaving as if the situation hasn’t changed. This behaviour needs to be adjusted… 60 years ago these demarcated areas were declared; what environmental studies were done then? And if they weren’t done, can we not ask for a review or for this to be done so that halting of this activity happens and an assessment is done?

It’s very close to… a group of African penguins that are likely to be extinct by 2035. So, any disturbance to an area near them could have catastrophic effects.

“The False Bay environment has lots of very special animals that live here… and we do need to protect what we have – not just protect, but fiercely protect. It’s a critical point in time on the planet, we can’t just carry on because it’s always been done for 60 years.”

In her objection to the activity, Dr Heidi-Jayne Hawkins, a Glencairn resident, a regular diver off Simon’s Town and researcher of plant physiology, functional ecology and ecosystem carbon, requested that the navy supply evidence of an EIA.

“I find this unacceptable because the area is near Boulders Beach with the endangered African penguin colony, and Seaforth Beach, a major recreational area on both land and sea for locals and tourists.”

Long-time resident Lisa Garson, who has persistently raised concerns about naval exercises, said her attempts to report the activities as environmental crimes were met with resistance, underscoring the perception that the navy operates with impunity.

Garson even tried to lay a charge with the South African Police Service in Simon’s Town and claims she was laughed out of the office because they said the crime has to actually be in progress or have taken place when reported.

“I’ve had a very frustrating time… recently, they’ve [the navy] put a notice on their website saying that they’re planning these explosions underground, and they’re detonations, not massive explosions where all the fish are going to be lying on the top of the sea. But the fact of the matter is that it’s very close to the Boulders penguin colony with a group of African penguins that are likely to be extinct by 2035. So, any disturbance to an area near them could have catastrophic effects,” she said.

In September 2021, 65 endangered African penguins died overnight at Boulders as a result of bee stings. Garson said this showed how sensitive and vulnerable this already endangered species was to changes in the environment: “We don’t know enough to just blindly continue doing a practice just because we’ve done it for 60 years.”

“The navy needs to see some protest action, because they operate with impunity… The bottom line is that until we know more, until we know how these birds are affected by any activity, shooting, blasting, or whatever it might be, it needs to be stopped,” said Garson.

Our oceans are under pressure on multiple fronts. Seismic blasting and oil drilling, ocean acidification from absorption of the increasing amounts of CO2 in our atmosphere, increasing temperatures and commercial fishing are just a small sample of the factors threatening aquatic life.

‘Ecocidal behaviour’

Isabelle Joubert from Extinction Rebellion (XR) Cape Town said that with coastal wildlife already vulnerable, they want transparency about these activities, including their use, necessity and environmental impact.

“Globally, militaries need to be held to far greater account for their ecocidal behaviour, whether as a result of their profligate use of fossil fuels, their indiscriminate decimation of conflict zones, or their devastation of ecosystems through weapons testing, most notably in the case of the nuclear weapons tests,” said Joubert.

XR Cape Town called for the blasting exercises to be stopped and participated in a sea and land-based protest on Saturday, 19 January at Long Beach in Simon’s Town, together with other paddlers, seafarers and residents.

Helen Lockhart, conservation and sustainability manager for the Two Oceans Aquarium, said that sound is the sensory cue that travels farthest in the ocean and is used by marine animals, ranging from tiny floating plankton to invertebrates and whales, to interpret and explore the marine environment and to interact within and among species.

“Penguins may be expected to be particularly affected by loud underwater sounds, due to their largely aquatic existence. A study in 2017 by Pichegru, Nyengera, McInnes and Pistorius on the behavioural response of breeding endangered African penguins to seismic surveys within 100km of their colony showed that penguins avoided the areas where they normally foraged for food and moved further away, which meant that they had to expend more energy to hunt and also remained from their nests and chicks for longer periods,” she said.

The birds reverted to normal behaviour when the operation ceased, although longer-term repercussions on hearing capacities cannot be precluded.

Lockhart said that “the rapid industrialisation of the oceans has increased levels of underwater anthropogenic noises globally – a growing concern for a wide range of taxa, now also including seabirds. African penguin numbers have decreased by 70% in the past 10 years, a strong motivation for precautionary management decisions and human activities.”

The Not On Our Watch Campaign, which was launched in 2023, aims to create a movement and raise awareness of the need for urgent action to reverse the decline of the African penguin population in the wild.

As the controversy unfolds, the battle for environmental protection in Simon’s Town intensifies. The fragile balance between military activities and the preservation of endangered species underscores the urgent need for open dialogue, updated environmental assessments, and a re-evaluation of practices that may threaten the delicate ecosystems of Simon’s Town. DM