nearly 2,000 penguins have been found dead in ten days on the coasts

A carnage. Nearly 2,000 dead penguins have been found on the eastern coasts of Uruguay in ten days, announce the country’s authorities. The cause of this carnage remains unexplained. These Magellanic penguins died in the Atlantic Ocean before being brought back by the currents to the coasts of the departments of Canelones, Maldonado and Rocha, the wildlife officer at the Uruguayan Ministry of the Environment told AFP.

According to Carmen Leizagoyen, “90% are young specimens that arrive without fat reserves and with an empty stomach”. The tests carried out to determine the presence of the avian flu are negative, she added. This species, which nests in the south of Argentina, migrates to the north of the country in search of warmer waters during the austral winter, and can go up to the coasts of the Brazilian state of Espirito Santo, in the south-east of Brazil.

Pointing out overfishing

“It is normal for a certain percentage to die, but not as many”, said Carmen Leizagoyen, recalling that a similar carnage took place last year in Brazil, again for an unknown cause. Conservationists blame Magellanic penguin mortality on overfishing and illegal fishing.

“From the 1990s and 2000s, we started to see animals that lacked food”, deplores Richard Tesore, of the NGO SOS Marine Wildlife Rescue. According to him, the cyclone that appeared in the Atlantic which hit the south-east of Brazil in mid-July had probably led to the death of the most weakened individuals, due to the bad climatic conditions.