Another action-packed Save Our Seabirds Festival was held this year at the Iziko Museum in Cape Town. The highlights of the week included three evening lectures, two birding outings to Robben Island and a photographic competition.
The week kicked off with an opening address by a staff member from the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA), followed a very interesting talk titled, “The good, bad and the ugly of seabird conservation by Peter Ryan. Dr Sam Peterson (from WWF-SA) spoke about sustainable fishing and the South African Sustainable Seafood Initiative (consumer awareness programme) in today’s changing environment. The final presentation of the week was given by Steve Kirkman (DEA) on the possibility of seals and seabirds coexisting. All evenings were full to capacity with over 120 people attending! At these evening lectures, Diemersfontein Wine Estate launched their new Diemersfontein “For the Birds” wine, with a portion of sales of this wine from now onwards, being donated directly to BirdLife South Africa’s Save Our Seabirds Fund.
This year’s photograph competition’s theme was not confined to photographs of seabirds but could include any animal of our oceans. We had an overwhelming response and it was an extremely tough job for our judges to pick the top 45 pictures. These were given prime position in the exhibition hall of one of our museums, illuminated by light boxes, displaying their magnificent colour and making the hall come alive! The winner of the competition, Jill Sneesby, won herself the brand knew CANON EOS 7D camera (donated by CANON SA), with her picture of a Gentoo penguin leaping out of the ocean. As the quality of these images was so high, the museum allowed them to be left on display in for 5 weeks!
Last, but definitely not least, we once again were lucky enough to be able to offer 40 people the opportunity to be guided on Robben Island, in search of the elusive Chukkar Partridge (see image by R. Wanless, right) and peacocks! Robben Island is the only place in South Africa where feral populations of these species are found!
The week gave us the opportunity to once again show case the work of BirdLife South Africa and the South African Albatross Task Force!