The great penguin rescue | Dyan deNapoli | TEDxBoston

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.

"Penguins are very vocal birds and really, really noisy when we stepped through the doors and into the building it was eerily silent."

Dyan deNapoli tells a riveting personal tale of the world's largest volunteer animal rescue that saved over 40,000 penguins after an oil spill off the coast of South Africa. She dispels the belief that all oiled birds should be euthanized and proves that each one of us really can make a difference.

For as long as I can remember

I have felt a very deep connection
to animals and to the ocean.

And at this age, my personal idol
was Flipper the dolphin.

(Laughter)

And when I first learned
about endangered species

I was truly distressed
to know that every day

animals were being wiped off
the face of this earth forever.

And I wanted to do something to help,
but I always wondered

what could one person possibly do
to make a difference.

And it would be 30 years,

but I would eventually
get the answer to that question.

When these heartbreaking images
of oiled birds finally began to emerge

from the Gulf of Mexico last year
during the horrific BP oil spill,

a German biologist
by the name of Silvia Gaus

was quoted as saying,
"We should just euthanize all oiled birds

because studies have shown

that fewer than 1% of them
survive after being released."

And I could not disagree more.

And in addition,

I believe that every oiled animal
deserves a second chance at life.

And I want to tell you why
I feel so strongly about this.

On June 23rd, 2000,

a ship named the Treasure sank off
the coast of Cape Town, South Africa,

spilling 1,300 tons of fuel
which polluted the habitat

of nearly half the entire
world population of African penguins.

The ship sank between
Robben Island to the south

and Dassen Island to the north,

and these are two of the penguins'
main breeding islands.

And exactly six years
and three days earlier on June 20th, 1994,

a ship named the Apollo Sea
sank near Dassen Island

oiling 10,000 penguins,
half of which died.

When the Treasure sank in 2000, it was
the height of the best breeding season

scientists had ever recorded
for the African penguin,

which, at the time,
was listed as a threatened species.

And soon, nearly 20,000 penguins
were covered with this toxic oil.

And the local seabird
rescue center named SANCCOB

immediately launched
a massive rescue operation,

and this soon would become
the largest animal rescue ever undertaken.

Now, at the time
I was working down the street.

I was a penguin aquarist
at the New England Aquarium.

And exactly 11 years ago yesterday,
the phone rang in the penguin office,

and with that call
my life would change forever.

It was Estelle van der Meer
calling from SANCCOB, saying,

"Please come help.

We have thousands of oiled penguins

and thousands of willing,
but completely inexperienced, volunteers.

And we need penguin experts
to come train and supervise them."

So two days later, I was on a plane
headed for Cape Town

with a team of penguin specialists.

And the scene inside of this building
was devastating and surreal.

In fact, many people
compared it to a war zone.

And last week,
a ten-year-old girl asked me,

"What did it feel like

when you first walked into that building
and saw so many oiled penguins?"

And this is what happened.

I was instantly transported back
to that moment in time.

Penguins are very vocal birds
and really, really noisy,

and so I expected
to walk into this building

and be met with this cacophony
of honking, and braying, and squawking.

But instead, when we stepped through
those doors and into the building,

it was eerily silent.

So it was very clear these were stressed,
sick, traumatized birds.

The other thing that was so striking
was the sheer number of volunteers.

Up to 1,000 people a day
came to the rescue center,

and eventually,
over the course of this rescue,

more than 12,500 volunteers
came from all over the world

to Cape Town to help save these birds.

And the amazing thing was
that not one of them had to be there,

Yet they were.

So for the few of us that were there
in a professional capacity,

this extraordinary volunteer response
to this animal crisis

was profoundly moving and awe-inspiring.

So the day after we arrived,

two of us from the aquarium
were put in charge of Room 2,

and Room 2 had more
than 4,000 oiled penguins in it.

Now mind you, three days earlier,
we had 60 penguins under our care,

so we were definitely overwhelmed
and just a bit terrified, at least I was.

Personally, I really didn't know

if I was capable of handling
such a monstrous task.

And collectively, we really didn't know
if we could pull this off,

because we all knew
that just six years earlier,

half as many penguins
had been oiled and rescued,

and only half of them had survived.

So would it be humanly possible
to save this many oiled penguins?

We just did not know.

But what gave us hope were these
incredibly dedicated and brave volunteers,

three of whom here
are force-feeding penguins,

and you may notice
they're wearing very thick gloves,

and what you should know
about African penguins

is that they have razor-sharp beaks.

And before long, our bodies were
covered head to toe

with these nasty wounds
inflicted by the terrified penguins.

The day after we arrived,
a new crisis began to unfold.

The oil slick was now moving north
towards Dassen Island,

and the rescuers despaired,
because they knew if the oil hit,

it would not be possible to rescue
any more oiled birds,

and there really were no good solutions.

But then finally, one of the researchers
threw out this crazy idea.

He said, "OK, why don't we try
and collect the birds

at the greatest risk of getting oiled,
- they collected 20,000 -

and we'll ship them 500 miles
up the coast to Port Elizabeth

in these open air trucks, and release them
into the clean waters there,

and let them swim back home?"

So three of those penguins

- Peter, Pamela and Percy -
wore satellite tags,

and the researchers
crossed their fingers and hoped

that by the time they got back home,

the oil would be cleaned up
from their islands.

And luckily, the day they arrived, it was.

So it had been a huge gamble,
but it had paid off.

And so they know now that they can use
this strategy in future oil spills.

So in wildlife rescue, as in life,
we learn from each previous experience,

and we learn from both
our successes and our failures.

And the main thing learned
during the Apollo sea rescue in '94

was that most of those penguins had died
due to the unwitting use

of poorly ventilated
transport boxes and trucks,

because they just had not been
prepared to deal with

so many oiled penguins at once.

So in these six years
between these two oil spills,

they built thousands
of these well-ventilated boxes,

and as a result,
during the Treasure rescue,

just 160 penguins died
during the transport process,

as opposed to 5,000.

So this alone was a huge victory.

Something else learned
during the Apollo rescue

was how to train the penguins
to take fish freely from their hands

using these training boxes,

and we used this technique again
during the Treasure rescue.

But an interesting thing was noted
during the training process.

The first penguins to make
that transition to free feeding

were the ones that had
a metal band on their wing

from the Apollo sea spill
six years earlier.

So penguins learn
from previous experience too.

All of those penguins had to have the oil
meticulously cleaned from their bodies,

and it would take two people
at least an hour

just to clean one penguin.

And when you clean a penguin,

you first have to spray it
with a degreaser,

and this brings me to my favorite story
from the Treasure rescue.

About a year prior to this oil spill,

a 17-year-old student
had invented a degreaser,

and they'd been using it at SANCCOB
with great success

so they began using it
during the Treasure rescue.

But, part way through, they ran out.

So in a panic, Estelle from SANCCOB
called the student and said,

"Please, you have to make more."

So he raced to the lab and made enough
to clean the rest of the birds.

I just think it is the coolest thing
that a teenager invented a product

that helped save the lives
of thousands of animals.

So what happened
to those 20,000 oiled penguins?

And was Silvia Gaus right?

Should we routinely
euthanize all oiled birds

because most of them
are going to die anyway?

Well, she could not be more wrong.

After half a million hours
of grueling volunteer labor,

more than 90% of those oiled penguins
were successfully returned to the wild.

And we know from follow-up studies
that they have lived just as long

as never-oiled penguins,
and bred nearly as successfully.

In addition, about 3,000 penguin chicks
were rescued and hand-raised.

And again, we know
from long-term monitoring,

that more of these hand-raised chicks
survive to adulthood and breeding age

than do parent-raised chicks.

So armed with this knowledge,
SANCCOB has a chick bolstering project.

And every year, they rescue
and raise abandoned chicks,

and they have a very impressive
80% success rate.

And this is critically important
because, one year ago,

the African penguin
was declared endangered.

And they could be extinct
in less than ten years

if we don't do something now
to protect them.

So what did I learn from this intense
and unforgettable experience?

Personally, I learned that I am capable
of handling so much more

than I ever dreamed possible.

And I learned that one person
can make a huge difference,

just look at that 17-year-old.

And when we come together
and work as one,

we can achieve extraordinary things.

And truly to be a part of something
so much larger than yourself

is the most rewarding experience
you can possibly have.

So I'd like to leave you

with one final thought
and a challenge, if you will.

My mission as the penguin lady

is to raise awareness and funding
to protect penguins.

But why should any of you
care about penguins?

Well, you should care
because they're an indicator species.

And simply put, if penguins are dying
it means our oceans are dying.

And we ultimately will be affected,
because as Sylvia Earle says,

"The oceans are our life support system."

And the two main threats to penguins today
are overfishing and global warming.

And these are two things

that each one of us actually has the power
to do something about.

So if we each do our part,
together we can make a difference,

and we can help keep penguins
from going extinct.

Humans have always been
the greatest threat to penguins,

but we are now their only hope.

Thank you.

(Applause)