The great penguin rescue

A personal story, a collective triumph: Dyan deNapoli tells the story of the world's largest volunteer animal rescue, which saved more than 40,000 penguins after an oil spill off the coast of South Africa. How does a job this big get done? Penguin by penguin by penguin ...

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.

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 one percent 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 habitats

of nearly half the entire world population

of African penguins.

Now 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.

Now 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 10 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 and a half thousand 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 two,

and room two 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.

Now 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, "Okay, 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."

(Laughter)

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.

So 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.

So 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 percent 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.

And 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 percent 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 10 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)