West Coast Islands

There are actually very few islands in the coast of South Africa. Most of what we have, are on the West Coast.  The picture of the West Coast will not be complete if we do not  pay at least a bit of attention to these islands. To tell the truth, these islands have played their significant role in the history and economy of our country and today they have an important role in our seabird conservation. Because of this, our world-renown Robben Island is a World Heritage Site and most of the other islands are protected under the care of Cape Nature Conservation or the South African National Parks.

In a previous post we spent time on Bird Island off Lambert's Bay and its importance as a safe breeding and nesting place for gannets. Other islands which fulfill the same important function, are the four islands known as the Saldanha Bay Group. The group consist of Marcus Island (17ha), Malgas (18ha), Jutten (43ha) and Schaapen Island (29ha). 

SANParks is responsible for the management of these islands.  Meeuw Island actually is also part of this group, but it falls in the military area and is therefor under the management of the SA National Defense Force. 

History has a whole bundle of interesting tales about these Saldanha Islands. The French were the first to recognise the potential of these islands and started trading in seal skins, bird's eggs and guano. Schaapen Island was used in later years as a World War II prisoner-of-war camp and on Jutten Island are the graves of seamen buried there when the Merestein wrecked in 1702.  Although historical records show that Cape fur seals once colonised these islands, they were eventually slaughtered or driven away.  Naturally these islands did not escape the huge guano-rush and the incredible devastation it left in its wake, but that is a story for another time.

Today these islands are known for being a sanctuary for seabirds. About 30% of the world's African Black Oystercatchers breed on these islands. As do the endangered Bank Cormorant which numbers have drastically dropped from 8700 breeding pairs to 4900 pairs. The biggest colony of Kelp Gulls are found on Schaapen Island.

Today there are no indigenous mammals found on these islands. A few European rabbits on Schaapen and Jutten Island - most probably brought here by Jan van Riebeeck in the hopes that they will breed and be a source of protein for the hungry sailors mooring in the bay. Interesting enough, all the rabbits on Schaapen Island are all albino`s. To survive the warm dry summers, the rabbits eat seaweeds on the seashore.  

On Schaapen and Meeuw Islands egg-eating snakes are a problem.  Because they do not have natural enemies, the snakes grow up to a meter long and they have a significant impact on the breeding success of the seabirds.

A small distance away from the Saldanha Islands, more in the direction of Langebaan, is Vondeling Island (9ha).  The brick wall defacing the island, an unfortunate feature  characteristic of many of our islands, was built to limit the movements of the African penguin to the shores, to ease the collection of the eggs and guano.  A few stairs were built into the walls a few years ago, to give the penguins access to the whole island again.

The next important island is Dassen Island.  Or Ilha Blanco (white island) as the Portuguese called it, after the thick layer of guano covering the island years ago.  Dassen Island had different names over the years, but it was in 1656 when Snyman Turvey, one of Jan van Riebeeck's men, saw the large population of rock hyrax (dassies) on the island and the name stuck. Interestingly, according to estimates the 222ha island, 9km offshore from today's Yzerfontein, was home to an estimated two and a halve million penguins in the early 17th century!  It must have been something to contemplate! But the Dutch saw the dassies and decided to name the island after them?! Unfortunately the numbers of the penguins quickly started dwindling because of guano scraping, egg collecting, competition for food with the pelagic fishery, later oil pollution so that today there is only a fraction left of the big colony.  Dassen Island is still the principle home of the African Penguin. 

Dassen Island is also one of only two South African breeding sites for white pelicans.  The other site is at  Lake St. Lucia in northern KwaZulu-Natal.

The Dassen Island pelicans are, however, causing big problems on the surrounding islands and this is halting the breeding success of seabirds. The 2006/7 breeding season yielded a virtually zero production of hatchlings. 

Why are the pelicans suddenly posing such a problem?

A few years ago a pig farm near Cape Town started feeding its pigs chicken carcasses. These carcasses were gutted before feeding and the offal  was thrown into a hole in a remote corner of the farm. It didn't take scavenging birds long to realise that here was a source of regular and nutritious food.  Great White Pelicans also discovered this. Like most battery reared chickens, these chickens were also raised on growth hormones. Scientists think that these hormones allowed the pelicans to breed stronger and have more hatchlings each year. The hatchlings did not follow their parents to the natural hunting grounds, but preferred to use the easy way out: the supply of food on the pig farm.  Furthermore, it was believed that they never learned that their waterproof feathers, long beak and gular pouch were so ideally suited to bulk fishing in the sea, for here was easy pickings on land.  Today, a whole generation of pelicans has grown up with no knowledge of fishing techniques, or even what a fish is, or looks like.

When the authorities finally realised what was happening on the pig farm, they intervened and closed up the offal hole, effectively cutting off this bountiful food supply. After some initial confusion during which some of these birds died from starvation, the remaining pelicans started looking for alternative food sources, by seeking in an ever-widening search pattern. After some time, they found that some unpopulated, predator free islands in the mouth of the Langebaan lagoon just outside Saldanha Bay had thousands of defenseless gannet, cormorant, penguin, oystercatcher and gull nests, ripe for easy pickings. These hungry pelicans waddled through the breeding colonies, scared the resident parent birds away with their daunting size, and swallowed every egg and chick they could find, in many cases, decimating local populations of our endemic sea birds. 

Teams of conservationists on the two larger islands, Malgas and Jutten, take 5 day shifts to protect the eggs and hatchlings of different seabirds during breeding season (October to January).  This is a lonely, risky and labour-intensive operation entailing much scrambling over rocks and climbing to high ground to watch, and down again to chase, followed by more climbing.  Their day starts at first light (05h00) when the pelicans arrive and ends at sunset (20h30) when they leave to roost on the mainland.