Get IOL's cool new iPad app... The marine ecosystem off the West
Coast has taken a severe knock with the disappearance of the
sardine stocks - the major food source for thousands of seabirds
- and the African penguin population has dropped to the lowest
level ever recorded. In Namibia, where sardine stocks appear to
have collapsed, the situation is critical, and ornithologists
say the seabird populations are "going down the tubes". The
Namibian gannet population has dropped to 90 percent of what it
was 50 years ago, and the Namibian pilchard fishing industry has
packed up for the season, unable to afford the cost of staying
at sea without landing catches. Seals are reported to be
starving on the Namibian coast. On South Africa's West Coast,
seabirds appear to be surviving on bits of hake discarded at sea
by fishing vessels. On Dassen Island, a nature reserve and major
seabird breeding colony near Yzerfontein, only half the number
of penguins have bred this year compared to last year, while at
Bird Island off