The WAVE Foundation at Newport Aquarium Experiences What it Takes to Save Penguins

By Katie Campbell, Conservation Education Manager at WAVE Foundation

This time one month ago, I was wearing oilskins covered in fish “smoothies” and chasing a penguin around a pool. It was a hot South African spring day, and Tamara and I both coveted being in the cool pool, even if the penguins left it a little dirty. Tamara Jasperse-Sjolander, Senior Biologist at Newport Aquarium, and I were on a two-and-a-half-week professional development experience at the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB) in Cape Town, South Africa. 

It was my first time out of the country, and, brand new passport in hand, I was ready for a conservation adventure. Why were we there? Because WAVE Foundation supports conservation with both funding and action. I was doing “boots-on-the-ground” work to save penguins. Admittedly, we wore Crocs (non-slip!) more than boots. The penguins we were going to be working with were cute little chicks (so I thought) that had been orphaned, injured, or malnourished.  I am not sure what I expected, but this was not a help-a-little-and-feel-beneficent experience.

It was an intense learning experience. Day 1, we made fish smoothies, which smelled about as terrible as you imagine they would. Day 2, we learned how to securely hold penguin chicks and tube feed them.  Pick up a penguin (avoid the bitey parts), set it between your knees, pry open its beak, carefully slide a tube down it’s throat into the stomach, push the syringe of fish formula in, set the penguin back down.  Rinse and repeat times for 100 chicks, 6 times a day.  We also helped hold penguins for veterinary blood draws.

“To say we were exhausted was an understatement. 

But it was so incredibly worth it.”

Sometimes, when a penguin would bite, I would yell in my mind, “Don’t you know we are trying to help you?! Just cooperate!” But these were wild penguins, and they would do what they wanted. My favorite was #499, a little fluffy guy who would follow me around, calling for food.  He reminded me of Green Bean, a penguin at Newport Aquarium. To say we were exhausted was an understatement.  But it was so incredibly worth it.

Thinking about what was my favorite part of the trip, really it is two-fold.  Tamara and I got to work with the best people.  The staff and volunteers come from literally all over the world to a relatively tiny yet world-renowned facility, in order to save this species.  That in itself is powerful to see. The second half of this is the “so what.” I was greatly impacted by our visit to Boulders Beach, where we saw penguins in the wild.  They were hundreds of penguins gathered on the beach, some sitting on nests, others jumping in the waves, calling to each other. 

“We do what we do, and Newport Aquarium and WAVE Foundation do what they do, to save penguins.  It is so easy to get lost in the day-to-day tasks of looking at spreadsheets, returning calls, trying to stay on top of the inbox.  Boulders Beach and SANCCOB are our why.”

I pictured sweet #499 jumping in the waves, returned to the wild.  We want to bring awareness to these incredible animals, and to the incredible people who support them.  Our penguin colony at Newport Aquarium are truly ambassadors for their species, and I am honored to have a part of their story. 

You can help WAVE on their mission of conservation by donating here.