from the ngo OS Rescate de Fauna Marina

Our NGO SOS Rescate de Fauna Marina has a history of more than 30 years in Uruguay, rescuing, rehabilitating and releasing marine animals on the Uruguayan coast. And also raising awareness and sensitizing the population about environmental problems and the need to change habits. In the last two days, more than 300 dead penguins appeared on the Uruguayan coast. They are Magellanic Penguins that are making their annual migration from the Argentine Patagonia to the South of Brazil. It is a trip in which they only go to the coast if they are sick. Every year, during migrations, some dead or sick animals appear, especially juveniles, but the numbers we have seen on this occasion put us on alert.
We contacted the Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries who swabbed animals to rule out the presence of bird flu and performed necropsies. Necropsies confirmed lack of food. They are very skinny animals, without food in their stomachs, without a layer of fat. Eating calories is vital to make such a long trip and the layer of fat acts as an insulator, protecting them from low temperatures. They died of hypothermia, caused by lack of food. And the cause of this is the overexploitation of the fishing resource. We continue to treat the oceans as an inexhaustible source and a dumping ground for plastics. What we do to nature sooner or later affects us ourselves. We break the delicate balance on which our own life also depends (food, economy, health).