Moirs Environmental Dialogues

Dyan DeNapoli, author of the newly released book The Great Penguin Rescue, tells the remarkable story of the largest and most successful wildlife rescue ever mounted. On June 23, 2000, an iron-ore carrier named the Treasure foundered off the coast of Cape Town between two of the main breeding islands for the African penguin. Already classified as a species vulnerable to extinction, the oil slick threatened to destroy nearly half the world population. Penguin experts, including Dyan, were flown in from around the world to manage a battalion of 12,500 volunteers who worked more than 556,000 hours force-feeding, washing, and rehabilitating 19,000 oiled penguins, and moving another 19,500 penguins from their islands to prevent them from getting oiled. Dyan’s account is an endearing tale of perseverance to overcome devastatingly daunting obstacles to bring the African penguin back from the edge of extinction.