Conservation NGOs and commercial sardine and anchovy fisheries in South Africa have reached an out-of-court settlement agreeing to extents of fishing closures around six key African penguin breeding colonies. The agreement, endorsed by the environment minister, was made a court order on March 18.

The boundaries of the new fishing closures achieve “the sweet spot between benefits to penguins and costs to [fishing] industry,” Kate Handley, executive director of Cape Town-based nonprofit Biodiversity Law Centre, representing the conservation groups, told Mongabay by phone.

Populations of the critically endangered African penguin (Spheniscus demersus), which primarily live on small islands off Namibia and South Africa, have plummeted by 93% over the last 70 years.

In 2022, South Africa’s environment ministry imposed interim fishing closures around six key islands where penguins breed, to run until 2033. However, the NGOs BirdLife South Africa and the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB) filed a lawsuit against the ministry in March 2024, saying the closures were “biologically meaningless” and didn’t protect the birds’ food supply from competition with commercial sardine and anchovy purse-seine fisheries.

In February 2025, the South African Pelagic Fishing Industry Association (SAPFIA) and the Eastern and Southern Cape Pelagic Association (ESCPA), both co-respondents in the case, called for a meeting with the NGOs to discuss a settlement, which was followed by “really difficult and very intense negotiations,” Handley said.

The agreement, now made a court order, overturns the previous interim closures. The new closures will be in effect for 10 years, with a scientific review after six years.

“A middle of the road compromise position was agreed to in which the extent of closures are about halfway between the Interim Closures that are currently in place and the area closures that the Applicants were seeking in their court action,” SAPFIA and ESCPA told Mongabay in a joint emailed statement. “It is hoped this will end the intense dialogue that has raged since 2008 about the closures in relation to the extremely concerning decline in the African Penguin population.”

The NGOs made concessions on certain closures to accommodate the fisheries’ interests, but also secured key victories, Handley said.

For example, on the west coast, the closure around Robben Island was extended beyond what the NGOs had sought, while in the Southern Cape, the closure around Stony Point covers nearly the entire core foraging range for the African penguin. In the Eastern Cape, a 20-kilometer (12-mile) closure was established around Bird Island, although minimal fishing happens there, Handley said. Overall, the NGOs have achieved a “good regional representation of protection for African penguins,” she added.

The out-of-court settlement means there’s no judgment that sets a judicial precedent, but Handley said she hopes “the case will inspire other conservation organizations to take up the mantle and use the law as a tool to fight for the protection of threatened species.”

Banner image of African penguins by Olga Ernst via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).