Penguin Island monitoring program to assess health of Rockingham’s declining Little Penguin population

Monitoring of Rockingham’s Little Penguin population will go ahead after the City of Rockingham agreed to help fund the research in a project that will assess the health and future of the local species. At its latest meeting, Rockingham City Council approved a $37,000 contribution to the $200,000 research project to be undertaken on Penguin Island, in the Shoalwater Islands Marine Park. University of Western Australia experts and volunteers will conduct a series of night-time population counts on the island in the coming months, in a bid to build on the last population study completed in 2019. The 2019 research found a shocking 80 per cent estimated decline of the Little Penguin population since the first baseline study in 2007. The population decline is also becoming faster, with a 50 per cent reduction in the 10 years between 2007 and 2017 and a further 50 per cent in a fifth of the time — just two years — between 2017 and 2019. City officers noted in their report the need for additional population monitoring to complement the previous work, with the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions also committing time and resources to the project. It comes as the Penguin Island Discovery Centre officially closed on June 6 and the State Government continues its $250,000 feasibility study into a possible mainland facility after it scrapped a $3.3 million plan to build a new facility on the island. Rockingham mayor Deb Hamblin said the funding would contribute to gathering the most current, available data on the colony’s health, resilience and habitat. “The city recognises that Penguin Island and the little penguins are an iconic part of our region that the community cares deeply about,” Ms Hamblin said. “In recent years the City has advocated strongly to the State for measures to be taken that protect the wellbeing of the little penguin population.” The motion supporting the funding contribution was carried unanimously, with Cr Lorna Buchan highlighting the research’s importance. “The local penguin colony is recognised as a symbol of the city and it’s important that we understand the health of the colony going forward,” she said. The research is expected to be complete by the year’s end.