MONTEVIDEO: Around 2,000 penguins have appeared dead on the coast of eastern Uruguay in the last 10 days, and the cause, which does not appear to be avian influenza, remains a mystery, authorities said.

The Magellanic penguins, mostly juveniles, died in the Atlantic Ocean and were carried by currents to Uruguayan shores, said Carmen Leizagoyen, head of the Environment Ministry’s department of fauna.

“This is mortality in the water. Ninety per cent are young specimens that arrive without fat reserves and with empty stomachs,” she said, and stressed that all samples taken have tested negative for avian influenza.

Magellanic penguins nest in southern Argentina. In the southern hemisphere winter, they migrate north in search of food and warmer waters, even reaching the coast of the Brazilian state of Espirito Santo.

“It is normal for some percentage to die, but not these numbers,” Leizagoyen said, recalling that a similar die-off occurred last year in Brazil, for undetermined reasons.

Hector Caymaris, director of the Laguna de Rocha protected area, said that he counted more than 500 dead penguins along 10 kilometres of Atlantic coast. Environ­mental advocates attribute the increase in Magellanic penguin deaths to overfishing and illegal fishing.

Published in Dawn, July 23th, 2023