[2] SANCCOB implements a comprehensive set of conservation strategies to address the complex array of challenges facing the African penguin, a species classified as endangered.

These focus on rescue and rehabilitation, which serves as a key component in mitigating the adverse impacts of human activities and environmental factors on African penguin populations.

This entails ensuring that rehabilitated individuals retain crucial survival skills, such as hunting and social behaviours, while minimising human imprinting to facilitate their seamless reintegration into wild populations.

By collaborating with governmental agencies, research institutions, and conservation organisations, SANCCOB contributes to studies focusing on issues such as habitat loss, overfishing, pollution, and climate change, with the aim of identifying and implementing effective mitigation strategies.

SANCCOB also works to raise awareness and foster community involvement in African penguin conservation through educational programmes, outreach events, and media campaigns.

One significant event occurred in January 2021 when approximately 2,000 Cape Cormorant chicks were discovered abandoned and distressed, exhibiting signs of dehydration and heat stress, at two critical nesting sites.

Similarly, shifts in sardine distribution and depletion of stocks along the West Coast of South Africa have negatively impacted breeding populations in colonies such as Lambert’s Bay and Malgas Island.

Depletion of its primary food source, the Rock lobster, has forced the Bank cormorant to adapt its dietary habits, leading to increased competition for alternative prey and struggles to find sufficient sustenance.

Through initiatives focused on research, rehabilitation, and community engagement, SANCCOB works to mitigate the threats facing this species and ensure the long-term viability of its populations.

[7] SANCCOB conducts educational programmes, outreach activities, and awareness campaigns to underscore the importance of seabirds, the challenges they face, and how individuals can contribute to their protection.

Although not formally accredited, SANCCOB collaborates with entities like the Saving Animals From Extinction (SAFE) programme and a global network of zoos, aquariums, and conservation organisations.