The Treasure Oil Spill - 20 Years On

On 23 June 2000, the cargo vessel MV Treasure sank 9.7km off the coast of South Africa, close to the (then) world’s largest breeding colonies of African penguins - Robben Island and Dassen Island. The oil spill led to one of the largest oiled wildlife response efforts in history. The enormity of this rescue can be attributed to the fact that in addition to the capture of 19 000 oiled African penguins, a further 19 500 un-oiled penguins were pre-emptively captured as part of the evacuation. 

20 years on, this webinar will offer a case study of the response by some of the organisations and responders involved, explore the current status of the African penguin population and examine what this successful rescue effort can tell us about wildlife response preparedness.