Feasability study for recreating the Little Penguin rookery at Long Reef
There are two Little Penguin rookeries in the northern beaches region: one on the Sydney Harbour foreshores at Manly and another on Lion Island. The Manly site is under constant threat of disturbance and vandalism, while the Lion Island rookery is considerably overcrowded. Little Penguins are frequently observed by surfers and make occassional visits to Long Reef, which was once the site of a third rookery. This rookery was destroyed when, during World War 2, sand was collected from the site for use in sandbagging buildings in the Sydney CBD.
In 2006 I was approached by Warringah Council and local conservation groups which wished to measure the feasibility of re-establishing the old rookery at Long Reef.
Surveys of local surfers were put in place by the conservation group and submitted to me for analysis. My conclusion was that we had discovered where the good breaks were in the locality and that Little Penguins appear to like to surf and fish there! However, I was also able to conclude with reasonable confidence that Little Penguins were very frequent users of the waters in the locality.
Long Reef has an almost intractible problem with dog owners who refuse to comply with prohibitions on dog walking on the foreshores of the reef and this, coupled with the high degree of human disturbance, a thriving Black Rat population and presence of Red Foxes ruled the area inelligible for the re-establishment of the rookery. The National Parks and Wildlife Service officer who oversees the Lion Island rookery concurred with this finding and the project has been shelved.
This contract commenced in February 2006 and was completed in May 2006.