Penguins can’t get enough to eat 23 May 2021 Extinction threat: The African penguins breed on islands off South Africa’s coast, including in the St Croix Island Reserve near the Coega River mouth. Photo: Reinhard Dirscherl/ullstein bild/Getty Images It was June 2000 and the MV Treasure, a bulk iron ore carrier, had sunk between two key breeding islands for African penguins, Robben Island in Table Bay and Dassen Island near Cape Town, spilling 400 tonnes of bunker oil into the sea. Now there is a new alarm bell ringing. Endangered African penguins are being pushed to the brink of extinction by food scarcity, oil spills, extreme weather, predation, sub-optimal breeding habitats and disease, according to scientists and various organisations.