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Satellite trackers have a low profile that does not harm hoiho. Photo: Nikayla Bradley <\/p>\nNewly fledged yellow-eyed penguins are swimming thousands of kilometres north into depleted fishing grounds to starve.<\/p>\n
The mainland hoiho population has dropped to 115 breeding pairs.<\/p>\n
Out of 230 potential chicks from those nests, only about 46 survive to fledge.<\/p>\n
From that group, just 21%\u00a0will survive their first year at sea to return as juveniles.<\/p>\n
A mere 10% of those will subsequently join the breeding population.<\/p>\n
That means only one bird from the entire past season is expected to survive long enough to breed.<\/p>\n
It then has to find a mate.<\/p>\n
Researchers are rushing to track the dying juveniles to understand the collapse.<\/p>\n
Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust hoiho research adviser Thor\u00a0Ruru-Elley (Te Aitanga \u0101 M\u0101haki), spent the summer attaching satellite trackers to 18 fledglings from Moeraki, the Otago Peninsula, the Catlins and Rakiura.<\/p>\n
Satellite trackers have a low profile that does not harm hoiho. Photo: Nikayla Bradley <\/p>\n
The data shows hoiho heading as far as Canterbury searching for red cod.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese birds, the fledglings, seem to have this innate behaviour, that sends them north,\u201d Mr Ruru-Elley said.<\/p>\n
The historical diet of the penguins has dropped from about 24\u00a0species in the 1990s to just two.<\/p>\n
\u201cHistorically, we\u2019ve depleted those stocks so much, but the birds don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese hundred-day-old birds that have never touched the water all still go up to Canterbury.\u201d<\/p>\n
The primary aim of the tracking project is to reveal where the young penguins travel after leaving the coast.<\/p>\n
Researchers use the data to identify marine threats and compare movement paths with fisheries activity.<\/p>\n
The summer data showed the young birds collectively travelled more than 36,000km\u00a0between February and April.<\/p>\n
Individual fledglings covered up to 3100km.<\/p>\n
They converged on the Canterbury Bight to search for food.<\/p>\n
One bird swam from Rakiura to waters off Kaik\u014dura.<\/p>\n
Fledglings are finding empty waters and exhausting their energy reserves.<\/p>\n
Researchers call this starvation process wrecking.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf one comes ashore, it\u2019s not found enough food, it\u2019s foraged until it\u2019s completely out of energy\u00a0and then it has come ashore to die,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The real-time data from the tracking devices creates a secondary benefit of allowing researchers to locate and rescue wrecked birds.<\/p>\n
Mr Ruru-Elley is trialling a new generation of 3D printed solar-powered satellite tags on adult penguins at Rakiura.<\/p>\n
The devices provide location updates every 30 minutes with an accuracy of 5m.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo with the hopeful deployment of the new technology, I\u2019m going to be able to know when that happens, and I\u2019m going to be able to go out and get the bird,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He has established working relationships with local hoiho managers across all mainland districts.<\/p>\n
When the satellite data pinpoints a wrecked bird far from Dunedin, he can direct nearby rangers to retrieve the penguin for rehabilitation.<\/p>\n
The ongoing crisis is taking a severe toll on conservation workers.<\/p>\n
A therapist ran a serious one-hour session at a recent symposium for hoiho researchers and wildlife rehabilitators.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd basically he told us, \u2018oh, you\u2019re all traumatised because you have no wins\u2019. Nothing\u2019s ever good,\u201d Mr Ruru-Elley said.<\/p>\n
Being able to track the entire hoiho population annually would cost more than half a million.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a big number, but at the same time it\u2019s not.<\/p>\n
“It seems achievable.\u201d<\/p>\n
The trust and NZ Nature Fund are\u00a0appealing for public donations to fund the work.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe that we as the hoiho community have the skills to save them.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s more about whether we\u2019ll be allowed and facilitated to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/star20hoihosatt4-jpeg.webp\")
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