When Boulders Beach near Simon’s Town was voted South Africa’s best beach in an online poll organised by Two Oceans Wines, the brand decided to mark the occasion by donating R5 000 to SANCCOB (the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds).
Boulders Beach, managed by SANParks, is home to a colony of 3 000 African penguins (Spheniscus demersus), reliant on SANCCOB, the well-known Cape Town-based seabird facility to care for its ill, injured or abandoned.
Boulders is one of only three mainland spots in South Africa where the penguins, originally known as Jackass penguins because of the loud, braying noise they make, have established colonies. What makes it unique and also highly popular, is that it is the only one where penguins and beachgoers happily share the beach.
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| Penguins at Boulders. Copyright Mark Wessels. Used with permission |
Indigenous to the Southern African coastline, the penguins have been listed as an endangered species on the IUCN Red Data list because of the rapid decline in their population, which has fallen by some 60% over the past 30 years.
The work of SANCCOB, lauded internationally for its successful rehabilitation work with African penguins during oil spills is funded solely through donations.
According to global brand spokesperson for Two Oceans, Jackie Olivier, visitors to the Two Oceans website were asked to choose from 52 beaches listed or to suggest their own favourite spot. The survey, run during the December and January festive season, saw Boulders Beach receive 14 % of the votes while Langebaan came in second with 7%.
“South Africans are incredibly lucky in being able to choose from some of the most beautiful beach spots anywhere in the world. The poll was a fun way of focusing on our good fortune and our donation is intended to support the continued wellbeing of the penguins that remain a huge draw card for Boulders”.
She added that the Cape coastline was rated very highly internationally and not just in the Two Oceans survey. The Lonely Planet travel guide recently voted Cape Town the second best beach city worldwide, just behind Barcelona. Cape Town was rated for being ‘good-looking, fun-loving, sporty and sociable’.
Olivier said 20 participants in the poll also won meal vouchers entitling them to dinner served with Two Oceans wines.
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