A number of organisations across the globe have been established over the past few decades to provide support for individual environmental institutions, and promote best practice when taking care of animals.

The African Association of Zoos and Aquaria (PAAZAB) was established in 1989 to do that and so much more. In addition to providing supporting environments for zoo and aquaria animals, it is actively involved in maintaining biodiversity and educating the community about animals and their environments.

According to PAAZAB, it “sees one of the primary functions of zoos and aquariums as healing the relationship between man, animal and their mutual environment”.

The Two Oceans Aquarium certainly agrees and raises environmental awareness through its exhibits, conservation and education programmes, and is also a respected environmental education centre in South Africa.

So we thought it fitting to host the 24th Conference and Annual General Meeting of the African Association of Zoos and Aquaria, from 22 to 25 April 2013. Focusing on zoos and aquaria of the future, the conference will take place at the Athene conference centre in Club Mykonos, Langebaan.

The Aquarium and PAAZAB are also working together to protect our endangered and endemic African penguin. Formerly known as the jackass penguin, African penguins are classified as endangered according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species.

It is estimated that around the year 1900 about 1.5-million African penguins existed, but today that number is less than 60 000.

Recently, the Minister of Environmental Affairs, Edna Molewa, gazetted the African Penguin Management Plan.

Some of the proposed measures to prevent the possible extinction of the African penguin include exclusion zones around the birds’ breeding islands, and possible culling of the penguins’ natural predators, including the kelp gull and Cape fur seal.

PAAZAB has endorsed the Penguin Promises campaign, which aims to create awareness of the plight of the African penguin, assist people in thinking of ways to assist the penguin population, and help them commit to action that will contribute to saving the penguin.

The Aquarium has also heard the call of the African penguin, and on 13 October, celebrated International African Penguin Day by hosting the Penguin Promises Waterfront Waddle.  Waddlers gathered at the Aquarium, then waddled the 5km route to the Mouille Point lighthouse and back. A Penguin Promises table situated at the Aquarium made it easy for waddlers to make their “Penguin Promise” in support of the Penguin Promises awareness campaign.

Our relationship with PAAZAB spans many years and in 2011 the organisation awarded one of our former staff members, David Vaughan, with the Bernard Harrison and Friends Award for Best Professional Development, for his work in aquatic parasite research. David has since left the Aquarium to join Amanzi Biosecurity in Hermanus.

In an effort to constantly provide the best service to the continent’s zoos and aquaria, PAAZAB recently appointed a new executive director. Passionate about animals and their conservation, Dr Stephen van der Spuy has taken a keen interest in PAAZAB for years.

The former chief executive officer of Johannesburg Zoo, and current trustee of the Jane Goodall Institute of South Africa, Van der Spuy is a qualified veterinarian, has owned an exotic animal veterinary practice and was the general manager of the Montecasino Bird Gardens.

If you’re interested in the wellbeing of aquaria and zoo animals, why not visit PAAZAB’s Facebook page for more information. Filled with fantastic images and information on animals in and around Africa, it will keep you entertained and informed for hours.

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