PROJECT penguin IS A go

You probably know about Manly’s Little Penguins, but have you heard of their equally little ambassadors? Northern Beaches Secondary College’s (NBSC) Project Penguin initiative is bringing innovation and hope to this threatened species.

If you needed to talk to an expert on Little Penguins, of which there is one breeding pair left in Manly, your local authority would most likely be a person a quarter of your age. Students of NBSC Cromer, Manly, Mackellar Girls and Balgowlah Boys, and their primary school mentor groups, know everything there is to know about these tiny endangered species thanks to Project Penguin

For NBSC student mentors, the key elements to the program are Habitat Day, an onsite environmental immersion day, and mentoring a group of primary students, with the ultimate goal being the design of a conservation program for the Little Penguins. This year, 250 Year 9 & 10 students, and 555 Year 4, 5 & 6 students participated.

Project Penguin gave rise to innovative ideas which NBSC College Projects Officer Sandra Bonello says were only possible because of the open mindedness of students.

“If it was an adult, they would put a lot of roadblocks up. Because they’re students, they just have a lot of imagination,” said Ms Bonello of the creative, critical thinking students demonstrated throughout the project.

The tiny residents of Manly have a number of threats, including fox, dog and cat attacks, plastic pollution, boat strikes, fishing lines, rubbish and deliberate destruction of nests. One group of students built a prototype for a ‘wet dry nest’, where penguins can safely go from water to shore without the threat of fox, cat and dog attacks. Another group developed a fox spray, the smell acted as a deterrent while not bothering the penguins. www.nbsccromer-h.schools.nsw.gov.au nbscollege-m.school@det.nsw.edu.au

The winning projects from each school were showcased in an exhibition at Taronga Zoo. Among the guests were Northern Beaches Mayor Michael Regan, Ms Zali Steggall OAM, Member for Warringah, Mr James Griffin MP, Member for Manly and Secretary for the Environment & Veterans and Mr Cameron Kerr, Executive Director, Chief Executive at Taronga Conservation Society of Australia, Stacey Exner Director Educational Leadership (Relieving), The Beaches NSW Dept. of Education.

“That’s education for life, and that means far more than just reading a book, putting it down and forgetting about it.

It’s something I’ll never forget,” Mayor Michael Regan said of the program.

“We’re seeing this generation coming through and saying, we’re serious about the environment and we want you decision makers to take it more seriously than you have been.”

Project Penguin’s Habitat Day also involved students in a beach clean. Ms Bonello said that often students were surprised by just how much plastic they found. She recalls a group finding a dead cormorant on the beach, wrapped in fishing line, which brought home the real impact for consistent conservation efforts. The beach cleans led to positive continual action for some, with one student taking her family on a weekly beach clean as a result of the initiative.

Ms Bonello says Project Penguin is impactful because it teaches students that they can do the 1%, making small changes to amalgamate to a larger impact.

Project Penguin is run with the support of the Sydney Harbour Parks and Wildlife, Manly Environment Centre, Taronga Zoo, Manly volunteer penguin wardens and Manly community volunteers. Project Penguin is proudly sponsored by Landcare, NSW Department of Education. Project Penguin exists through a collaboration with Taronga Zoo. Taronga is instrumental to the existence of the project and we work shoulder to shoulder with their team of educators and professional staff. •