Massive Penguin Rescue Operation Underway After Oil Spill
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On March 16, a cargo ship crashed into Nightingale Island, part of an island chain that’s home to around 150,000 Rockhopper penguins. The ship was carrying 1,500 tons of oil, and now conservationists are struggling to rescue as many penguins as they can.
If you’ve never heard of Nightingale Island, it’s because it’s in the middle of nowhere — the middle of the South Atlantic, more precisely, between Uruguay and South Africa. It’s part of the Tristan de Cunha archipelago and considered one of the most remote places in the world. 40% of the global penguin population is thought to live on the archipelago — it’s a pretty good place for a bunch of penguins to hide out! Or it was.