The sea was “calm and conditions for the release were very good‚” the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) said of Wednesday’s trip to St Croix Island with 72 African penguins. Some of those fowl were among the 47 oiled penguins the NSRI’s Port Elizabeth duty crew helped rescue in “rough sea conditions” from that island‚ off the Port of Ngqura‚ on August 22.At the time‚ SANParks had “appealed to NSRI Port Elizabeth to assist in the search and recovery operation” on St Croix Island‚ Jaheel Island and Brenton Island.They were thought to have been affected by “an oil spill believed to have occurred during a ship-to-ship oil transfer”.The NSRI said then that it had to “put rescue teams ashore over rocks to safely capture the penguins” and the “operation was made difficult by rough sea conditions”.On Wednesday‚ NSRI PE station commander Ian Gray said: “The birds…have now been rehabilitated by the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB).”Its Eikos Rescuer IV craft “rendezvoused with a SANParks vessel and SANCCOB at the Port of Ngqura”‚ a statement said.“The penguins in their boxes were loaded onto the sea rescue vessel‚ a SANParks boat and Xtreme 6 (an 8.5m rigid inflatable boat on loan) and taken from the port to St Croix Island.“The birds were released from the boats into the water without incident.” – TMG Digital..