The Department of Environmental Affairs says there is a plan to save the endangered African penguin, which is dying in huge numbers owing to lack of food. The drop in numbers has been particularly severe in the north region of Cape Town, where the penguin population has fallen by 90% since 2004, with a loss of 30000 pairs, the department said yesterday.Dassen and Robben islands had recorded heavy losses.The dying-off is linked to a large decrease in sardines, their main prey, and anchovy fish."The impact of an altered distribution of prey may have been exacerbated by fishing in the vicinity of the western penguin colonies," the department said.A recent report by University of Exeter researchers in the UK, who studied the Robben Island penguins, said: "Large-scale changes in the marine environment have caused a change in the breeding grounds of adult sardine and anchovy. These fish now mostly breed further east than they did two decades ago and are out of reach of penguin colonies on South Africa's west coast for much of the year."This mismatch between breeding penguins and their prey has raised concerns that competition with small-pelagic fishing vessels around breeding colonies may be one of a number of factors contributing to the penguins' decline."The African penguin is classified endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.The department said numbers in the Eastern Cape had been stable since 2003, but had increased slightly in recent years between Cape Point and Cape Agulhas. However, this "should not be interpreted as an indication that the long-term decline has definitely ended".The department was working with various organisations to help ensure the birds' survival. Measures included: Securing the protected status of all penguin colonies, including those not formally protected; considering the establishment of new breeding sites nearer available food; and ensuring an abundance of prey at existing colonies.The university study said survival of African penguin chicks had increased by 18% following a trial three-year fishery closure around Robben Island, although this "is not sufficient to offset the high adult mortality in recent years"."If the current fishing pressure exerted on sardine in particular continues on the west coast, there will still not be sufficient food to allow the penguin population to recover."..