The plight of the penguins began in January when a ship cruising near Phillip Island emptied its bilge, fouling the island's habitat. Phillip Island, less than 100 miles south of Melbourne, is home to varied wildlife, but none so famous as the Little Penguins, the smallest in the world, standing about 12 inches and weighing 2 pounds. About 500,000 visitors come to the island each year to watch the Penguin Parade. At sunrise every day, an estimated 5,000 birds rise from their burrows, waddle across Summerland Beach and plunge into the ocean for a day of fishing. At sunset, they return and hunker down for the night.
Tourists crowd boardwalks and viewing stands to watch the procession.
After several hundred of them swam through the oil slick, the penguins could not spread their natural oil, which acts as waterproofing, through their feathers without swallowing the ship's oil. When they tried to swim, they sank like rocks. Workers who manage the Phillip Island Reserve gathered the injured birds and sent out a plea for sweaters. The injured penguins, thus enrobed and insulated, bob like colorful buoys in holding pens that keep them isolated and safe from predators. The sweaters begin to disintegrate in the saltwater and have to be replaced often until the penguins have healed, their natural oils have been restored and they can be returned to the wild.