S. Africans Try to Save Penguins From Slick
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DASSEN ISLAND, South Africa — An air force helicopter battled an Atlantic storm Sunday to pluck endangered Jackass penguins from their Dassen Island breeding ground, hit by oil from an 11-year-old wreck.
Oil dripped from rocks like a thick chocolate sauce and coated the beach up to four inches thick in places. Two pollution-control vessels set off from Cape Town at dawn Sunday to spray dispersant chemicals, but were driven back by a gale and heavy seas.
The island is the second-biggest breeding ground for the penguin, whose numbers have already dropped to 170,000.
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