Jutten Island- Pelican Watch 

The Pelican Watch programme (PW) is a SANParks management strategy in the West Coast National Park (WCNP) aimed at controlling predation by Great White Pelicans on Cape Gannet and Cape Cormorant nestlings in the breeding colonies on Jutten and Malgas Islands in Saldanha Bay.

The programme requires teams of volunteers working in 7-day shifts (Monday to Monday) on the islands during the seabird breeding season. The task is to physically chase pelicans that come onto the islands away from the breeding colonies and off the islands.

The primary objective of PW is to protect the nestlings and juveniles of Cape Cormorants (Jutten) Cape Gannets (Malgas) and allow these birds to fledge their young.

PW duty on the islands is not for the fastidious, the sensitive, or those with mobility challenges. Age is not a problem given a moderate level of fitness. People in their 70’s do it regularly. It is, however, without exaggeration, a unique experience. There are not many opportunities elsewhere for the non-specialist or the non-professional to live and work in a teeming bird colony and the intimacy of one’s association with the birds and the closeness of one’s experience of their day-to-day lives is truly memorable. There is also the personal reward of doing something very tangible, necessary and very worthwhile in protecting the upcoming generation of our seabirds from a real and present threat - and a large man-induced threat at that.