Right!  So I’ve got some backlogs to do, starting with the day I arrived in Cape Town, South Africa.  I was met at the airport by local dive and underwater guru Steven Benjamin, who operates Animal Ocean, which is an all-encompassing marine eco-tourism operation.  We had some breakfast, and then Steve whisked us off to Dassen Island with 25 University of Cape Town’s 2010 Zoology Honours students.  Dassen Island is a special place – it’s managed by the Nature Conservation, South Africa’s government environmental agency.  No one is allowed on the island without a permit, so we were very, very lucky to be able to go.  The island itself is a haven for bird life, including penguins!  The history behind the penguins of Dassen Island is tumultuous; because their eggs were harvested aggressively until the 1960s, their numbers are reduced now to less then 10% of what they were at the turn of the century.

Penguins just out of the water for the night.

This picture shows the Dassen Island lighthouse and a portion of the penguin wall that was constructed years ago and encircles the entire island.  It was built to keep the penguins from building their nests too far inland and facilitate easier collection of their eggs.  It’s now breached in numerous places and the penguins have no trouble getting to the interior of the island.