Response to: “An evaluation of evidence that purse-seine fishing around African Penguin colonies benefits penguins”

A point-by-point responses are given to arguments in Crawford and co-authors (ICTT/20) relating to the impact of fishing around islands on penguin colonies on those islands. Amongst the issues raised are assertions by Crawford et al. that catch is an index of pelagic fish abundance, and queries of the validity of a mathematical analysis method used. It is argued that no evidence or cogent argument has been presented by the authors of ICTT/20 in support of their assertion that: “In order for African Penguin colonies to grow thresholds in local prey availability will need to be higher than those that may currently apply”.