Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG update

Happy days as Ireland’s Tax receipts for this year to end June are €742m ahead of target

irish EXCHEQUER DATA SHOWs PUBLIC FINANCES CONTINUING TO BENEFIT FROM SURGE IN CORPORATION TAX

   

Happy reading for the Minister for Finance Michael Noonan.

THE LATEST RETURNS RESULTED IN AN EXCHEQUER DEFICIT FOR THE PERIOD OF €1.14 BILLION COMPARED TO A DEFICIT OF €292 MILLION FOR THE SAME PERIOD LAST YEAR, ALBEIT LAST YEAR’S FIGURES WERE FLATTERED BY A €2.1 BILLION PAYMENT GENERATED FROM THE SALE OF PERMANENT TSB SHARES, AND A TRANSFER FROM THE NATIONAL PENSION RESERVE FUND.

Tax receipts for the year are now €742 million ahead of target, according to the latest exchequer returns.

The figures show the public finances are continuing to benefit from a surge in corporation tax, which came in at €2.67 billion for the six-month period to the end of June, some €505 million or 19 per cent above profile.

Overall, the Government collected €22.5 billion in tax revenue, which was €1.9 billion up on the corresponding period last year.

The other strong-performing tax head was excise duty, which amounted to €2.76 billion for the period, some €401 million or 14.5% ahead of projections.

This was linked to increased imports of cigarettes ahead of the introduction of plain packaging, which is expected to unwind later in the year.

Income tax, the largest of the Government’s four main tax heads, came in at €8.77 billion, in line with department projections.

This represented a year-on-year increase of €462 million or 5.6% and reflects ongoing recovery in the labour market.

VAT, a key indicator of health in the retail economy, generated €6.2 billion, which was €230 million below profile.

On the monthly basis, VAT receipts were also €110 million or 36% behind expectations.

REPAYMENTS

A department spokesman said the VAT figures reflected a large level of repayments going out in a non-VAT month.

He also said the underlying trend was consistent with the latest retail sales figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

Total net voted spending came in at €20.8 billion, which was marginally below projections.

The department said spending in 12 of the 16 government departments was below targets set at the start of the year.

Of the four exceptions, the largest overspend was in health, which was 2.1 per cent or €137 million above target.

With new EU rules restricting the use of supplementary budgets, the Government will not be in a position to roll this over into the following year as it did last October.

The latest returns resulted in an exchequer deficit for the period of €1.14 billion compared to a deficit of €292 million for the same period last year, albeit last year’s figures were flattered by a €2.1 billion payment generated from the sale of Permanent TSB shares, and a transfer from the national pension reserve fund.

Appeal to HSE to ensure Console services are secured in the wake of controversy

THE HEALTH MINISTER HAS DESCRIBED AN AUDIT INTO THE CHARITY AS A “HARROWING” READ.

      

Above (middle picture) Paul Kelly rogue director of the charity CONSOLE.

THE HEALTH MINISTER SIMON HARRIS HAS CONFIRMED THAT HE IS MEETING WITH THE HSE TOMORROW TO DISCUSS ITS INTERNAL AUDIT OF THE CHARITY CONSOLE.

Harris said that he had read the report of the audit and that he had found it “disgusting and disturbing”.

Meanwhile, interim chief executive of the charity David Hall has told TheJournal.ie that he will be writing to Harris tonight to secure funds so that Console’s services for people affected by suicide can continue.

“I am engaged with the HSE and will be writing to Minister Harris seeking the HSE’s support for the existing services,” he said this evening. “We need to secure services and the services cannot continue in absence of support from the HSE.”

He said that a decision on this needed to be made before the case appears before the High Court on Tuesday.

Hall took possession of some of the charity’s assets, including two cars, yesterday.

He said that he took a forensic security firm with him which took possession of the files on computers which were handed over to him. The cars were taken to an auction house to be valued. A report on the assets is expected to be given to Hall in court.

Harris told RTÉ’s The Week in Politics this afternoon that the HSE Console audit is ”a harrowing read”.

He said he was “not satisfied” with how HSE funding of the charity was being managed.

“I’m very concerned about this and I’m not satisfied in relation to it,” said Harris.

He said that he had read a report of the internal audit of Console and that it was “a harrowing read”.

“There are elements there that are quite frankly disgusting and disturbing,” he said.

I’m really not pleased and it needs to be published as quickly as possible.

However, Harris said that in terms of the HSE’s relationship with Console he was satisfied that it had received the service that it had paid for.

“The HSE procures a service from Console,” he said.

“It grant-aids Console to provide bereavement counselling and the operation of a helpline.

“And the one thing I can say… we are satisfied that the service we paid for we did receive.”

Harris said that he will be meeting with the HSE tomorrow to discuss the report.

The HSE is to appear before the Public Accounts Committee in relation to its funding to Console and other charities, its chairman Séán Fleming told the Marian Finucane Show today.

Saint John of God report?

Meanwhile, the Daily Mail has published an investigation today into top-up payments made to more than a dozen senior managers at taxpayer-funded charity Saint John of God.

In a statement, Saint John of God Hospitalier Order said:

We are of the view that the once off payments made to senior managers in 2013, which were based on professional advice, was the correct thing to do. The payments  were made by the Order to discharge contractual obligations with managers. The payments did not impact in any manner or at any time, on the provision of services and supports.

While The Order believes it is in compliance with public pay policy, it welcomes any review by the HSE into this matter. The Order is keen to fully co-operate with such a process, as soon as it is initiated. It has already shared with the HSE, the independent professional advice it received in 2013.

Finian McGrath, Minister of State for Disabilities, told RTÉ Radio One’s This Week that the HSE is investigating the report.

With regard to the regulation of charities, he said ”we have to up our game”. McGrath said that the HSE is in talks with the order on this particular issue and they will be reviewing and responding to the issues that were raised.

He said that part of his objective as a minister of state is to “clean up that whole sector and ensure all children and adults with disabilities get the taxpayers’ money into their frontline services”.

McGrath said allegations made in the Daily Mail report regarding top-ups and Saint John of God are ”not acceptable“.

“I will be demanding action,” said Finian McGrath.

Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald said that with regard to this story, “we will want to know exactly what happened”.

Speaking to This Week, McDonald said that there was “fairly intensive correspondence between the HSE and indeed the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform requiring these organisations including Saint John of God to compel with public pay policy”.

She said that she would like to see the trail of correspondence between the State and Saint John of God.

“I would like to know what measures [there were] to ensure compliance,” she said, adding that the situation”raises every question that we have raised before around how active, how vigilant, how attentive is the HSE in terms of the very substantial funding that goes to these organisations”.

McDonald said she also thinks it raises a question for government.

She said that successive ministers for health have been aware that there were problems in the charitable sector around complying with public pay policy, and “we find ourselves now many years on back at square one”.

She said that poor governance and poor practice is “very annoying and very disappointing for the public”.

Fianna Fáil TD Marc Mac Sharry has called on the HSE to publish audits which it carried out on 27 charities “to ensure greater transparency within the sector”.

He commented: “There are hundreds of charities across this country which provide excellent services to vulnerable people and we must ensure that these organisations are protected.  The scandal at console risks damaging their reputations, as well as that of the charity sector as a whole.

Meanwhile:-

Irish charities are responsible for vetting directors and staff? says the HSE

   

SOCIAL DEMOCRATS TD CATHERINE MURPHY (ABOVE PICTURE) HAS CRITICISED THE HSE FOR ITS HANDLING OF THE SAGA AND SAID MORE COULD HAVE BEEN DONE TO PROTECT THE INTEGRITY OF THE CHARITY SECTOR.

Carrying out background checks and Garda vetting was solely the responsibility of staff and directors at Console, it has emerged.

The HSE said organisations such as the suicide-bereavement charity are responsible for reassuring it that staff had the necessary Garda clearance before they received State funding.

This is despite director Paul Kelly being served with the Probation Act for impersonating a doctor for three weeks in 1983.

Social Democrats TD Catherine Murphy criticised the HSE for its handling of the saga and said more could have been done to protect the integrity of the charity sector.

“I don’t understand how the HSE didn’t do a greater piece of due diligence . . . The charity regulator needs to be given more power,” Ms Murphy said.

Have recent revelations put you off donating to charities?

She said the HSE needed to be more responsible when allocating funding to charities.

“They should have looked at the health of the board, who was on it and who the directors were. There is a bigger piece of work the HSE must do if they are going to be funders.”

The HSE has defended the security structures it has in place to monitor charities such as Console.

It said it was led to believe Console was financially compliant and that all of its staff, including Mr Kelly, had the appropriate Garda clearance to carry out a public service.

However, the HSE has failed to confirm whether Paul Kelly’s history, which includes impersonating a doctor and a priest, was ever taken into consideration when Console was being allocated State funding.

The HSE completed an internal audit of the charity last year and is considering Console’s response to the findings and recommendations before making a decision on any future arrangements.

Breathing seaweed fumes is good for your health, research now shows

TWO-DECADE STUDY FINDS IODINE DEFICIENCY MUCH LOWER IN SEAWEED-RICH COASTAL AREAS

  

JOHNNY CLOHERTY HARVESTING SEAWEED NEAR CARNA IN CO GALWAY.

Taking a coastal stroll makes one feel better, but it’s not just the fresh air that lifts the spirits. Newly-published research has found breathing iodine emitted by seaweed has physiological benefits.

The research published in the Irish Medical Journal says iodine intake, which is essential to brain development in children, is improved by continued exposure to a seaweed-rich environment.

The two-decade study, led by Prof Peter Smyth of both University CollegeDublin (UCD) and NUI Galway, was sparked by his interest during his time in UCD medical school in iodine deficiency and its effect on the thyroid gland.

Research in the 1940s in south Tipperary had linked large goitres and associated learning difficulties in children with iodine deficiency.

Ireland and Britain lack the salt iodisation programmes introduced in other developed countries to ensure diets of expectant mothers are not iodine-deficient. “Seaweed shares properties with the human thyroid, in that both concentrate iodine; the thyroid from the diet, seaweed from seawater,” Prof Smyth says.

His study over 20 years compared urine samples taken from schoolchildren and women in three separate environments: the seaweed-rich coastal area of Carna, Co Galway; the coastal cities of Dublin, Galway and Belfast; and the inland areas of Dungannon, Co Tyrone, and Mullingar, Co Westmeath.

The seaweed “hotspot” of Carna scored highest of all, with 45.6 per cent of schoolchildren and 43 per cent of adults having iodine intake above the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendation. Between 2.3 per cent and 16 per cent of those tested in inland and low seaweed-abundant coastal areas met the WHO standard.

“The benefits are associated with not just being near the sea, but being able to take a good lungful of air near a seaweed-rich beach,” Prof Smyth says.

The findings may prompt local authorities to think twice about regularly clearing city beaches of seaweed.

In Galway, an estimated 60,000 people visited the third national SeaFest over the weekend.

China completes the world’s largest radio telescope to find aliens from outer space?

   

WORK HAS FINISHED ON THE WORLD’S LARGEST RADIO TELESCOPE, WHICH WILL HUNT FOR EXTRATERRESTRIAL LIFE AND EXPLORE SPACE.

China fitted the final of 4,450 panels into the centre of the 500m-wide Aperture Spherical Telescope, or FAST, over the weekend.

The telescope, which cost $180 million (£135 million) and took five years to build, will be switched on from September this year.

“The project has the potential to search for more strange objects to better understand the origin of the universe and boost the global hunt for extraterrestrial life,” Zheng Xiaonian, deputy head of the National Astonomical Observation under the Chinese Academy Sciences, which built the telescope, told Xhinua news agency.

Around the size of 30 football pitches, the 500m-wide radio telescope is significantly larger than the current record holder, Puerto Rico’s 300m-wide Arecibo Observatory. And it is 10 times more sensitive than Germany’s 100-metre-wide steerable telescope, according to Xinhua.

From September, the telescope will be open for two or three years of early-stage research while it also undergoes trials and adjustments.

Before then 9,000 people that live within a 5 km radius of the centre will be relocated to ensure radio silence in the area.

After September, the telescope will be made available to researchers across the world, and will help detecting pulsars and gravitational waves. FAST is expected to eventually be able to detect amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, which would signal life on other planets.

Researchers as far as 2,000 km away from the site in Pintang County, Guizhou, can use the telescope for remote observation and control.

President Xi Jingping is determined to establish China as a space power. Its ambitions include putting a man on the moon by 2036 and building a space station, the first module of which will be launched in 2018.

The country recently unveiled the world’s most powerful supercomputer that is almost three times as powerful as its nearest competitor.

China’s rival to space exploration, Nasa, will this week reach Jupiter with its Juno spacecraft. If the mission is successful it could solve the mystery of the swirling storm clouds and whether the planet was the first in the solar system.     

Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG

Garda may be issued with new weapons after Dublin killings

HEIGHTENED GARDA PRESENCE IN CITY AS FIRST OF TWO FUNERALS TAKES PLACE ON MONDAY

  

Armed detectives and specialist units including the ERU will form part of the operation to deter any further attacks around the funerals.

Members of the specialist Garda unit leading the response to armed crime gangs are seeking new weapons that would give it some of the capabilities of the Emergency Response Unit (ERU) and Regional Support Unit (RSU).

Members of the Garda Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau are concerned they are not properly equipped to deal with the volatile criminals they encounter during searches and other anti-gang operations.

And after two significant factions launched separate gun attacks over the last eight days that left four men wounded, two of them fatally, sources said members of the bureau want “immediate progress” on their demands.

They are requesting taser stun guns and MP7 high velocity personal defence weapons.

IN A STATEMENT ISSUED THROUGH GARDA HEADQUARTERS, THE FORCE SAID ITS FIREARMS CAPABILITY WAS BEING CONSIDERED.

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“As part of a wider programme An Garda Síochána is currently reviewing its armed capacity and response capability,” the statement said.

Powerful firearms. 

While the MP7s are powerful firearms that can pierce armour. Sources say the stun guns – used to subdue violent criminals – were likely to be used more often. Members of the bureau have already been trained to use tasers but have not been provided with them, unlike the ERU and RSU.

Gardaí are to begin mounting a heightened security operation this evening in a bid to minimise the risk of further gun attacks around the funerals of David Byrne and Eddie Hutch.

Father-of-two David Byrne, who was killed at the Regency Hotel, Drumcondra, eight days ago is to be waked and his parents’ home in Crumlin tomorrow evening ahead of his funeral on Monday.

Garda sources said a security operation would need to be put in place in the south inner city on Monday morning and into the afternoon, when Mr Byrne’s funeral mass takes place at St Nicholas of Myra Church, Francis Street, before burial at Mount Jerome Cemetery, Harold’s Cross.

There was concern in Garda circles last night that social occasions around the funeral may give rise to more violence.

A high-visibility presence of unarmed uniformed gardaí along with armed detectives and specialist units including the ERU will form part of the operation to deter any further attacks. The Public Order Unit, or riot squad, was also expected to be on standby.

The boxing weigh-in?

Mr Byrne (33) was shot dead when a group of armed men, some dressed in Garda special operations-style uniforms and carrying AK 47s, burst into a boxing tournament weigh-in the Regency Hotel last Friday, February 4th.

As two Independent News & Media journalists remained away from their homes under threat from one of the feuding gangs, NewsBrands Ireland, representing 16 national newspaper titles, said it “vigorously condemned” the threats.

It said journalists “perform a hugely important function in helping society to value truth . . . It is vital that all journalists working for a free press are enabled to carry out their duties without fear and intimidation.”

A Cork Bishop urges voters to question candidates on Eight Amendment

SOME USING LIFE LIMITING CONDITIONS TO PUSH FOR ABORTION ON WIDER GROUNDS, a cork CLERIC WARNS

  

The Bishop of Cork and Ross John Buckley.

A Catholic bishop has urged voters to question all general election candidates about their views and voting intentions on repealing the Eighth Amendment to allow for abortion in certain circumstances such as fatal foetal abnormality.

Bishop of Cork and Ross Dr John Buckley said it was sad that a child’s life-limiting condition was being used by some candidates in the forthcoming general election to promote an agenda of those who seek to legalise abortion on much wider grounds.

In the first intervention by a Catholic bishop in the general election campaign, Bishop Buckley said that “candidates in the election should be questioned politely but firmly not just on their future intentions but on their past record.”

Bishop Buckley said there would be frequent references in the debate to “fatal foetal abnormalities” but the word “fatal” was misleading since there was “no medical evidence where a doctor can predict, with certainty, the lifespan of babies before they are born.”

“The term ‘incompatible with life’, which is also used, is a hurtful phrase since it implies that a baby’s life is worthless… parents often say that the time they have with their baby, however short, is very precious,” he said.

Bishop Buckley said the Protection of Life during Pregnancy Act (2013) introduced by the Fine Gael/Labour coalition “directly targeted the life of the unborn child and did so in the full knowledge that abortion is not a treatment for suicidal feelings”.

In the context of abortion, the Catholic Church teaches it is wrong to confuse the necessary medical treatment to save the life of a mother and which does not intend to harm the baby with abortion which deliberately takes the life of a child, he said.

Late last year, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said he would convene a constitutional convention to examine repealing the Eighth Amendment, which would give equal right to life to a mother and her unborn child, and would allow a free vote if the convention proposed repeal.

Meanwhile, Labour has included repeal of the Eighth Amendment as part of its election manifesto even though last May it voted against a bill proposed byRuth Coppinger of the Socialist Party calling for the deletion of the Eighth Amendment to allow legislation on abortion.

Last November, Labour Senator Ivana Bacik enunciated Labour’s policy, explaining that the party’s proposals would allow for abortion under four medically certified grounds -risk to life, risk to health, cases of rape and case of fatal foetal abnormality.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin recently said that his party would not be initiating the repeal of the Eighth Amendment.

He said it was a sensitive issue and he would favour the setting up of an all party committee to “tease out the various issues”.

Sinn Féin voted at its Ard Fheis in March 2015 in favour of allowing abortion in cases of fatal foetal abnormalities and voted for the deletion of the Eighth Amendment when proposed by Ruth Coppinger in the Dáil last May.

Renua, whose leader Lucinda Creighton resigned as a Fine Gael minister of state when she opposed the suicide clause in the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill in 2013, has said it is open to a referendum on abortion.

Meanwhile, a number of individual Fine Gael TDs including both the former and current Ministers for Health James Reilly and Leo Varadkar have both indicated that they would favour repeal of the Eighth Amendment .

Fianna Fáil spokesman on health Billy Kelleher said he would be happy if the Eighth Amendment was deleted and replaced with legislation outside of the constitution as long as the new law was strict and allowed abortion in only limited circumstances.

Irish Life’s profits up by 11% last year to €204 million

PENSION AND INVESTMENT FIRM CONTRIBUTED €204M TO ITS CANADIAN PARENT LAST YEAR

   

BILL KYLE, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, IRISH LIFE GROUP: “(33%) ONE IN THREE IRISH ADULTS HAS SOME SAVINGS WITH US AND WE MANAGE 15% OF PERSONAL ASSETS IN IRELAND.”

Irish Life contributed €204 million in profit last year to its Canadian parent company, Great-West Lifeco, according to full year results just published. This was an increase of 11% on 2014.

For the three months to the end of December, Irish Life produced a profit of €77 million, a year-on-year increase of 57%.

Commenting on the results, Bill Kyle, Irish Life’s chief executive, said: “Our business continues to grow. Irish Life now has €64 billion of assets under management, more than one million customers and 2,300 employees.

“One in three Irish adults has some savings with us and we manage 15% of personal assets in Ireland.”

Mr Kyle said a highlight of the fourth-quarter performance was the success of Irish Life’s Empower pension programme for corporate businesses. It signed up five new large clients representing more than 7,000 members, €500 million in assets and €50 million in annual premium flow.

On January 27th, ratings agency Fitch upgraded Irish Life’s to ‘AA’ from ‘AA-’. This upgrade reflected Fitch’s view that Irish Life has become “core” to its Canadian parent.

“We are particularly pleased that Fitch noted that Great-West Lifeco’s acquisition of Irish Life has been well managed and has provided the company with critical scale in the Irish market as well as operational synergies and expense savings,” Mr Kyle said.

Looking for a healthy way to lose some weight? Then eat some breakfast

 V  V 

EATING BREAKFAST MAY NOT ONLY MAKE PEOPLE, ESPECIALLY OBESE, LOSE WEIGHT BUT CAN ALSO MAKE THEM MORE PHYSICALLY ACTIVE AND REDUCE FOOD INTAKE LATER IN THE DAY, REVEALS A STUDY.
ACCORDING TO THE TEAM, INCREASING ACTIVITY CAN IMPROVE HEALTH IN SEDENTARY PEOPLE MAKING THEM MORE ACTIVE BY CONTROLLING THEIR BLOOD SUGAR LEVELS.

“Despite many people offering opinions about whether or not you should eat breakfast, to date, there has been a lack of rigorous scientific evidence showing  ..
or whether, breakfast might cause changes in our health,” said lead researcher James Betts from the University of Bath in Britain.

The results highlight some of these impacts, but “how important” breakfast is still really depends on the individual and their own personal goals, Betts added.

The team wanted to study the possible links between breakfast, body weight and health.

In the study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers split obese  ..
The “breakfasting” group was asked to eat at least 700 calories by 11 a.m., which the first half of the group consumed within at least two hours of waking up. The fasting group was allowed only water until noon.

“For example, if weight loss is the key, there is little to suggest that just having breakfast or skipping it will matter. However, based on other markers of a healthy lifestyle like being more active or controlling blood sugar levels, then there is evidence that breakfast may help,” Betts noted.
It is important to bear in mind that not everybody responds in the same way to breakfast and that not all breakfasts are equal.

“The effects of a sugary cereal compared to a high-protein breakfast are likely to be quite different,” said Enhad Chowdhury, another researcher.

Some 150,000 penguins perish after a giant iceberg traps "An Antarctica colony"

    

• 150,000 PENGUINS HAVE DIED AFTER AN ICEBERG RAN AGROUND IN ANTARCTICA

• THE MASSIVE ICEBERG COLLIDED INTO THE BAY IN 2010

About 150,000 penguins have died since being stranded by a vast iceberg that became lodged off the coast of Antarctica six years ago, according to the journal Antarctic Science.

Combined with expanding ice, the B09B iceberg, which at 1,120 square miles is almost the size of Rhode Island, has cut off the Adelie penguins’ food supply and changed the landscape of their home, according to a February report in the peer-reviewed journal published by Cambridge University Press.

The towering mass of water ice first ran aground into the penguins’ habitat of Cape Denison in Commonwealth Bay in 2010. Before that it was floating along the coast for nearly 20 years before colliding into the bay. The iceberg essentially has landlocked the penguins, forcing the animals to trek across a desolate stretch of nearly 40 miles to find food.

Strength in numbers – Adelies are one of the most abundant of the penguin species. They can be found in large colonies and on icebergs and coastal areas in Antarctica waters.

Reduced habitat – Adelie penguins face the same climate change dangers as emperors, such as reduced habitat and a diminishing food supply. However, due to their larger population, they’re currently less at risk.

South polar skua – The south polar skua is the Adelie’s only land predator. It will attempt to steal penguin eggs and attack young chicks. Penguins work together to fight off the vicious skuas.

African penguin – The warmer climes of coastal South Africa and Namibia are home to the African or jackass penguin. Boulders Beach near Cape Town, South Africa, is a popular destination for penguin spotting.

Homebodies – Unlike the highly mobile penguins in Antarctica, African penguins breed, nest and feed in the same area instead of traveling hundreds of miles between sites. They build nests under boulders or bushes or burrows dug from their own guano.

Endangered species – African penguins are listed as an endangered species. Their decreasing population is spurred by loss of nesting grounds due to guano removal by humans, as well as a decreasing food supply as a result of overfishing.

Little penguins – The little penguin, also known as the fairy or blue penguin, can be found on the coasts of New Zealand and southern Australia. They’re the smallest of all penguins, weighing just a kilo or two and topping out at just over 30 centimeters tall.

Penguin Awareness – Around the globe, penguins are at risk of extinction due to overfishing and man-made changes to their breeding grounds.

Emperor penguins – There are 17 species of penguin, with emperor penguins being the largest. They weigh up to 45 kilos (100 pounds) and grow to 120 centimeters (48 inches) tall. These three are pictured on sea ice at McMurdo Sound in Antarctica.

Where to spot them – Emperors can be seen along the coast of Antarctica. Breeding colonies are often the destination for cruises and scenic flights. Penguin species can also be spotted in South Africa, Chile, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand.

Climate change – As with most polar species, penguins are feeling the effects of climate change. Ice melt is changing their breeding grounds and overfishing and ocean acidification is affecting their food sources of fish, squid and krill.

That waddle – Emperors have an awkward, waddling gait on land, but are graceful in the water. These birds can dive more than 550 meters (1,800 feet) and stay under for up to 20 minutes.

Adelie penguins – Less than half the size of an emperor penguin, Adelie penguins are one of the smallest of the Antarctic penguin species. Each October, they build nests of rocks on land near open water.

Strength in numbers – Adelies are one of the most abundant of the penguin species. They can be found in large colonies and on icebergs and coastal areas in Antarctica waters.

Reduced habitat – Adelie penguins face the same climate change dangers as emperors, such as reduced habitat and a diminishing food supply. However, due to their larger population, they’re currently less at risk.

South polar skua – The south polar skua is the Adelie’s only land predator. It will attempt to steal penguin eggs and attack young chicks. Penguins work together to fight off the vicious skuas.

African penguin – The warmer climes of coastal South Africa and Namibia are home to the African or jackass penguin. Boulders Beach near Cape Town, South Africa, is a popular destination for penguin spotting.

Homebodies – Unlike the highly mobile penguins in Antarctica, African penguins breed, nest and feed in the same area instead of traveling hundreds of miles between sites. They build nests under boulders or bushes or burrows dug from their own guano.

Endangered species – African penguins are listed as an endangered species. Their decreasing population is spurred by loss of nesting grounds due to guano removal by humans, as well as a decreasing food supply as a result of overfishing.

Little penguins – The little penguin, also known as the fairy or blue penguin, can be found on the coasts of New Zealand and southern Australia. They’re the smallest of all penguins, weighing just a kilo or two and topping out at just over 30 centimeters tall.

Penguin Awareness – Around the globe, penguins are at risk of extinction due to overfishing and man-made changes to their breeding grounds.

Emperor penguins – There are 17 species of penguin, with emperor penguins being the largest. They weigh up to 45 kilos (100 pounds) and grow to 120 centimeters (48 inches) tall. These three are pictured on sea ice at McMurdo Sound in Antarctica.

Where to spot them – Emperors can be seen along the coast of Antarctica. Breeding colonies are often the destination for cruises and scenic flights. Penguin species can also be spotted in South Africa, Chile, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand.

Climate change – As with most polar species, penguins are feeling the effects of climate change. Ice melt is changing their breeding grounds and overfishing and ocean acidification is affecting their food sources of fish, squid and krill.

That waddle – Emperors have an awkward, waddling gait on land, but are graceful in the water. These birds can dive more than 550 meters (1,800 feet) and stay under for up to 20 minutes.

Adelie penguins – Less than half the size of an emperor penguin, Adelie penguins are one of the smallest of the Antarctic penguin species. Each October, they build nests of rocks on land near open water.

Strength in numbers – Adelies are one of the most abundant of the penguin species. They can be found in large colonies and on icebergs and coastal areas in Antarctica waters.

The once 160,000-strong colony has now dwindled to 10,000 penguins.

“The arrival of iceberg B09B in Commonwealth Bay, East Antarctica… has dramatically increased the distance Adélie penguins breeding at Cape Denison must travel in search of food,” said researchers in the report.

Since 2011, the colony’s population has fallen dramatically, according to the Climate Change Research Center at Australia’s University of New South Wales.

The outlook for the Cape Denison Adelie penguins remains dire. Unless the colossal iceberg is broken up by sea ice, scientists predict the colony will disappear in 20 years.

About 5,500 pairs are still breeding in the area, but there has been a significant decline in their population compared with a century ago, according to estimates based on satellite images and a census in 1997.

However, it isn’t the end for all Adelie penguins. About five miles from the Commonwealth Bay, another colony is thriving, which leaves scientists to conclude that the iceberg has had a direct impact of the species that is now landlocked. About 30% of the Adelie penguin population lives in East Antarctica.

Research on the iceberg’s impact on the Adelie penguins can give scientists insight into the wider implications on the effects of increasing sea ice in the area.

Long-term environmental changes are projected for the Southern Ocean, which will likely affect marine predators, according to a 2015 report published the peer-reviewed journal BMC Evolutionary Biology. Environmental shifts because of climate change could also affect the breeding habitats of land creatures, finding food in a marine environment and the availability of prey for larger predators

Deglaciation, the gradual melting of glaciers, is a key driver in the Adelie penguins’ population over a millennium, according to scientists. But while changes in sea ice can directly affect the species, scientists say it’s important to keep perspective on the penguins’ population over a larger time frame.