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For as long as I can remember,

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I have felt a very deep connection
to animals and to the ocean.

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And at this age, my personal idol
was Flipper the dolphin.

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And when I first learned
about endangered species,

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I was truly distressed to know
that every day,

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animals were being wiped
off the face of this Earth forever.

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And I wanted to do something to help,
but I always wondered:

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What could one person possibly do
to make a difference?

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And it would be 30 years,

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but I would eventually get
the answer to that question.

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When these heartbreaking
images of oiled birds

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finally began to emerge
from the Gulf of Mexico last year

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during the horrific BP oil spill,

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a German biologist by the name
of Silvia Gaus was quoted as saying,

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"We should just euthanize all oiled birds,

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because studies have shown

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that fewer than one percent of them
survive after being released."

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And I could not disagree more.

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In addition,

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I believe that every oiled animal
deserves a second chance at life.

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And I want to tell you why
I feel so strongly about this.

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On June 23, 2000,

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a ship named the Treasure sank
off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa,

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spilling 1,300 tons of fuel,

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which polluted the habitats
of nearly half the entire world population

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of African penguins.

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Now, the ship sank
between Robben Island to the south,

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and Dassen Island to the north --

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two of the penguins' main
breeding islands.

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And exactly six years
and three days earlier,

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on June 20, 1994,

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a ship named the Apollo Sea
sank near Dassen Island,

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oiling 10,000 penguins,
half of which died.

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Now when the Treasure sank in 2000,

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it was the height
of the best breeding season

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scientists had ever recorded
for the African penguin,

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which at the time, was listed
as a threatened species.

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And soon, nearly 20,000 penguins

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were covered with this toxic oil.

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The local seabird rescue
center, named SANCCOB,

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immediately launched
a massive rescue operation,

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and this soon would become
the largest animal rescue ever undertaken.

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At the time, I was working
down the street.

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I was a penguin aquarist
at the New England Aquarium.

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And exactly 11 years ago yesterday,

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the phone rang in the penguin office.

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And with that call,
my life would change forever.

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It was Estelle van Der Merwe
calling from SANCCOB,

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saying, "Please come help.

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We have thousands of oiled penguins

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and thousands of willing
but completely inexperienced volunteers.

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And we need penguin experts
to come train and supervise them."

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So two days later,

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I was on a plane headed for Cape Town

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with a team of penguin specialists.

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And the scene inside of this building
was devastating and surreal.

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In fact, many people
compared it to a war zone.

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Last week, a 10-year-old girl asked me:

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"What did it feel like
when you first walked into that building

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and saw so many oiled penguins?"

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And this is what happened.

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I was instantly transported
back to that moment in time.

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Penguins are very vocal birds
and really, really noisy,

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so I expected to walk into this building

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and be met with this cacophony
of honking and braying and squawking.

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But instead,

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when we stepped through
those doors and into the building,

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it was eerily silent.

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So it was very clear

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these were stressed,
sick, traumatized birds.

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The other thing that was so striking

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was the sheer number of volunteers.

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Up to 1,000 people a day
came to the rescue center.

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And eventually, over the course
of this rescue,

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more than 12-and-a-half
thousand volunteers

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came from all over the world to Cape Town,

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to help save these birds.

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And the amazing thing
was that not one of them had to be there.

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Yet they were.

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So for the few of us that were there
in a professional capacity,

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this extraordinary volunteer response
to this animal crisis

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was profoundly moving and awe-inspiring.

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So the day after we arrived,

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two of us from the aquarium
were put in charge of room two.

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Room two had more
than 4,000 oiled penguins in it.

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Now, mind you --

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three days earlier,
we had 60 penguins under our care,

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so we were definitely overwhelmed

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and just a bit terrified --
at least I was.

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Personally, I really didn't know

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if I was capable of handling
such a monstrous task.

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And collectively,

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we really didn't know
if we could pull this off.

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Because we all knew
that just six years earlier,

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half as many penguins
had been oiled and rescued,

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and only half of them had survived.

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So would it be humanly possible
to save this many oiled penguins?

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We just did not know.

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But what gave us hope

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were these incredibly dedicated
and brave volunteers,

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three of whom here
are force-feeding penguins.

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You may notice they're wearing
very thick gloves.

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And what you should know
about African penguins

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is that they have razor-sharp beaks.

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And before long,

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our bodies were covered head to toe

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with these nasty wounds
inflicted by the terrified penguins.

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Now the day after we arrived,
a new crisis began to unfold.

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The oil slick was now moving
north towards Dassen Island,

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and the rescuers despaired,

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because they knew if the oil hit,

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it would not be possible
to rescue any more oiled birds.

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And there really were no good solutions.

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But then finally,

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one of the researchers
threw out this crazy idea.

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He said, "OK, why don't we try
and collect the birds

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at the greatest risk of getting oiled" --

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they collected 20,000 --

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"and we'll ship them 500 miles
up the coast to Port Elizabeth

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in these open-air trucks,

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and release them
into the clean waters there

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and let them swim back home?"

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(Laughter)

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So three of those penguins --
Peter, Pamela and Percy --

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wore satellite tags,

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and the researchers crossed their fingers

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and hoped that by the time
they got back home,

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the oil would be cleaned up
from their islands.

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And luckily, the day they arrived, it was.

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So it had been a huge gamble,
but it had paid off.

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And so they know now
that they can use this strategy

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in future oil spills.

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So in wildlife rescue as in life,

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we learn from each previous experience,

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and we learn from both
our successes and our failures.

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And the main thing learned
during the Apollo Sea rescue in '94

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was that most of those penguins
had died due to the unwitting use

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of poorly ventilated
transport boxes and trucks,

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because they just had not been prepared

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to deal with so many
oiled penguins at once.

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So in these six years
between these two oil spills,

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they've built thousands
of these well-ventilated boxes.

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And as a result,
during the Treasure rescue,

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just 160 penguins died
during the transport process,

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as opposed to 5,000.

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So this alone was a huge victory.

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Something else learned
during the Apollo rescue

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was how to train the penguins

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to take fish freely from their hands,

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using these training boxes.

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And we used this technique again
during the Treasure rescue.

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But an interesting thing was noted
during the training process.

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The first penguins to make
that transition to free feeding

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were the ones that had
a metal band on their wing

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from the Apollo Sea spill
six years earlier.

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So penguins learn
from previous experience, too.

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So all of those penguins had to have
the oil meticulously cleaned

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from their bodies.

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It would take two people at least an hour
just to clean one penguin.

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And when you clean a penguin,

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you first have to spray it
with a degreaser.

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And this brings me to my favorite story
from the Treasure rescue.

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About a year prior to this oil spill,

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a 17-year-old student
had invented a degreaser.

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And they'd been using it
at SANCCOB with great success,

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so they began using it
during the Treasure rescue.

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But partway through, they ran out.

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So in a panic, Estelle
from SANCCOB called the student

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and said, "Please, you have to make more!"

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So he raced to the lab

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and made enough to clean
the rest of the birds.

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So I just think it is the coolest thing

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that a teenager invented a product

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that helped save the lives
of thousands of animals.

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So what happened
to those 20,000 oiled penguins?

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And was Silvia Gaus right?

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Should we routinely euthanize
all oiled birds

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because most of them
are going to die anyway?

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Well, she could not be more wrong.

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After half a million hours
of grueling volunteer labor,

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more than 90 percent
of those oiled penguins

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were successfully returned to the wild.

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And we know from follow-up studies

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that they have lived just as long
as never-oiled penguins,

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and bred nearly as successfully.

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And in addition,

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about 3,000 penguin chicks
were rescued and hand raised.

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And again, we know
from long-term monitoring

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that more of these hand-raised chicks
survive to adulthood and breeding age

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than do parent-raised chicks.

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Armed with this knowledge,
SANCCOB has a chick-bolstering project,

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and every year, they rescue
and raise abandoned chicks,

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and they have a very impressive,
80 percent success rate.

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This is critically important,

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because one year ago,

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the African penguin
was declared endangered.

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And they could be extinct
in less than 10 years

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if we don't do something
now to protect them.

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So what did I learn

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from this intense
and unforgettable experience?

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Personally, I learned that I am capable
of handling so much more

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than I ever dreamed possible.

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And I learned that one person
can make a huge difference.

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Just look at that 17-year-old.

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And when we come together and work as one,

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we can achieve extraordinary things.

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And truly, to be a part of something
so much larger than yourself

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is the most rewarding experience
you can possibly have.

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So I'd like to leave you
with one final thought

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and a challenge, if you will.

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My mission as The Penguin Lady
is to raise awareness and funding

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to protect penguins.

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But why should any of you
care about penguins?

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Well, you should care
because they're an indicator species.

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And simply put: if penguins are dying,
it means our oceans are dying.

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And we ultimately will be affected,

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because, as Sylvia Earle says,

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"The oceans are our life-support system."

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And the two main threats to penguins today

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are overfishing and global warming.

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And these are two things

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that each one of us actually has
the power to do something about.

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So if we each do our part, together,
we can make a difference,

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and we can help keep
penguins from going extinct.

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Humans have always been the greatest
threat to penguins,

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but we are now their only hope.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)