Self-professed penguin lover Julia Graham cried when she saw the Rena had hit Astrolabe Reef a year ago today.

'When I woke up and saw the TV footage I cried immediately – I saw what was coming out and I knew it was bad, I knew my penguins would swim in that and I knew it was bad.”

Mount Penguin Monitoring Team assistant team leader Julia Graham, pictured with one of her Leisure Island 'babies', says it was terrible seeing the oiled penguins after Rena's grounding. Photo by Tracy Hardy.

The same day Julia was presenting a research report on penguin habitats in the Coromandel for her Environmental Management degree and remembers rushing through the report then watching in disbelief as everyone chatted away.

Julia, the assistant leader of the Mount Penguin Monitoring Team, thought to herself 'are you all mad, don't you realise what's happening”.

That night she headed to Leisure Island with her headlamp to check the penguins.

So began her involvement in what turned into an oiled penguin rescue mission – which saw the team gather about 340 oiled penguins over the following weeks. The affected blue penguins were cleaned and taken to Te Maunga Oiled Wildlife Centre to recover and microchipping, before eventually being released.

Julia shudders remembering the many dead birds, and seeing the penguins 'messed” from the oil.

'It was terrible – there were a few nights there it was really hard.”

More than 2000 birds were found dead following the Rena grounding while 340 Little Blue Penguins were cared for – about 95 per cent released back into the wild.

Little Blue Penguins are released at Main Mount Beach.

Penguins being cared for at the Te Maunga Oiled Wildlife Centre.

From rescue and rehabilitation the team now focuses on monitoring bird recovery with regular assessments on the penguin survival rate, health and breeding success.

Data is being collected to compare the oiled penguins to non-oiled, over a two-three year period to assess the impact.

This follows a similar Australian study after an oil spill by the Iron Baron in 1995 which concluded babies born to oiled penguins did poorly.

This became a justification to euthanise penguins but Julia says findings could have been affected by various factors, 'so it will be interesting to see how our data comes out”.

'As it stands they are laying quite nicely, with our very first oiled pair having two fat four-week old babies sitting in their nest, so that's a good start to the season.”

Julia says the biggest challenge for Leisure Island's penguins are dogs and pests disturbing nests and stealing eggs, and urges people to heed the area's dog ban. She also urges anyone who finds a dead penguin to contact team leader Dave Richards on 021 719 622.

Beyond the Rena project Julia dreams of working with the birds on other projects.

'I love penguins because they've got so much personality”.