[SunTzuWu]

...could have devastating consequences for Antarctic bird colonies, including population collapse and even extinction.

Or it could have no effect at all.
They don't know so they default to the worst case scenario in order to impress the media.

[GnuThere]

Exactly. But because they’re scientists, they want to cry wolf and try to ruin it for all the tourists, even though there are very strict limits on how many tourists can land onshore and you are not supposed to get within a certain distance of the penguins.