Skip to content Skip to footer

Elephant Seal Deaths in Antarctica Raise Fears of Avian Flu Threatening Penguin Colonies

The spread of avian flu in Antarctica has already claimed over 500,000 seabirds and 20,000 sea lions in Chile and Peru.

An elephant seal is seen as Turkish scientists conduct fieldwork in Antarctica, on February 20, 2023.

In a further red flag for penguin populations in Antarctica, a new report reveals that hundreds of elephants seals have been found dead. While on the surface the two trends may seem unrelated, the chair of the Antarctic Wildlife Health Network, Dr. Meagan Dewar, told The Guardian on Friday that “at some sites we’ve had mass mortalities, where we are getting into the hundreds” when it comes to elephant seal populations. Then came the stinger: “There is a likely chance it could be avian influenza,” colloquially known as bird flu.

Avian flu has already been confirmed at eight testing sites across the Antarctic, with twenty other site results still pending at the time of this writing. Observers in the Antarctic have reported elephant seals displaying avian flu symptoms including coughing, mucus accumulations around their noses and breathing difficulties. Birds with avian flu suffer from spasms, lethargy and an inability to fly. The virus has already killed over 500,000 seabirds and over 20,000 sea lions in Chile and Peru, and experts are concerned that it could have a catastrophic effect on Antarctic penguin colonies if it reaches them.

This is not the first sign that avian flu is going to reach Earth’s southernmost continent. In October a report by the British Antarctic Survey confirmed the avian flu’s existence near Antarctica on Bird Island in the South Georgia region, particularly afflicting a species of bird known as the brown skua. In their report, the British Antarctic Survey highlighted the risk to a wide range of local bird populations.

“There are species on some of the Antarctic islands and sub-Antarctic islands that are unique to those islands, and only occur in small numbers, in hundreds or thousands,” Thijs Kuiken from Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands, who was not involved in the study, told New Scientist. “If the virus reaches those populations, they are in threat of extinction.”

Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn

Dear Truthout Community,

If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.

We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.

Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.

There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.

After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?

It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.

We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.

We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.

Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.

We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.

With love, rage, and solidarity,

Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy