South Africa

South Africa, Our Burning Planet, Maverick News

Marion Island’s seabirds at risk after avian flu confirmed on SA’s sub-Antarctic outpost

The media waiting area in Helsinki, Finland, ahead of the opening ceremony in 2023. Only 20 minutes of the opening ceremony, forming part of a 10-day event, were opened to media. No other reporters turned up. (Photo: Tiara Walters)

By Tiara Walters

19 Mar 2025

The deadly H5N1 strain is spreading rapidly in the Antarctic, potentially threatening the world’s largest breeding population of wandering albatrosses on South Africa’s Marion Island. Today, 19 March, marks one year since Daily Maverick first requested the national government’s biosecurity protocol for the infected territory, which we are yet to see.

An ecological crisis may be unfolding on Marion Island, South Africa’s sub-Antarctic outpost, as highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) has been confirmed among its seabirds.

The confirmation follows months of suspected cases after test samples were transported to mainland South Africa.

The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) has not made a formal announcement, but an epidemiology report published on the Western Cape government’s website notes the recent confirmation.

“An outbreak of avian influenza was suspected to have started in seabirds on Marion Island in September, based on neurological clinical signs and increased mortality,” says the report. “Once the samples could be transported to mainland South Africa, laboratory testing in March 2025 confirmed infection with HPAI H5N1.”

The report — a December 2024 disease review by the Western Cape Agriculture Department — was only published this month, in March 2025.

In a 12 March 2025 email seen by Daily Maverick, state veterinarian Dr Lesley van Helden noted: “The report was delayed while we awaited laboratory confirmation of avian influenza on Marion Island, in order to provide an accurate picture of the disease outbreaks in 2024.”

Located in the Southern Ocean 1,700km southeast of Cape Town, Marion Island is part of the Prince Edward Islands group, a globally important nesting ground for millions of seabirds. Among its inhabitants are the world’s largest breeding population of wandering albatrosses, as well as vast populations of penguins, southern giant petrels, brown skuas and seals.

Former Marion Island researcher Yolokazi Galada next to a wandering albatross in March 2011. (Photo: Tiara Walters)

The first signs of trouble, however, emerged in mid-September 2024, when a brown skua exhibiting neurological symptoms raised suspicions among observers.

By November, the tally of suspected cases had grown to include three wandering albatross chicks and two adult southern giant petrels — species already threatened by predatory invasive mice.

“The virus can be transported long distances by migrating birds, and this is likely how the virus arrived on Marion Island,” explained the DFFE's November statement on the suspected cases.

The agriculture department’s report focuses on confirmed avian cases, and does not offer information on neighbouring Prince Edward Island. Yet, some experts have voiced concerns about the potential impact on seals.

“If the virus hits elephant seals, bitterly few would survive,” Professor Marthán Bester, a polar mammal specialist at Pretoria University, previously warned.

The agriculture department’s state veterinarians and DFFE had not answered detailed queries about the H5N1 confirmation by the time of publication.

“I’m sorry, but I have a full day and will not be able to meet your deadline,” Dr Laura Roberts told us on Wednesday morning. Roberts is a state veterinarian who responded to our email, originally sent to Dr Van Helden.

She added: “I know that a media statement is in progress and I think it should be out within the next week. I will do my best to ensure you receive it directly as soon as I have it, and will send any answers to any of your questions that are not covered.”

Marion Island king penguins. (Photo: Tiara Walters)

Swift, devastating impact

Since 2003, the virus has become better adapted, ripping across 6,000km of South America from 2022.

The British Antarctic Survey’s confirmation of the virus in brown skuas on South Georgia in October 2023 was a historic warning that the region’s far-flung ecosystems were no longer safe — or even that remote.

In February 2024, a Spanish-Argentine collaboration confirmed the virus in Antarctica for the first time ever.

Last month, the Spanish Research Council reported that mainland Antarctica was reaping a grim toll: “H5 influenza virus was detected in 50% of the carcasses tested, which strongly suggests that the virus is causing significant mortality in various species in the Antarctic Peninsula, especially skuas.”

Humans may also act as possible vectors, inadvertently spreading the virus between wildlife colonies.

“In many cases the viral load in dead animals was very high, indicating a potential risk of exposure to the virus in the proximity of the carcasses,” the council said.

Chile’s BASE Millennium Institute researchers during the expedition that first confirmed H5N1 in penguins and cormorants. (Photo: Fabiola León)

Biosecurity protocols — a patchy record

A competent protocol, according to the UK’s biosecurity plan, aims to limit the spread of the virus where possible. Among others, it deploys specialist staff and detection equipment, protective gear and back-up stocks.

On 20 March 2024, nearly 18 months after the virus had begun tearing down South America to the species-rich Antarctic Peninsula, DFFE told us that South Africa’s H5N1 biosecurity protocol was still in development and “will be shared with all stakeholders, including the Antarctic Treaty consultative meeting”.

Several countries, including Chile and the UK, had already shared their extensive protocols with other states at the meeting the year before, in 2023.

As of March 2025, with the annual mid-year meeting in Italy now looming, there is still no sign of South Africa’s protocol on the meeting archive.

Last month, department spokesperson Peter Mbelengwa told us the protocol had been finalised ahead of the Marion Island expedition towards the end of 2024’s first quarter.

“The protocol is a living document, undergoing periodic revisions based on national consultations and alignment with international best practices, including those under the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels,” Mbelengwa said, adding highlights in bold.

“Due to the extensive nature of the national consultative process, the protocol was not ready for formal submission at the 2024 [meeting]. However, South Africa continues to refine and adapt the protocol as new scientific information emerges.”

‘No formal requirement to publish the document’

Has South Africa shared the living document with other states?

Mbelengwa told us: “South Africa’s H5N1 protocol is based on internationally recognised biosecurity measures and has been shared with scientists actively involved in research programmes on Marion Island, particularly those working on biosecurity protocols.

“As the protocol is specifically tailored for Marion Island, a Special Nature Reserve with restricted access, it has limited relevance outside this context.”

Daily Maverick first asked to see the protocol exactly a year ago: on 19 March 2024. Last month, we asked again: Where can the public access the document?

Mbelengwa responded that “there is no formal requirement to publish the document in the Antarctic Treaty System’s document archive, the protocol is available upon request to relevant stakeholders”.

By the time of publication, we had extended several more unmet requests to both DFFE and the Western Cape Agriculture Department.

Chile proposes task force for unified biosecurity protocol

In April 2024, Daily Maverick’s investigation revealed gaps in the Antarctic Treaty’s H5N1 biosecurity coordination and public communication.

Despite the knowledge that climate change was likely to inflame the virus, isolated in China in 1996, there was no common biosecurity approach among treaty states, leaving station personnel and researchers in inhospitable areas uncertain about how to respond.

Following our revelations, Chilean experts — the first to confirm the virus in penguins — proposed leading a task force to spearhead that common approach for the entire Antarctic.

Tabled at the 2024 meeting in India, their ambitious proposal was based on extensive field research and sought to compel states to adopt a legally enforceable “international standard”.

“There is plenty of room for further progress,” the delegation advocated in its paper.

There was also a need to “share” national experiences, “coordinate efforts and develop a joint, timely and effective response to prevent the dramatic consequences of HPAI in Antarctica”, the paper urged. Instead, the “contrary” was happening, it argued.

Though the India meeting endorsed Chile’s vision to audit state biosecurity plans, not everyone had the appetite for a common approach.

“Some parties cautioned the meeting against the preparation of unified protocols,” the minutes reveal.

The minutes from the 10 days of sealed plenary talks, where journalists and the public are traditionally not allowed, do not betray who those parties were.

If there are no journalists to hear what ‘some parties’ have to say, do they make a sound?

To contain fractious power struggles that could damage the Antarctic environment or exacerbate geopolitical tensions, there may be valid reasons for some diplomatic confidentiality.

The treaty secretariat does make all agenda documents public once the meeting concludes. Still, none of these reveal the transcripts from the controversial debate chamber where countries such as China and Russia habitually block conservation plans.

Often, the opaque minutes only identify consensus blockers as “some parties”.

Some public interest matters, such as Russia’s search for oil and gas deposits in Antarctica’s Southern Ocean, do not make it into the discussion hall at all without being placed on the agenda.

In April 2024, we would also uncover treaty states’ failure to issue a dedicated joint statement acknowledging what 400 delegates, including South Africa, had learnt in that sealed chamber — H5N1 was a grave threat to more than 100 million breeding birds, six seal and 17 cetacean species.

The secretariat has no media spokesperson, so we questioned delegates at the door about the contents of the talks. Those delegates did not mention the virus.

‘The transparency of scientific activities conducted on the Continent’

Italy’s foreign ministry, which hosts the upcoming meeting in Milan, has yet to respond to our series of queries about media access, first sent in August 2024.

The treaty was signed in the US capital in 1959. On its website, the foreign ministry notes:

“A cornerstone of the Antarctic Treaty System is ensuring the transparency of scientific activities conducted on the Continent.

“This principle is embodied in Article VII of the Washington Treaty, which states that ‘All areas of Antarctica, including all scientific stations, installations and equipment within those areas … shall be open at all times to inspection.’

“Seventy-five [sic] years after the signing of the Washington Treaty, the Antarctic Treaty System constitutes a body of agreements governing cooperation between states in Antarctica and is a cornerstone of today’s system of international relations.” DM

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