The impact of the avian flu of elephant seals resulted in the death of 17,000 individuals in a population in Argentina. Researchers think the marine mammals caught the virus from migrating birds near their haul out areas that are usually packed with the animals one on top of the other. Unfortunately, 97% of the elephant seal pups were lost resulting in a devastating loss for generations to come.
In this episode of the "How to Protect the Ocean" podcast, host Andrew Lewin discusses the devastating impact of the H5N1 avian flu on the elephant seal population off the coast of Argentina. Over 17,000 elephant seals died last year due to the outbreak, with approximately 97% of the pups affected. This significant loss poses a serious threat to the population's future, as elephant seals are a slow-growing species that take time to reach sexual maturity and reproduce.
The episode highlights how the H5N1 virus has adapted to marine mammals, allowing it to spread efficiently and evolve into distinct strains. The decline in the seal population and the loss of genetic diversity could make them more susceptible to future outbreaks and environmental stressors. The host emphasizes the importance of ongoing research, monitoring, and conservation efforts to mitigate risks and support the recovery of the elephant seal population.
Lewin expresses concern over the emotional toll of witnessing such a high mortality rate among the pups, which are crucial for the colony's future. He calls for increased funding and prioritization of conservation efforts to ensure the survival of this vulnerable species. The episode concludes with a commitment to follow the story and seek ways to help the elephant seals as a community.
Link to article: https://newsroom.wcs.org/News-Releases/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/23766/Elephant-Seal-Colony-Declines-One-Year-After-Avian-Flu-Outbreak.aspx
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Over 17,000 elephant seals died last year off the coast of Argentina. You're probably wondering, was it due to like overfishing, was it due to climate change? No, it was actually due to the avian flu. The H5N1 virus hit that colony last year and over 17,000 individual elephant seals died last year. There's a lot of implications because of this and scientists are saying that this is going to affect the population for decades to come. Because of other things that prevent the colony from expanding, like climate change, like overfishing, lack of food resources, you know, heating of the ocean, which has to do with climate change, of course. But there are a lot of things that we need to talk about to find out, like, how does virus like this wipe out so many and how does that affect the colony in the future? We're going to talk about that on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean Podcast. Let's start the show. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to another exciting episode of the How to Protect the Ocean Podcast. I'm your host, Angelou. And this is the podcast where you find out what's happening with the ocean, how you can speak up for the ocean, what you can do to live for a better ocean by taking action. And today we're going to be talking about elephant seals and it's going to be great. But if you want to know more about the ocean and ocean sciences, the first time you've come here, I've had a lot of new followers on thread. So welcome. If you're listening to the podcast from there or you're coming from Blue Sky, welcome. We appreciate you joining us. This is the podcast and companies Speak Up For Blue, where you find out everything you need to know about the we spread ocean news. We spread ways to speak up for the ocean. We spread ways to conserve the ocean and protect the ocean. And if you go to SpeakUpForBlue.com, you'll find more episodes, more resources for you. Check it out SpeakUpForBlue.com. And if you want information, ocean information to your inbox, you can do so by going to SpeakUpForBlue.com/newsletter. And you can sign up for our newsletter. You get it every day, Monday to Friday at 8 a.m. Eastern. You'll get access to the latest podcasts, the latest videos that we put out, the latest ocean news that's come out. And of course, the latest job ads that have come out that I feel are important for you to apply for. So SpeakUpForBlue.com/newsletter, SpeakUpForBlue.com/newsletter, SpeakUpForBlue.com/newsletter is the place to go to sign up for your ocean news resource. Let's get into it. Let's talk about elephant seals. Look, elephant seals are great. We've had on experts before that talk about Neil the Seal, for instance, in Tasmania. But also, we talk a lot about marine mammals and whales and so forth. And we know that marine mammals are susceptible to diseases. And we know that could take out a population that could take out a big chunk of the population. And seals and sea lions and elephant seals have been known to lose a lot of animals. If a virus just comes in and takes them out and they're affected by it, they don't have the ability to fight off that virus. And that happened last year with the avian flu. The H5N1 virus hit the colony off the coast of Argentina. And 17 over 17,000 seals died, including approximately 97% of the pups during that outbreak. So 97% of the next generation, a slow growing generation, right? This is a slow growing species. So it takes a while to get to sexual immaturity. It takes a while to reproduce. It takes a while to grow to adulthood. That is going to reduce the population. This season only about one third of the expected seal population has returned to the area. This is in the peninsula of Valdez, off the coast of Argentina. That is a huge, huge problem in the sustaining the population of that elephant seal population, right? Unfortunately, the H151 had sorry, the H5N1 virus has adapted to marine mammals, spreading efficiently and evolving into distinct strains for avian and marine hosts. So this is an avian flu, so probably how does it get from one host to the other? Viruses change. They evolve. They evolve quickly. That's what makes it so, so dangerous. We know that the COVID virus that we had, that changed quite rapidly. And then we kept seeing new strains and new strains. That's why new vaccines kept coming out because they needed to ensure that the new vaccines would actually stop the new viruses and the evolution of those viruses that kept infecting people and re-infecting people. I know I got COVID a couple of times, even though I got the vaccines, but I know my symptoms were a lot less. But it's not as if you can go and vaccinate entire population. And so that becomes, it really becomes difficult when strains evolves from avian to marine mammals, and they come into distinct populations now, right? And obviously, you know, researchers are saying that this event is going to set back the population for decades. As I mentioned, this is a slow growing species. It takes a long time for them to get to sexual maturity. It takes a long time for them to get to adulthood. And if you lose 97% of the pups from that year, you're missing an entire year of animals that are going to grow to sexual maturity. That's going to affect them later on down the road. And who knows what's going to affect them in the future? Could the H5N1 virus come back and hit them again? That's possible. If the H5N1 virus remains present in marine or coastal ecosystem, there is a risk of recurring outbreaks among elephant seals. However, some marine mammals that survived may have adapted already to the virus. But will it adapt to the next version of the virus? Is the big question? A sharp decline in the population and loss of genetic diversity could make the seals more susceptible to future outbreaks or other environmental stressors. And of course, the transmission from birds still remains primarily, even though it's an avian influenza, migraine birds or others that carriers could reintroduce the virus into seal habitat. So, look, there could be a potential immunity. There could be whales that survived the first outbreak, may have the, I guess, the makeup, the gene makeup to fight off an H5N1 virus, which is great to see in that population. Those populations will eventually reproduce and maybe have a better chance against the H5N1 virus. I mean, this is evolution at its finest right here. The strongest will survive. The animals, the individuals with the gene makeup that could fight off this virus will survive to the next generation. Unfortunately, the POPS were probably too young and did not have the immune system to fight it off. But that's why there were so many that died. But the adults, some of the adults may have survived. A lot of these colonies are massive. If you have 17,000 over 17,000 die off, you know you're going to have a lot that are still surviving. And as they regrow, they'll regrow even stronger. As the population grows, they'll grow even stronger. But it's going to require a lot of increase monitoring, rapid response strategies by conservationists and researchers to mitigate future risks, making sure that animals are tested, making sure that these animals are not in close confinement if they are infected. If you think about what a seal population looks like, a haul out area, it looks like, you're looking at the elephant seals being very, very close together. You thought humans were close together in a household or in a neighborhood or at a mall or in a school, things like that when they're in the hallways. Those viruses can transmit just like that with a cough or sneeze or anything like that. Imagine elephant seals where they're almost stacked on top of each other a lot of the times, especially, you know, their pups. They're in close quarters. They're protected by the adults. And so any, any adults that were affected or even, even pups that were affected could spread it very easily as they are so close together. So it is a possible that the H5N1 virus will affect the elephant seal population in the future. Obviously, ongoing research and monitoring is, and conservation efforts will play a critical role in minimizing the risk and supporting the population recovery. But that's going to require funding. That's going to require prioritizing the population over other monitoring aspects. Because when you look at conservation efforts, it's about funding, right? It's about making sure that the right people in the right amount of people are in the right place at the right time, ensuring that these populations are safe. And that, unfortunately, will probably take resources away from one aspect, prioritize the elephant seal population to ensure that they go further, right? And that's really what it comes down to. So it is a tough situation to hear about elephant seal populations declining by so much. Obviously, 97% of pups, that must have been absolutely atrocious to witness as conservationists, as scientists, as researchers, onlookers. It's not fun to even hear about these pups are adorable. They're the future of this colony, and 97% of them dying is really, really distressing. Conservationist perspective or anybody's perspective, nobody wants to see a baby seal, a pup die. It's got to be horrible. They didn't even have a chance to survive. Hopefully, the efforts to help them out for next season will be there. But I'll be following this story to ensure that that happens. So hopefully, this was an article off of the newsroom for the Wildlife Conservation Society. I'll hopefully try and get more information from them and see what we can do to help out as a community. But thank you. That's it for today's episode. I want to thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean Podcast. If you want to get in touch or you want more news, subscribe to our YouTube channel or if you're on your favorite podcast app, subscribe to the show, follow the show. If you're on YouTube, subscribe and hit that notification bell because you will be able to get access to the or notifications every time I publish, I publish three times a week, sometimes more on YouTube with other videos. I'm going to be going live soon. Any updates that happen in the afternoons of YouTube. So just check it out. Just go and subscribe as if you can. And then of course, if you want to get ahold of me directly, you can do so by replying to the newsletter that we send out. 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