Australia Pulls Researchers from Macquarie Island Over Bird Flu Fears as Dolphin Tests Positive

Australia Pulls Researchers from Macquarie Island Over Bird Flu Fears as Dolphin Tests Positive

The federal government has announced it will withdraw all 24 expeditioners from Australia’s Macquarie Island research station in the Southern Ocean, citing the psychological risk of witnessing a potential mass die-off of seals from H5N1 bird flu. The decision comes as authorities confirmed the first case of H5 bird flu in a common dolphin in South Australia.

The remote sub-Antarctic island, located about 1,500 kilometers south-east of Hobart, is a World Heritage-listed wildlife sanctuary home to up to 4 million seabirds and 100,000 seals. While the deadly H5 strain has not yet been detected on the island, the station sits within meters of a colony of about 2,500 southern elephant seals, and expert assessments have predicted a high likelihood of a significant mortality event during the upcoming breeding season.

“We’ve come to this really difficult decision of withdrawing staff,” federal environment department deputy secretary Sean Sullivan told the ABC. “And that’s being done primarily for the psychological risks that will be facing staff if they are there for extended periods of time inside a mass mortality event.”

Sullivan said the decision was based on the potential for thousands of seal deaths in close proximity to the base, which could expose expeditioners to prolonged distress and other workplace impacts. “You can imagine the impacts that would have in terms of being restricted to base,” he said. “Obviously the distress of being around a mass mortality event, as well as impacts with respect to air quality, as you can imagine, that would have long-term impacts on staff.”

The icebreaker RSV Nuyina is expected to arrive at Macquarie Island in October to retrieve the personnel, who began what was expected to be a year-long deployment in May. The withdrawal will temporarily slow the rebuilding of the station, but the government says its commitment to the rebuild remains unchanged.

Dolphin Death Highlights Spread of Virus

The announcement came as South Australian authorities reported that a common dolphin found dead near Goolwa on the Fleurieu Peninsula had tested positive for H5N1. State tests confirmed the infection, with samples sent to the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness for further analysis.

The federal government’s risk assessment rated common dolphins at high risk from bird flu, meaning they could face severe population declines where the virus takes hold.

“While the detection in the common dolphin is a new development in Australia, there is evidence of dolphins and porpoises catching H5 bird flu overseas,” a spokesperson for SA’s Department of Primary Industries and Regions said. “Dolphins would not commonly eat birds but it is not unusual for them to sometimes interact.”

The dolphin case is the second native mammal species in Australia known to have contracted the virus, following earlier detections in long-nosed fur seals at Beachport and the Pages Islands, and a case in a red fox near Port Adelaide.

Wider Outbreak and Government Response

Drone surveys on Australia’s Heard Island, also in the sub-Antarctic, detected more than 13,000 dead southern elephant seal pups in 2025 and 2026, according to the federal government. Health officials have warned that up to 90 per cent of baby elephant seals could perish on Macquarie Island if the virus arrives there.

In response to the growing threat, the South Australian government announced on Friday that it would move to confirm H5 bird flu cases in the state through local laboratories, rather than relying on external verification.

The federal government also said it would vaccinate wild populations of little penguins at Manly and Barunguba Montague Island in New South Wales. Trial cohorts of some captive bird populations, including little penguins, Carnaby’s black cockatoos and red-tailed black cockatoos, had already received their first vaccinations at Taronga Zoo this week.

The department’s deputy secretary, Sean Sullivan, defended the decision to withdraw from Macquarie Island as an unusual but necessary step. “This is an unusual measure, but is the most appropriate course of action, based on our assessments of risk, and operational realities,” he said.