Overview
- The British Antarctic Survey reports a 47% drop—about 53,000 fewer breeding females—on South Georgia between 2022 and 2024, based on comparable drone imagery from three main beaches published in Communications Biology.
- Researchers cite likely seal‑to‑seal transmission via contaminated droplets in dense colonies, while genetic analyses in Argentina identify mutations associated with easier spread among mammals.
- Argentina’s Peninsula Valdés saw unprecedented losses in 2023, with roughly 97% of elephant seal pups dying and major female mortality, alongside large pinniped die‑offs reported in Peru and Chile.
- Northern elephant seals and other North Pacific marine mammals appear largely unaffected so far, and the Pacific strain lacks the mammal‑adaptation mutations noted in South America.
- Australian authorities detected unusual mortality among elephant seals on Heard Island and plan further field investigations in December 2025–January 2026 as surveillance efforts expand in remote regions.