H5N1 and Our Coastline: Why Ongoing Monitoring Matters More Than Ever
Current as of August 2026
H5N1 avian influenza (H5 bird flu) is now present in wild birds along the Victorian coast, with detections reported near Apollo Bay and Warrnambool. The current risk to people in Australia remains low. But as a marine ecosystem monitoring program, OMER's job is to pay attention to exactly this kind of emerging pressure, and to keep watching for what it might mean for the coastline over time.
Why this matters beyond the birds themselves
Seabirds and marine mammals aren't separate from the rest of the coastal ecosystem, they're part of it. Seabirds are predators, scavengers and nutrient-cyclers within these food webs, and marine mammals sit at or near the top of them. If a disease event significantly affected bird or marine mammal populations along this coast, the consequences wouldn't necessarily stop there. Changes at these higher trophic levels can flow through to the species and processes below them, from fish and invertebrate populations, to kelp and reef communities, in ways that are genuinely hard to predict in advance.
We want to be clear that this is a “what we need to be watching for,” not a forecast of what will happen. But it's exactly the kind of slow-moving, cascading risk that's easy to miss without a long-term monitoring baseline already in place, and hard to detect after the fact without one.
How OMER is responding right now
Our marine surveys, citizen science activities and stewardship workshops are continuing, with some sensible extra precautions added to our normal field procedures:
Field teams and volunteers follow a simple avoid, record, report rule if a sick or dead bird or marine mammal is encountered, no touching, moving or close approach
Survey routes are checked and, where needed, adjusted around roosting or affected areas
Field gear is cleaned and kept separate between sites to avoid inadvertently moving contaminated material from one location to another
Observations of unusual wildlife illness or mortality are reported through official channels to Agriculture Victoria
These are precautions, not a pause. Awareness, not alarm, is the aim, and our monitoring work continues largely as planned.
For OMER volunteers
Our full survey season resumes in November, and ahead of that we'll be rolling out more detailed field protocols and safety procedures directly to volunteers, covering exactly what to do if you encounter sick or dead wildlife, how to keep gear clean between sites, and who to contact on the day. If you're an OMER volunteer, keep an eye out for that briefing before survey work starts back up.
Why this reinforces the case for ongoing monitoring
This is also a timely reminder of why OMER exists in the first place. A monitoring network is only useful if it's already running before something changes, a baseline you build after an event has already happened tells you far less than one that was already there to detect the shift.
OMER's monitoring has expanded from an initial 5-site pilot to 14 sites, with plans to grow to 20 sites this coming survey season. That growing baseline means we're better placed than we were even a year ago to notice if bird or marine mammal populations or other marine communities along this coastline begin to shift, and to start asking why.
What this means for OMER going forward
H5N1 won't change what OMER fundamentally is, a long-term marine ecosystem resilience program bringing together science, Traditional Owner knowledge and community stewardship. But it is prompting us to think about emerging pressures like this as part of what our monitoring needs to be able to notice, alongside the more familiar pressures of climate change and habitat disturbance we already track. That means:
Incorporating incidental wildlife health observations into our regular field monitoring, without turning OMER into a disease surveillance program
Staying closely connected to Agriculture Victoria and other agencies leading the official response
Using this as a live example, in our community stewardship conversations, of why coordinated, adaptable monitoring networks matter for a coastline like this one
If you see a sick or dead bird or marine mammal
Whether or not you're taking part in an OMER activity, you can help by reporting it rather than approaching it:
Do not touch, move or closely approach the animal
Note the location, date, species (if known), and number of animals affected
Report even a single sick or dead seabird, shorebird, waterbird, bird of prey or marine mammal, or clusters of five or more dead wild birds of any species, to Agriculture Victoria
Emergency Animal Disease Hotline: 1800 675 888
Learn more from official sources
This page reflects the current situation as of August 2026. Because H5N1 detections and official guidance continue to evolve, please check the official sources above for the latest advice.
