00:02Macquarie Island is a wildlife sanctuary in the middle of the Southern Ocean.
00:07For now it remains free of the deadly H5 strain of bird flu.
00:12But the prospect of its imminent arrival has triggered plans for an unprecedented withdrawal of expeditioners.
00:19That's being done primarily for the psychological risks that will be facing staff
00:24if they are there for extended periods of time inside a mass mortality event.
00:30There are millions of seabirds on the island and tens of thousands of seals
00:34including a large colony on the doorstep of the island's research station.
00:39If an outbreak happens, it's feared up to 90% of baby elephant seals could perish
00:45as happened on Heard Island earlier this year.
00:49The distress of being around a mass mortality event as well as impacts with respect to air quality
00:56as you can imagine that would have long term impacts on staff.
01:01Australia's icebreaker will be sent to Macquarie Island in about a month to retrieve the 24 expeditioners.
01:08This is the most appropriate time and the safest time and the most cost effective time I understand
01:13to withdraw those staff.
01:15Plans are now being developed to ensure the island can be monitored from afar once staff return to Australia.
01:21That could involve things like cameras, remote drone operations
01:26to make sure we've still got some sense of what's happening on the island.
01:31It's not yet known when staff will be able to return
01:34but the government insists the withdrawal is a temporary measure.
