East Gippsland are being reminded that short-tailed shearwaters are about to begin arriving along the state’s coastline as they complete one of the world’s longest avian migrations from the Northern Hemisphere.
Shearwaters travel more than 15,000 kilometres to Australia each year to
breed during spring and summer. Due to the extreme distance, some exhausted birds do not survive the journey and may be found washed up on Victorian beaches.
The Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA) is
urging community members who spot sick or dead shearwaters to leave the birds in place and report their findings via the Emergency Animal Disease Hotline or DEECA’s online reporting portal.
With H5 bird flu present in wild bird populations, state response activities remain focused on surveillance, public safety, and protecting high-risk species as regional waterbirds enter their spring breeding season.
DEECA is maintaining on-ground and aerial surveillance across Victoria, working alongside experts to monitor at-risk coastal and wetland habitats.
Director of wildlife and landscape protection, Eve Graham, reassured the public that finding exhausted or deceased shearwaters along the shoreline is expected during migration season.