Año Nuevo viewing reopens

Año Nuevo’s elephant seal viewing area is open again on Saturday, April 11, after California closed it in late February when bird flu showed up in the colony. The park says access is back with limits, including a required 30-foot distance from elephant seal and bird carcasses and same-day permits issued from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. (parks.ca.gov) This is one of the biggest elephant seal gathering spots on the California coast. California State Parks says up to 10,000 elephant seals return there each year to breed, give birth, and molt on the beaches and dunes near Highway 1. (parks.ca.gov) The closure started after scientists confirmed something new and worrying: highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 had infected northern elephant seals in California for the first time. University of California researchers said seven weaned pups at Año Nuevo tested positive, and federal lab confirmation arrived on February 25. (universityofcalifornia.edu) Researchers first noticed the sick pups on February 19 and 20 because the animals showed abnormal breathing and nervous-system symptoms, including weakness and tremors. That quick detection happened because University of California, Santa Cruz and University of California, Davis teams had already increased surveillance as bird flu spread across the Americas. (universityofcalifornia.edu) Año Nuevo is not just a scenic stop with a boardwalk view. University of California, Santa Cruz calls it one of the world’s most studied marine mammal colonies, with a seal research program that began in 1967 and years of flipper-tagging and census data behind it. (news.ucsc.edu) (universityofcalifornia.edu) That long record changed the response on the ground. University of California, Santa Cruz said its team switched from normal fieldwork to daily beach surveys, sample collection, and drone checks, and reported an average of two newly dead and two newly symptomatic animals per day during the March monitoring push. (news.ucsc.edu) The outbreak also reached beyond seals. University of California, Santa Cruz said H5N1 was confirmed in adjacent species at Año Nuevo, including a southern sea otter and a California sea lion, which told scientists they were dealing with a broader coastal wildlife event, not one isolated beach problem. (news.ucsc.edu) Officials are reopening now because the immediate risk appears lower, not because the virus is gone. California State Parks says access can be restricted again at any time, and University of California, Santa Cruz says monitoring is still focused on mortality, symptoms, and spread across the colony. (parks.ca.gov) (news.ucsc.edu) For visitors, that means Año Nuevo is back to being a rare place where you can watch wild elephant seals without a boat or binoculars from a cliff miles away. For scientists, it is still an active disease site where every carcass, tagged animal, and drone pass adds to the picture of how bird flu moves through marine mammals. (parks.ca.gov) (news.ucsc.edu)