An outbreak of avian flu in 2023 hammered a colony of southern elephant seals in Chile’s Tierra del Fuego region, leading to a 50% decline in its population.
But over the 2024-2025 breeding season, the colony’s population recovered, with 33 pups being born.
An alliance between the Chilean branch of the Wildlife Conservation Society and the regional environmental department has been monitoring this particular colony for years, braving the remoteness and extreme weather at the southern tip of the Americas.
Experts posit that the site, Jackson Bay, may serve as a natural refuge from the avian flu because it’s geographically isolated as a fjord.
Year after year, a colony of elephant seals arrives in Jackson Bay, on the islands of Tierra del Fuego at the southern tip of Chile, to molt and breed. However, in 2023, an outbreak of avian flu devastated the region, and the colony’s population dropped by half.
In 2020, when avian flu caused devastating losses in seabird colonies in Europe and Southern Africa, experts initially thought the virus’s spread to mammals would be limited to terrestrial carnivores. However, during the outbreak in 2021 and 2022, the virus affected seals and whales in both Europe and North America. In 2023, when the virus arrived on the South American coast, the pathogen showed that it was capable of causing large-scale mortality among marine mammals. The southern elephant seal (Mirounga leonina) was one of the most heavily impacted species.
But good news arrived in April 2025, when researchers found that the elephant seal population in Jackson Bay had doubled to 200 individuals, including 33 pups.
“It is great news for the conservation of the species, because Jackson [Bay], by being in inland waters of fjords and canals, may act as a protective barrier against pandemics,” says Cristóbal Arredondo, a veterinarian and terrestrial program coordinator for the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Chile,. Since 2008, WCS Chile has monitored this colony alongside the environmental department of the Magallanes region, which encompasses Tierra del Fuego.
Elephant seals in Jackson Bay. Image courtesy of Francisco Brañas.
A refuge from the virus
Jackson Bay is home to “the largest elephant seal colony in Chile,” according to Javiera Constanzo, a veterinarian and the One Health approach manager for WCS Chile. The bay is located between two protected areas: the Multiple Use Marine and Coastal Protected Area Seno Almirantazgo, or Admiralty Sound, which is administered by the Ministry of the Environment, and Karukinka Natural Park, which is a private conservation initiative administered by WCS Chile.
Karukinka Natural Park is a vast natural refuge that spans approximately 300,000 hectares (741,000 acres) of diverse ecosystems. Admiralty Sound, which surrounds the coasts of Karukinka, receives freshwater from several glaciers in the Cordillera Darwin, an ice-capped mountain range. Since Admiralty Sound is a large fjord — a deep, narrow valley with glacial origins that has been filled with seawater — it’s mix of freshwater and saltwater makes it highly productive. And as a government-protected area, Admiralty Sound is vital for the elephant seal population, Constanzo says, by prohibiting activities that could affect the species.
Above all, Jackson Bay’s isolation might make it a refuge for the colony of elephant seals. This hypothesis is still being studied, but “what is being observed is very positive for the conservation of the species,” Constanzo says.
During the most recent season, 33 pups were born. Image courtesy of WCS.
Successful monitoring after 2023 avian flu
Data from satellite transmitters show that some of the Jackson Bay elephant seals stay put while others migrate from different places, coming from the Pacific Ocean or traveling in the Atlantic until they reach the Valdés Peninsula in the central Argentine Patagonia.
In 2023, during the highly pathogenic avian flu outbreak, there was a mass die-off of elephant seals in Argentina: according to a study published in Nature Communications, approximately 17,000 of the animals died.
At Jackson Bay, researchers recorded only about 100 individuals in the colony that year, less than half of the number recorded in prior years.
“We eagerly hoped that in the following season, the colony’s numbers would recover,” Arredondo says. And they did. The 2024-2025 season resolved any doubt: 200 elephant seals were seen in Jackson Bay in December, which is the month when the colony’s population normally peaks. Researchers also recorded the births of more than 30 elephant seal pups, the same number as recorded in 2023.
Researchers from WCS Chile and the Magallanes regional department of the environment in Jackson Bay. Image courtesy of Francisco Brañas.
The colony in Jackson Bay has “now recovered its numbers after the avian flu,” Constanzo says.
Experts attribute the rapid reestablishment of the elephant seal colony in Jackson Bay to several factors. For one, its location in the inland waters of fjords and canals, far from other affected colonies, may have served as a natural barrier against avian flu, reducing the risk of contagion.
The researchers suggest that elephant seals that contracted the highly pathogenic avian flu virus may not have managed to return to Jackson Bay, likely dying before reaching their destination.
About 200 elephant seals were seen in Jackson Bay in December 2024. Image courtesy of WCS.
Monitoring in an extreme area
Wind speeds in Jackson Bay can hit up to 120 kilometers per hour (75 miles per hour), presenting significant challenges for researchers as they disembark. However, this didn’t stop marine biologist Marina Maritza Sepúlveda from traveling to Jackson Bay in 2023 with a team of Chilean and British scientists. They fitted satellite transmitters on several elephant seals arriving in Jackson Bay, part of an ongoing project that WCS Chile is supporting.
Sepúlveda says the transmitters help scientists track the colony as it travels along the Cape Horn Current, one of the “least-studied and [least-]known currents in Chile,” and one that is “extremely important to understand.”
WCS Chile has also joined the team to monitor the colony of elephant seals. Given the high logistical cost of reaching the area, every opportunity to collect data is taken advantage of.
“The opportunity to have the animals there lets us maximize the chance to gather valuable scientific data,” Sepúlveda says. For example, veterinarians like Arredondo and Constanzo collect nasal and anal swabs to study the elephant seals’ microbiome, including their bacteria and virus loads.
Jackson Bay is located in an area where wind speeds can hit up to 120 km/h. Image courtesy of WCS.
The researchers also gather data by using an ultrasound to measure the elephant seals’ fat layers, which allows for an assessment of their body condition. They extract whiskers and fur samples to analyze the seals’ trophic ecology and check for the presence of heavy metals, and they collect droppings to test for parasites.
During the most recent season, researchers also collected samples to confirm the presence of avian flu in the colony. Those samples are now being processed.
“Teamwork allows us to optimize resources, share knowledge and ensure the collection of valuable data that contribute to the understanding and conservation of this colony of elephant seals,” Arredondo says.
Researchers have been monitoring the elephant seal colony in Jackson Bay as a long-term project for more than 16 years.
Every year between October and April, a small team hikes across the entire beach and coastal area. During these inspections, the researchers categorize the elephant seals by age and sex, which helps them understand the population composition of the colony. However, depending on a seal’s position on the ground, some individuals can’t be identified; in those cases, scientists put them into the “sex not determined” category, Constanzo says.
Every year between October and April, a small team of researchers travels across the entire beach and coastal area to gather information about elephant seals. Image courtesy of WCS.
Elephant seals spend most of their lives in the water and only travel onto land to breed and molt, in a process that takes about one month. During this time, they don’t enter the water for food. This means that any change that increases their energy consumption is a problem, according to Arredondo. That’s why the researchers ensure they maintain a safe distance from the seals that “does not disrupt” their behavior.
In addition to counting elephant seals in person, they also used drones to map the area. These help researchers collect detailed images of the locations of the elephant seals.
Francisco Brañas, an expert with the protected areas unit of the regional environmental department, says processing these images can allow researchers to obtain additional information, such as individual measurements. Researchers can estimate the elephant seals’ body weight and evaluate their physical condition to determine whether they have sufficient food, according to Brañas.
“The images captured by the drones provide us with a more complete and precise view of the colony,” he says.
Regular monitoring has been key to evaluating the recovery of the colony, which was first described in 2006. That year, 46 individuals were recorded. Since then, the numbers have grown overall.
The striking increase in the elephant seal population in Jackson Bay is not only a testament to the species’ resilience, but it also reflects the collaborative efforts that are crucial to carrying out this monitoring work in a remote and extreme-weather area.
Elephant seals spend most of their lives in the water and only travel onto land to breed and molt. Image courtesy of Pablo Lloncón.
Banner image of an elephant seal in Jackson Bay, courtesy of Francisco Brañas.
This story was first published here in Spanish on May 1, 2025.
The Pacification of Araucania: a comprehensive analysis of invasion, dispossession, and Mapuche genocide
Chile’s history contains a chapter written with euphemisms and blood: the misnamed “Pacification of Araucania.” This article delves into the details of this process (1861-1883), deconstructing the official narrative to reveal a complex operation of military conquest, legal dispossession, and forced colonization that redefined the destiny of the Chilean state and the Mapuche people, leaving a legacy of conflict that persists to this day.
1. Historical context: autonomous Wallmapu and the expansionist Chilean state
In the mid-nineteenth century, the southern frontier of Chile was clearly delineated by the Biobío River. South of it extended Wallmapu, the ancestral territory of the Mapuche people, a de facto independent nation that had resisted Spanish conquest for more than 300 years. Mapuche society was organized into a complex social and political structure based on the lof (family clan), the ayllarewe (federation of lofs), and the butalmapus (large territorial alliances).
For the Chilean state, consolidated after the wars of independence and under the influence of European ideas of progress, this autonomy was a problem. Political and economic elites, under the presidencies of Manuel Montt (1851-1861) and then José Joaquín Pérez (1861-1871), viewed occupation as necessary to:
Appropriate resources: the lands of Araucania were considered the “granary of Chile.”
Unify territory: connect the central zone to colonies in Valdivia and Llanquihue.
Assert sovereignty: eliminate the internal frontier and project an image of a modern nation.
2. Key actors in the conflict
This historical process was led by figures and groups with radically opposed interests.
Category
Main Actors
Role in the Conflict
Chilean State (Officials)
José Joaquín Pérez, Federico Errázuriz Z., Aníbal Pinto, Domingo Santa María
Presidents who drove the occupation policy
Chilean State (Military)
Col. Cornelio Saavedra, Gen. Gregorio Urrutia, Col. Basilio Urrutia
Chilean and European settlers, Orélie Antoine de Tounens
Occupied lands, pretext for conquest
3. The State’s plan: Cornelio Saavedra’s proposal
In 1861, Colonel Cornelio Saavedra Rodríguez presented to the Chilean Congress a detailed plan for the “Pacification of Araucania.” He proposed abandoning the policy of treaties for material occupation, based on three axes:
Advance the military frontier from the Biobío to the Malleco, with forts.
Subdivide and sell “secured” lands.
Promote the settlement of Chilean and foreign settlers to “Chilenize” the region.
The plan sparked debate but was approved by Congress, triggering the invasion.
4. Military execution: phases of an asymmetric war
Military conquest unfolded in several phases, interrupted by Mapuche uprisings and the War of the Pacific.
First Phase (1861-1868): Advance and Fortification Foundation of forts (Angol, Mulchén, etc.), immediate Mapuche resistance, “scorched earth” tactics applied by the army.
Second Phase (1869-1881): Diplomatic Pause and Consolidation Slowdown in advance, territorial consolidation, introduction of telegraph and railroad.
Third Phase (1881-1883): The Final Offensive Last major Mapuche uprising in 1881, massive military repression, founding of Temuco, military end of the “Pacification.”
5. Legal dispossession: how laws annihilated Mapuche property
Military conquest was inseparable from legal conquest.
Radicación Law of 1866:
Definition of “vacant lands”: any land not “continuously occupied” by indigenous peoples becomes state property.
Imposition of individual private property, foreign to Mapuche culture.
Creation of radicación commissions, a process rife with abuses and corruption.
“Títulos de Merced”: Confinement in Reductions
Attribution of small portions of land (approximately 6 hectares per person), insufficient for traditional economy.
Loss of over 90% of Mapuche territory.
Social fragmentation and isolation of communities.
6. Directed colonization: land for some, dispossession for others
Treatment of the Mapuche People: confinement in reductions, lack of state support, status of “minors” under guardianship.
Treatment of European/Chilean Settlers: large parcels, state support (travel, tools, animals, medical assistance), status as full citizens.
7. The human catastrophe and the genocide debate
The “Pacification” was a human catastrophe that decimated the Mapuche population, fueling a debate about the term “genocide” according to the UN definition (1948).
Destruction of economy, dispossession of land, confinement in uninhabitable zones, massive famines and epidemics.
Ethnocide: destruction of culture through prohibition of language, religion, and autonomous education.
Historiographical Perspectives
Traditional: inevitable process for Chilean unification.
Revisionist: imperialist conquest, systematic violence, labeled ethnocide or genocide.
Mapuche: invasion of a sovereign country, beginning of a persistent colonial relationship.
Demographic Collapse
Between 20,000 and 30,000 Mapuche died of hunger and disease between 1881 and the early twentieth century.
The Mapuche population, estimated at half a million before conquest, suffered a demographic collapse from which it did not recover for more than a century.
8. Total impact: disarticulation of Mapuche society
The “Pacification” caused a structural rupture in all aspects of Mapuche life:
Political: loss of authority of the lonkos.
Economic: transition from a prosperous society to poverty.
Social: fragmentation and forced migration to cities.
Cultural: forced assimilation, threat to Mapuche language and worldview.
9. Mapuche resistance and resilience
Despite devastating circumstances, Mapuche resistance endured, transforming into political and legal struggles in the twentieth century. Memory and cultural identity survived clandestinely, testifying to remarkable resilience.
10. Legacy and historical debt: roots of current conflict
The “Pacification of Araucania” is the direct source of current conflict in Chile. The territorial and autonomy claims of the Mapuche movement rest on this historical dispossession. The “historical debt” is central to public debate, and recommendations for reparation remain largely unimplemented.
11. Comparative analysis: Araucania, the Argentine “Desert,” and the American West
The Chilean process was not isolated:
Conquest of the Desert (Argentina, 1878-1885): similar ideological justification, total war tactics, objective of freeing lands for livestock.
Indian Wars (United States, nineteenth century): westward expansion, reservations, similar dispossession and violence.
In all cases, nation-states used their military superiority and a legal framework to dispossess indigenous peoples, leaving a legacy of trauma and struggle for justice.
Conclusion: a history to reclaim
The “Pacification of Araucania” was a war of conquest that dispossessed a people of their territory and sought to annihilate their culture. Understanding it in all its complexity is a duty for any society aspiring to justice. Recognizing this past is not reopening wounds, but beginning to heal them on the basis of truth and reparation.
The new vessel, Milagro, serves as a cornerstone for Karukinka’s operations. More than a means of transportation, this 20-meter steel ketch is a fully equipped, autonomous floating base that allows Karukinka to carry out ambitious scientific, artistic, and cultural expeditions in Patagonia, Cape Horn, and even Antarctica #patagonia sailing
A versatile floating base camp in insular Patagonia
Milagro is an expedition sailboat acquired by the Karukinka Association in 2023 thanks to the support of its members. This 20‑metre (64ft) Bruce Roberts steel ketch plays a fundamental role in the implementation of our association’s activities. Built in Sweden and having already completed two circumnavigations, the Milagro is a true “floating base camp” able to host a range of initiatives — artistic, scientific, or sporting.
With its tailored technical features (length 20 m, beam 5.25 m, draft 2.30 m, Cummins 180 HP engine, 180 m² upwind sail area and 295 m² downwind), the Milagro provides a robust, well‑adapted platform for our expeditions in polar and subpolar regions, Karukinka’s primary fields of activity.
The sailing vessel Milagro at the foot of a glacier in the Darwin Range, Tierra del Fuego, Patagonian Channels, Chile (Photograph: Diego Quiroga, from the sailing yacht Pic La Lune, Ushuaia)
A support vessel for the logistics of our scientific, sporting, and artistic expeditions
An infrastructure adapted to field research
The Milagro is an essential logistical support for Karukinka’s scientific and artistic expeditions. Fully equipped and insulated, the vessel can host up to 12 people (10 for projects lasting more than a week) in five cabins (four doubles and one quadruple). This large capacity facilitates the creation of multidisciplinary teams, in line with our association’s goal of bringing together sporting, artistic, and scientific expertise.
Her considerable autonomy (1,500 L of diesel, 1,000 L of water + desalination system, generator, solar panels…) allows her to reach remote areas and remain on site long enough to complete our work. The vessel is also equipped for telecommunications in zone A4 and has internet access, ensuring safety and connectivity even in the most isolated regions such as the Patagonian channels (Tierra del Fuego, Darwin Range, Cape Horn, Antarctica).
Exploration of a fjord in the Darwin Range (Tierra del Fuego) where one of Patagonia’s many glaciers flows (sailing vessel Milagro, Chilean Fjords, March 2025)
A tool for ambitious projects
Thanks to Milagro, Karukinka has greatly expanded its activities, enabling truly independent scientific and artistic research expeditions and residencies. The vessel is crewed by a volunteer professional team of two to three holders of the French State Sailing Certificate and Merchant Navy qualification.
The acquisition of this yacht made possible, among others, the North Cape to Cape Horn Expedition (2023‑2025), a major project supported by the French Ministry of Culture’s “Mondes Nouveaux” programme. This voyage, linking Norway’s North Cape to Cape Horn under sail, concluded with arrival in Tierra del Fuego on 24 January 2025, after travelling over 15,000 nautical miles and rounding Cape Horn under sail in March and April 2025.
Milagro at anchor in one of the many bays of the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve (2025)
Funding the association’s activities
A sailing section for self‑financing
Since 2023, Karukinka has had a sailing section affiliated with the French Sailing Federation. The association offers sailing courses reserved for its members, which help fund its actions in support of indigenous peoples and ensure the delivery of ambitious projects.
Given the budget required to maintain and operate a 20‑metre yacht — and the scope of the association’s long‑term projects (digitising documents and archives, creating online databases, funding travel to Europe for members of indigenous communities) — Karukinka’s Annual General Assembly sets the membership fee needed to take part in the various sailing activities and thus sustain its work.
Sailing in the Patagonian Channels with our members from Scotland and Belgium: Norena, David, Morag, and Morgan (Beagle Channel, Chile, February 2025)
Supporting independent research
Aware of the difficulties laboratories and researchers face in obtaining funding for work in polar and subpolar regions, Karukinka does everything it can to support projects of a scientific, artistic, sporting, or humanistic nature. The Milagro plays a crucial role in this self‑financing and independent research‑support strategy.
Artisanal fishing in the Patagonian Channels with José Germán Gonzalez Calderón (fisherman and Yagan craftsman, honorary member of Karukinka and godfather of the vessel, from Navarino Island)
The association also offers services for field missions aboard Milagro to laboratories, institutes, and groups of researchers and/or artists. This approach allows resources to be pooled and makes difficult‑to‑reach study areas more accessible.
A tool of freedom for future projects
The acquisition of Milagro has greatly broadened the horizons of our association. Thanks to this vessel, we now have full freedom to continue our actions and research south of the Strait of Magellan, from 2025 to 2030 and beyond.
The yacht allows the association to conduct multidisciplinary projects in hard‑to‑reach regions such as the Patagonian Channels, Antarctica, and South Georgia. It also facilitates the continuation of work with the Selk’nam, Haush, and Yagan indigenous peoples of southern Patagonia, one of the association’s main areas of focus.
Arrival of the sailing vessel Milagro in the Beagle Channel, Patagonia, after 15,000 nm (photograph by José Germán González Calderón, near Ukika Puerto Williams, Navarino Island, Cape Horn region, Chile, 2025)
The Milagro represents far more than just a means of transport and is not an end in itself, but a means. It is an essential strategic tool, allowing the association to fully carry out its mission of exploration, scientific research, and artistic creation in polar and subpolar regions.
Thanks to this vessel, Karukinka can undertake ambitious projects, self‑finance its activities, support independent research, and continue its collaboration with indigenous peoples. The Milagro thus embodies the association’s philosophy: independence, goodwill, and commitment to knowledge and the preservation of the cultures and environments of our planet’s extreme regions.
Departure of the expedition sailing vessel Milagro from the fishing port of Puerto Williams with an international crew (Argentina, Chile, and France): Aude, Lauriane, Sébastien, Clément, Alejandro, Shenü, Damien, Mirtha (godmother of the vessel), Alicia, Maria, and Vaïna, filmed by José, the godfather of Milagro (January 2025).
The closing ceremony of “EMUSH 2025” [International Muralists Meeting in Ushuaia] took place in the Niní Marshall Hall of the House of Culture. The eleven participating artists added their works to the more than 350 murals currently found in the city.
The Secretariat of Culture and Education of the Municipality of Ushuaia organized the closing ceremony of the 6th International Muralists Meeting at the End of the World “EMUSH 2025,” held in the Niní Marshall Hall of the House of Culture.
During the event, which was attended by the city’s mayor, Walter Vuoto, the works created by the 11 selected artists were showcased, and each of them received a certificate of participation in the Meeting.
On this occasion, the works of Antonela Gualla and Rodrigo Crespo from Ushuaia, Enrique Jorge Bernard and Sofía Hst from Río Grande, Julia Anahí Tiscornia from Río Negro, Adrián Cola and Martín Agazzi from Buenos Aires, Agustina Cantoni from San Juan, Soledad Moisas from Ayacucho, Lucas Artola from La Plata, as well as guest artist Sebastián Daels, were presented, alongside participants including muralists and artists from the city, graduates of the Polivalente de Arte, and Agustín, a young person with a disability who specializes in watercolor and accompanied the work at various locations throughout the city.
“We are proud to share this closing ceremony with the community, continuing this great challenge of an integrated public cultural policy entrusted to us by Mayor Walter Vuoto,” said Ushuaia’s Secretary of Culture and Education, Belén Molina, who confirmed that “Emush now has 60 artistic interventions to its credit, depicting aspects of our identity on our walls.”
The official thanked “all those who made this new edition of Emush possible, the artists and residents who donated their walls, the participants who collaborated and supported the process, as well as Ushuaia’s ambassador and ambassadress, María José Pazos and Omar Lemul, who supported the process throughout.”
Tamara Klink, with sparkling eyes and a generous spirit, is one of those people who take us along with on their journey, and inspire us to awaken our childhood dreams.
In 2024, Tamara Klink, a 27-year-old Brazilian sailor, drops anchor in a deserted Greenland fjord, voluntarily “imprisoned” in the ice for the eight months of a daring wintering, alone in the middle of the Arctic. A dreamlike adventure that redraws the boundaries of what is possible, and whose uniqueness lies as much in the journey as in the quest.
The travel tales of her father, the famous navigator Amyr Klink, lulled young Tamara to sleep. The icy silence and polar bears that reigned there nurtured her dreams of tomorrow.
When her father took her on board, she discovered the Arctic and her imagination met reality. “It was as if I’d discovered that magic really did exist. Back home, I couldn’t live a normal life knowing that this place was real.” Later, it was her turn to set off on her own.
She learned French “above all to read the navigation books, most of which were written in the language of Molière”. After studying naval architecture in Nantes, she settled in Lorient: “Being around people for whom this way of life was normal inspired me. A bit like someone who dreams of being in the mountains and settles in Chamonix”. In Norway, she bought her first boat for the price of a bicycle, which her grandmother named Sardinhia 1, and made her first solo Transatlantic crossing. “The craziest thing about all this wasn’t that I was the youngest person to have sailed in the Arctic, it was that I did it with a weekend boat, not at all made for that!”
One book and several conferences later, her dream of returning to the ice never left her. She bought a second boat, Sardinhia 2, and embarked on the preparation of this rather crazy project: an 8-month wintering, alone, in the Arctic, surrounded by ice. “Anyone who’s seen Titanic knows: sailing among icebergs is a challenge”. In the Arctic, we face the unknown: obsolete nautical charts, uncharted seabeds, and the omnipresent threat of polar bears. It’s also a technical challenge: for this, Millet accompanies her with equipment designed for polar latitudes, notably its MXP range. She had to think of everything, “right down to the number of tubes of toothpaste!” Nothing superfluous in her luggage. She slipped in the books Into the wild by Jon Krakauer and Les femmes aussi sont du voyage by Lucie Azéma.
The boat is ready, Tamara is ready: it’s time to leave.
At first, she comes up against a few Greenlanders who take a dim view of the arrival of Europeans, who often reduce them to folklore, a stereotype mythologized by colonial history. But they also share the same fears as those around her: spending eight months alone on the ice floe is not serious. For them, Tamara is too thin, too Brazilian, too… womanly. The Arctic has always been a man’s terrain, “women were thought to bring bad luck on boats”. Suffering was romanticized, virility was praised. Today, women are writing their own stories, and Tamara is “more afraid of men than polar bears”.
Tamara finds her place, moves “in time and not in space”, and “being just happy to be there”. She discovers a previously unknown rhythm and finds refuge in her solitude. When the thaw came, Tamara withdrew, strengthened by the journey that had changed her forever.
Although she was said to be “imprisoned” by the ice, Tamara experienced unparalleled freedom. She found happiness on the ice floe, despite the dangers. An ice pack that she will continue to defend in 2025, the year of the glaciers, so threatened is it by climate change. And if you listen to Tamara, you can bet she’ll still be answering the call of the ice.
