Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L00930:reg:2:p38
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L00930
Segment Type: reg
Provision Reference: reg 2 (pt 38/48)
Character Range: 165727–168780

to harm various internal organs (e.g., liver, kidney, and intestines) and organ systems (e.g., digestive and urogenital). Mild dermal exposure would cause at least short-term injuries to mucus membranes, eyes, and other external soft tissue areas, while severe oiling could result in death by smothering (Helm et al. 2014). Oil spills have the potential to have the greatest impact on southern right whales within or near reproductive BIAs, when there are larger concentrations of whales engaged in breeding activities over sustained periods of time (i.e., weeks to months). Oil spills may also affect southern right whales in offshore foraging areas or migratory paths.

    3.9.3     Electromagnetic field disturbance
There is an increase in offshore renewable energy development in Australia's marine environment to meet the country's energy needs. Associated with this is likely the installation of subsea power cables connecting turbines, storage banks, and export cables to shore. While electromagnetic fields (EMF) occur naturally in the environment, cables associated with marine renewable energy installations generate their own EMF (electric and magnetic field) that can alter the background EMF within an area (Gill 2005). Cetaceans can sense the geomagnetic field and potentially use it to navigate during migrations, although it is unclear whether they use the geomagnetic field solely or in addition to other regional cues (Klinowska 1990, Walker et al. 1992). It is also not known which components of the geomagnetic field cetaceans are sensing (i.e., the horizontal or vertical component, field intensity or inclination angle) and what effects the perturbations in the geomagnetic field within the vicinity of buried power cables may have on these animals. There is a potential for whales to respond to local variations of the EMF resulting from increased sources from marine renewable energy installations that could induce short-term behavioural responses (i.e., changes in swim direction) to larger effects influencing migration.

   3.10   Cumulative effects from threats
The assessment of risk for each threat to southern right whales in this Recovery Plan is considered in isolation of every other threat (section 3.11). Although when southern right whales are subject to multiple threats, acting either simultaneously or consecutively across their life cycle, cumulative effects may occur. A range of natural and anthropogenic stressors can affect southern right whales and these stressors are likely to interact, yet their cumulative effects are difficult to predict. Furthermore, larger-scale ecological drivers may affect many of these stressors. For example, anthropogenic climate change and ocean warming affects southern right whale prey availability on their foraging grounds, and reduced prey availability has been linked to depressed calving intervals for breeding female southern right whales (Leaper et al. 2006, Seyboth et al. 2016). However, the ability to reliably identify and separate the effects of climate change