Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L00930:reg:2:p19
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L00930
Segment Type: reg
Provision Reference: reg 2 (pt 19/48)
Character Range: 113377–116490

recovery of the southern right whale in terms of expanding habitat occupancy and contributing to the maintenance of genetic diversity as site fidelity may lead to small-scale genetic differences.
No 'Critical Habitat' as defined under section 207A of the EPBC Act has been identified, or included, in the Register of Critical Habitat. 'Critical Habitat' is different from HCTS and only applies to Commonwealth land and sea. There are also no important cetacean habitat areas identified in the Australian Whale Sanctuary as defined under section 228A of the EPBC Act for southern right whales.
 Figure 4 Southern right whale Biologically Important Areas (reproduction and migration) and Habitat Critical to the Survival (reproduction BIA).

Figure 5 Southern right whale Biologically Important Areas and Habitat Critical to the Survival (reproduction BIA) in eastern Australia.
Figure 6 Southern right whale Biologically Important Areas and Habitat Critical to the Survival (reproduction BIA) in western Australia.

   3     Threats and threat prioritisation
The life history traits of southern right whales make them particularly vulnerable to anthropogenic threats, which include a long-life span, low reproductive output, late sexual maturity, and strong fidelity to calving areas. Human activities can potentially cause mortality, injury, disturbance, and stress to marine mammals. There are activities that may have lethal effects that result in immediate fatalities (e.g., whaling, entanglement, collisions with large vessels) and will increase the population mortality rate above that caused by natural factors alone, and directly affect population abundance. In contrast, human activities with sub-lethal effects (e.g. habitat displacement) on marine mammals may affect their behaviour and physiology and lead to impacts on their health that may ultimately have population level effects (National Academies of Sciences 2017).
The largest threat to southern right whales that resulted in their dramatic population reduction was commercial whaling. This has resulted in a reduction of their historical range, and varying levels of recovery across the two populations (Carroll et al. 2014, Harcourt et al. 2019). Due to the life history characteristics of southern right whales (section 2.4), any impacts from threats will unlikely be detectable, or even reliably identified, over short timescales (i.e., 3 years). Impacts at the population level will likely only become identifiable over decadal timescales.
The main threats to the survival of the southern right whale are anthropogenic climate variability and change, entanglement in fishing gear, habitat degradation, anthropogenic underwater noise, and vessel strike. Other known or potential threats identified in this plan include whaling (if it were to resume), pollution, and prey depletion from overharvesting. To ensure the conservation and recovery of southern right whales, there is a need to protect existing and potential breeding habitat throughout the species current and projected range. Improved knowledge of their seasonal movements between