Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L00930:reg:1:p1
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L00930
Segment Type: reg
Provision Reference: reg 1 (pt 1/10)
Character Range: 36607–39749

1   Background and policy context
This document constitutes the National Recovery Plan for the Southern Right Whale, set out in accordance with Part 13, Division 5 of the EPBC Act. The plan considers the historical and current level of knowledge about southern right whale conservation requirements across their range and identifies the research and management actions necessary to support the species recovery to maximise their long-term survival in the wild.
This is the third Recovery Plan for southern right whales and replaces the Conservation Management Plan for the Southern Right Whale 2011-2021 (CMP) developed in 2013. Since the initial Southern Right Whale Recovery Plan 2005 – 2010, the southern right whale remains listed as Endangered under the EPBC Act, primarily due to intense historical commercial whaling that resulted in a severe reduction in population size, almost to the extent the species was extirpated in Australian waters.

   1.1         Review of Conservation Management Plan 2011-2021
The Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment (former) undertook a review of the CMP in 2022 with the support of Commonwealth and State government agencies, industry, and scientific experts. The review concluded that the previous plan resulted in progress in two main areas:
       * Improved understanding of the coastal distribution and abundance of southern right whales, particularly for the western population. There is improved understanding of the abundance of the eastern population, although challenges remain with identifying the influence that varied survey effort may have on estimating the population. Continued efforts towards improved understanding of abundance and distribution of the eastern population through robust monitoring is required, and collection and analyses of genetic material from individuals are necessary for further finer scale insights into the delineation of both populations.
       * Improved understanding of the offshore distribution and migratory movements, particularly via satellite tagging and associated identification of potential foraging areas. Further analyses of stable isotopes (able to be achieved through the utilisation of the same samples) and investigation of isoscapes (i.e., spatially explicit prediction of isotopic values across a landscape) in combination with past and current satellite tagging studies across the Australasian region, will provide further insights into utilisation of summer foraging areas.
The review identified that despite progress on many recovery actions, all threats and threatening processes identified in the 2011 CMP continue to either directly adversely affect or comprise a risk to the recovery of the species across its range.  There is evidence of population increase of the western population, although current southern right whale abundance (both populations) is still well below estimated historic abundance and habitat occupancy is still limited to a portion of their range within well-established calving areas. Specifically, a comprehensive understanding of the population demographics, including the degree of spatial