Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L00930:reg:2:p36
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L00930
Segment Type: reg
Provision Reference: reg 2 (pt 36/48)
Character Range: 160181–163260

rate parameters. Greater declines were estimated at closer distances (up to 15 km), with minimal impact at regional scales (≥ 15 km) (Richardson et al. 2017).
Any impacts of seismic activity on prey abundance or distribution are unlikely to have a substantial impact on southern right whales during the austral winter breeding season because the whales do not typically forage during this time. If opportunistic foraging were undertaken, it would likely be constrained to upwelling areas of higher productivity. The greatest impact to southern right whales from prey depletion by seismic surveys would likely occur on southern right whale foraging areas in the Southern Ocean and Antarctic waters (Erbe et al. 2019), although seismic activity is low at present in these areas.

   3.9         Pollution
A wide variety of pollutants can enter the marine environment through processes including dumping, run-off from urban, agricultural, or industrial sources, effluent from sewerage treatment outflows and atmospheric transport. Marine pollution can have a variety of possible direct consequences for southern right whales at an individual and population level, or indirectly through harming their prey or the ecosystem. In extreme cases, acute chemical discharge such as oil or condensate spills have shown to cause long-term, population-level declines in whales (due to toxicity and associated mortality) (Matkin et al. 2008). The threat of toxic marine pollution to the environment is managed through a variety of initiatives. The threat of pollution entering the sea through dumping is managed by the Environment Protection (Sea Dumping) Act 1981 and the Environment Protection (Sea Dumping) Amendment Act 1986. Land-based pollution sources are managed through Australia's National Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-Based Activities.

    3.9.1     Chronic chemical pollution
Southern right whales may be regularly exposed to chemical pollution from sewage and industrial discharges and high nutrient load run-off from onshore activities such as agriculture, all of which are the most likely source of pollution in coastal BIAs. Although, given southern right whales are rarely believed to feed in their coastal distribution the risk from chemical pollution is likely low. In their feeding grounds, southern right whales are most at risk from bioaccumulation of human-made chemicals such as organochlorines and persistent organic pollutants. There has been growing concern regarding pollutants that undergo bioaccumulation (i.e., the accumulation of substances in an organism) and biomagnification (i.e., the increase in concentration of a substance in an organism) up the food chain. Pollutants with these characteristics do not break down quickly in the environment and given many marine mammals are apex marine predators (e.g., killer whales), they have the potential to accumulate relatively high levels through biomagnification. Marine plastics, and particularly microplastics, provide a global transport medium for the most toxic