Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L00930:reg:2:p21
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L00930
Segment Type: reg
Provision Reference: reg 2 (pt 21/48)
Character Range: 118947–121892

intervals between successful calving events have also been associated with variability in the Southern Annular Mode (SAM) on a 3-year time lag (Pirzl et al. 2008). The likelihood of a negative impact from climate change on southern right whale breeding success is unclear, and at present there are uncertainties in how anthropogenic climate driven changes might impact the Southern Ocean ecosystems and the food webs on which southern right whales rely.

   3.2         Entanglement
Entanglements occur when whales encounter materials such as fishing lines, ropes, and nets and parts of their body become entangled. Entanglement and bycatch in fisheries gear (either active or discarded fishing gear) is a significant threat to the survival of cetacean species and populations globally (IWC 2010). There is relatively good understanding on the types of gear involved in causing death to marine vertebrates by entanglement, although comparatively little is known about which types of debris cause mortality through ingestion (Roman et al. 2021). Entanglement in fishing gear is one of the major threats to the survival of the Critically Endangered North Atlantic right whale (NARW) (Moore et al. 2021, Knowlton et al. 2022).      Sub-lethal entanglements in fishing gear are energetically costly for large whales (van der Hoop et al. 2017) and have been attributed to depressed growth in NARW, resulting in poorer body condition (Christiansen et al. 2020), and shorter body lengths that also extends to offspring of females of shorter body length (Stewart et al. 2021). The impact of entanglement on the body length and condition of whales has consequences on reproductive success, with reduced body length a potential contributor to low birth rates (Stewart et al. 2022). The risk of entanglement is not as high to southern right whales in Australian waters compared to NARW, however, the consequences in terms of energetic costs and impact to body condition and health could likely be the same.

   3.2.1     Active fishing or aquaculture equipment
In Australia, the overlap between the nearshore coastal distribution of southern right whales and inshore fisheries increases the risk associated with encountering fisheries gear and entanglement. Historical analyses of entanglements has observed an increase in reported entanglements of southern right whales across their range in fishing gear from the 1980's to 2006, with at least one fatal entanglement (in longline fishing gear) and 12 non-fatal entanglements (Kemper et al. 2008). Most entanglements were related to lines or nets, often associated with traps and pots set to catch crustaceans, with one entanglement in a fish farm in Tasmania (Kemper et al. 2008). More recent evaluation of cetacean incidental entanglements and bycatch throughout Australian waters reported 28 entanglements between 1887 to 2016, and identified that the highest risk to southern right whales was from trap