Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L00930:front:0:p7
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L00930
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 22490–25444

National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972: Vulnerable
       * Western Australia Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016: Vulnerable
       * Queensland Nature Conservation Act 1992: Least Concern
Assessment under the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species:
       * International Union for the Conservation of Nature Red List 2017: Least Concern

      Description, biology, distribution, and habitat
The southern right whale is listed as Endangered under the EPBC Act because population numbers have been severely reduced by historical commercial whaling. The origin of the name 'right whale' comes from recognition by whalers that the species was the 'right' whale to hunt due to the high oil content of their blubber and because it was easy to catch and process due to its nearshore migratory routes, slow swimming behaviour, and it floated when killed. Consequently, right whales were hunted to the brink of extinction throughout their range (Kenney 2018).
Southern right whales are large, baleen whales (Order Cetacea, Family Balaenidae), characterised by the lack of a dorsal fin, a distinctly 'V' shaped blow, and the presence of cornified skin growths on the head known as callosities (Kenney 2018). Southern right whales reach a maximum length of approximately 16 m and a weight of around 40 t, with mature females slightly larger than males and southern right whales smaller than northern hemisphere right whales (Jefferson et al. 2015, Christiansen et al. 2019). Contemporary body length data from the Head of Bight in South Australia, suggests southern right whale females (lactating females) range between 13.0 and 14.9 m (mean = 14.2 m) and predicted calf body lengths at birth between 4.8 and 5.7 m (mean = 5.3 m) (Christiansen et al. 2018).
Two populations of southern right whale occur in Australian waters: the western and eastern. The two populations are defined by differences in mitochondrial DNA (Carroll et al. 2011, Carroll et al. 2015, Carroll et al. 2019), geographical ranges, historic whaling pressures, and varying rates of population increase (Stamation et al. 2020, Smith et al. 2022). Southern right whales occur seasonally in all state coastal waters, with sightings ranging from Hervey Bay in Queensland on the east coast, along the entire southern coastline and including Tasmania, to Exmouth Gulf in Western Australia (Smith et al. 2024). While the geographical boundary between the eastern and western Australian populations is unclear, for management purposes the western population includes Western Australia and South Australia waters west of Ceduna, whereas the eastern population comprises the coastal waters east of Ceduna in South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania, New South Wales, and Queensland. Southern right whales in Australian waters predominantly occur in aggregations in coastal water reproductive areas where they calve and nurse their young from May to October,