Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2015L01633:body:0:p6
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2015L01633
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 14677–18161

Maintain and improve existing legal and management protection                                                  Very high         Very high
Assessing and addressing anthropogenic noise                                                                   Very high         High
Understanding Impacts of climate variability and change                                                        High              High
Minimising vessel collisions                                                                                   High              High
Enabling and measuring recovery
Measuring and monitoring population recovery                                                                   Very high         Very high
Describe the population structure of blue whales                                                               High              High
Describe the spatial and temporal distribution of blue whales and further define Biologically Important Areas  High              High

1. Introduction

The blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) is currently listed as an endangered species under the Commonwealth Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act). There are two subspecies of blue whales that use Australian waters (including Australian Antarctic waters), the pygmy blue whale (B. m. brevicauda) and the Antarctic blue whale (B. m. intermedia). The last recovery plan under the EPBC Act that considered blue whales was jointly developed for Blue, Fin and Sei whales for the period 2005-2010.
Australia's national cetacean policy and management initiatives seek to both give effect to our obligations under the EPBC Act, and to underpin our international work, in collaboration with the International Whaling Commission (IWC). Conservation Management Plans (CMPs) have been identified as a modern, flexible and adaptive tool for cetacean conservation management. They aim to protect whale populations from the full range of known and emerging threats and to lead to improved conservation status for threatened populations through effective management. This new Plan reviews and builds on the previous recovery plan and is presented in a format that conforms with the IWC's CMP format, while meeting the requirements of a recovery plan under the EPBC Act.
Blue whales were over-exploited by commercial whalers in the 19th and 20th centuries. By 1967 the IWC banned the taking of blue whales in the North Atlantic, North Pacific and southern hemisphere. However, illegal unreported and unregulated hunting may have continued through to the early 1970's. There was a near catastrophic decline in Antarctic Blue whales due to whaling, from an estimated 239,000 individuals pre-whaling to an estimated 360 individuals by 197317. The most recent estimate in 1996 of the population size of Antarctic blue whales suggests that there were 2,280 (95% interval 1,160 – 4,500) individuals 14.
Given the differences between the two subspecies, mechanisms for recovery are likely to be different. The Antarctic blue whale population that utilises Australian waters are poorly described and given this lack of knowledge, the Plan focuses on estimating current abundance at the circumpolar scale. There are no robust abundance estimates for the Australian populations of pygmy blue whales.
Where appropriate, this Plan addresses the two subspecies separately. This includes outlining the current status of threats, and the prioritisation of recovery actions for the