Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2015L01633:body:0:p30
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2015L01633
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 81577–84647

offshore wind farms in Australia 78 but there are wave energy projects under consideration to operate in the Bonney Upwelling.
Acute and chronic chemical discharge
A wide variety of pollutants can enter the marine environment through processes including dumping, run-off from urban, agricultural or industrial sources, effluents, atmospheric transport and leakage. Marine pollution can have a variety of possible consequences for blue 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 due to toxicity and associated mortality69. 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.
There has been growing concern regarding pollutants that undergo bioaccumulation, which is the accumulation of substances in an organism, and biomagnification, which is 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. As marine predators, marine mammals have the potential to accumulate relatively high levels through biomagnification. Blue whales feed directly on krill, which occupy a low level on the food chain, and therefore biomagnification in general would not be expected to have a strong effect on blue whales since there are fewer levels in their food chain85. However, these pollutants remain a threat because of the long life history of blue whales and the characteristic of these pollutants to accumulate in fat such as whale blubber.
Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) is one example of pollutants that undergo bioaccumulation and biomagnification36,53. They predominately enter the marine environment through atmospheric transport, reaching as far as Antarctica1,10,112. They have been produced for a variety of industrial applications or as unintentional industry by-products, or as pesticides such as dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT). They were controlled by bans or restrictions in some developed countries including Australia after their toxicity to humans and wildlife was realised in the 1960s and 1970s. Australia became a Party of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants in 2004. However the persistence of POPs and their ability to be transported over long distances makes them a continued threat to blue whales off Australia. POPs, including DDTs, have been found in blue whales using waters off Canada40,79. POPs have the potential to cause harm in blue whale calves during development, and may affect fertility of mature individuals8,39.