Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2015L01633:body:0:p9
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2015L01633
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 23526–26815

Target 3-1: Domestic and international legislation and other agreements that support the recovery of Australian blue whales are maintained and, wherever possible, improved.
Interim objective 4: Anthropogenic threats are demonstrably minimised.
       Target 4-1: Robust and adaptive management regimes leading to a reduction in anthropogenic threats to Australian blue whales are in place.
       Target 4-2: Management decisions are supported by high quality information and high priority research projects identified in this plan are achieved or underway.

Performance of the plan and progress towards long-term objectives

At the completion of this Plan (i.e. 2025), progress will be assessed and assigned one of the performance ratings below. The performance rating attained will show how successful the plan has been in meeting interim recovery objectives, and will provide an indication of the degree of progress towards long-term recovery objectives over the 2015-2025 period.
A midterm (5 year) review of the plan will be conducted using a 'Measure of Success' for each Action Area (Section 6.3 Reporting Process).
Given that blue whales remain heavily depleted from whaling, have a high age at sexual maturity and a low reproductive rate, any population recovery to or near pre-exploitation size is likely to be a long process (e.g. multi-decadal) and, most likely, will occur outside the scope of this ten year Conservation Management Plan.

Table 2. Performance measures for the Blue Whale Conservation Management Plan
Performance     Targets                                              Progress towards
rating for the                                                       long-term recovery
Plan                                                                 objective
Successful      All targets met                                      Excellent
Moderately      Six of eight targets met including 3-1, 4-1 and 4-2  Sound
successful
Moderately      Five of eight targets met including 3-1.             Adequate
unsuccessful
Unsuccessful    Less than five targets met or 3-1 not met.           Failure

1.3 Defining population
Various terms are used to describe groups of blue whales. These terms can mean very different things in different documents and fora. For the purposes of this document, the term population is used in two ways:
     1. as a general term that refers to all blue whales (including both sub-species) within Australian waters (i.e. 'Australian blue whales'); and,
     2. as a specific term in reference to the broadly recognised components of the overall Australian population, namely:
              1. Antarctic blue whale population – all those Antarctic blue whales occupying or passing through Australian waters;
             2. Indo-Australian pygmy blue whale population – all those pygmy blue whales occupying or passing through waters from Indonesia to western and southern Australia; and
              3. Tasman-Pacific pygmy blue whale population – all those putative pygmy blue whales occupying or passing through waters in south east Australia and the Pacific Ocean.
With respect to the three components of the Australian blue whale population, it is important to note that these do not represent completely distinct management units.