Conservation Management Plan for the Blue Whale A Recovery Plan under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.

The Conservation Management Plan for the Blue Whale - A Recovery Plan under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (2015-2025) aims to protect the blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) that 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 Antarctic blue whale subspecies remains severely depleted from historic whaling and its numbers are recovering slowly. For the pygmy blue whale there is uncertainty in the numbers pre-exploitation, and their current numbers are not known.
The long-term recovery objective for blue whales is to minimise anthropogenic threats to allow for their conservation status to improve so that they can be removed from the EPBC Act threatened species list. Acknowledging that the long-term recovery objective is unlikely to be achieved over the ten year period of this Plan, the following interim recovery objectives have been set for the next ten years. The first two interim objectives assist in assessing the conservation status of the pygmy and Antarctic blue whale subspecies, and the remaining two relate to legal and management protection, and to minimising recognised threats. The interim recovery objectives are: 1) The conservation status of blue whale populations is assessed using efficient and robust methodology; 2) The spatial and temporal distribution, identification of biologically important areas, and population structure of blue whales in Australian waters is described; 3) Current levels of legal and management protection for blue whales are maintained or improved and an appropriate adaptive management regime is in place; and 4) Anthropogenic threats are demonstrably minimised.
Actions for both species of whales are organized under threats prioritization and are classified into high and very high importance. Follow actions: Maintain and improve existing legal and management protection; Assessing and addressing anthropogenic noise; Understanding Impacts of climate variability and change; Minimising vessel collisions; Measuring and monitoring population recovery; Describe the population structure of blue whales; Describe the spatial and temporal distribution of blue whales and further define Biologically Important Habitat.