A midterm (5 year) review of the plan will be conducted using a of Success’ ‘Measure 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 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 rating for the towards Plan long-term recovery objective Successful All targets met Excellent Moderately Six of eight targets met including 3-1, 4-1 and Sound successful 4-2 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: as a general term that refers to all blue whales (including both sub-species) within Australian waters (i.e. blue whales’); and, ‘Australian as a specific term in reference to the broadly recognised components of the overall Australian population, namely: Antarctic blue whale population all those Antarctic blue whales – occupying or passing through Australian waters; Indo-Australian pygmy blue whale population all those pygmy blue – whales occupying or passing through waters from Indonesia to western and southern Australia; and
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 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 rating for the Plan Targets Progress towards long-term recovery objective Successful All targets met Excellent Moderately successful Six of eight targets met including 3-1, 4-1 and 4-2 Sound Moderately unsuccessful Five of eight targets met including 3-1. Adequate 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: as a general term that refers to all blue whales (including both sub-species) within Australian waters (i.e. ‘Australian blue whales’); and, as a specific term in reference to the broadly recognised components of the overall Australian population, namely: Antarctic blue whale population – all those Antarctic blue whales occupying or passing through Australian waters; Indo-Australian pygmy blue whale population – all those pygmy blue whales occupying or passing through waters from Indonesia to western and southern Australia; and
blue-whale-conservation-management-plan.docx