The Department of Environment, Heritage, Water & the Arts., 2005:

"Most fin whale populations were severely depleted by modern whaling from the early 1900’s until protection in 1975.  The fin whale was second to the blue whale in commercial importance because of its size and wide ranging distribution.

In the southern hemisphere the pre-exploitation abundance was estimated at around 500,000 and may have been reduced to as few as 25,000.

There are no estimates of current fin whale abundance for the southern hemisphere or for Australian waters."

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Citation and/or URL

Department of Environment and Heritage, 2005, Blue, Fin and Sei Whale Recovery Plan 2005 - 2010,  Department of the Environment and Heritage, Canberra.  

Spatial Coverage

Australian Whale Sanctuary

Temporal Coverage

Information current as of 2005

Update Frequency

Not applicable

Other Information

None