Introduction

This document constitutes the National Recovery Plan for the Australian Fairy Tern.

The plan considers the conservation requirements of the species across its range and identifies the actions to be taken to ensure the long-term viability of the species, and the parties that will undertake those actions. The Recovery Plan is the first national plan to be developed for the Australian Fairy Tern.

The Australian Fairy Tern was listed as Vulnerable under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cwlth) (EPBC Act) on 3 March 2011. At the time of listing there were fewer than 9,000 mature individuals remaining and the total

population had undergone a substantial decrease of approximately 24 per cent over the past three generations, or 33 years (TSSC 2011). This decrease was expected to continue at a substantial rate over the next three generations, as there was no evidence that the threats affecting this species were abating (TSSC 2011). In 2020, the population was estimated to be 7,450 (range 6,800 – 8,100) mature individuals and was undergoing a continuing decrease, particularly in eastern Australia (Greenwell et al. 2021). There has been no change in the population trajectory since 2011 and the species continues to meet the Vulnerable category (Greenwell et al. 2021).

The accompanying Species Profile and Threats Database (SPRAT) pages provide background information on the biology, population status and threats to the Australian Fairy Tern. The SPRAT pages are available from: http://www.environment.gov.au/ cgibin/sprat/public/sprat.pl.