Dear Dr. Mayette,

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Tien Anh Tran

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Additional Editor Comments:

Thank you so much for your submission, After reviewing carefully your paper, there are some raised comments to improve the quality of your research. Kindly address all comments of reviewers then we are looking forward to receiving your revised paper.

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously? -->?>

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available??>

The PLOS Data policy

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English??>

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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Reviewer #1: Yes, the manuscript is technically sound, and the data support the main conclusion that vessel mass can be reliably estimated from LOA and vessel type using a regression-based approach. The statistical analysis is appropriately chosen for the research question. The authors apply a log-log linear regression with vessel type interactions to model the relationship between LOA and displacement, yielding a strong overall fit. However, the manuscript would benefit from greater transparency (e.g., reporting of coefficient uncertainty).

Please refer to attached word document for more in-depth suggestions and comments.

Reviewer #2: This study provides a fruitful refinement to the biophysical model elaborated by Kelley et al (2021) to estimate the lethality of a collision between a whale and a ship. Such biophysical approach is a potentially more precise way of assessing lethality of a strike than other approaches based on correlational approach as it permits better considering the characteristics of vessels (like size, draught) rather than simply the bessel category (cargo, tanker, sailing, etc). However, the Kelley model is not easy to implement due to the requirements of precise parameters to be known. The present work aimed at facilitating the access to one of these parameters, namely the vessel's displacement (mass). The authors collated the characteristics of a wide array of vessels from several sources and fitted linear régressions to provide user-ready equations converting the vessel length to vessel displacement. The paper is clearly written, the analyses are sound, the Supplementary Files are well constructed and insightful, and I only have a few minor comments to clarify some details in the text, that I detail below.

L141: a bracket is missing after the reference

L153: what is the rationale of only using a subset of vessels with LOA > 100 m? (I understand it is to equilibrate the sample size with vessels <100m but it may be good to explicitly state this)

L170: what are Ro-Ro and Ro-Pax?

L181: you use data from stern trawlers, yet fishing vessels are in essence quite variable in type, how this may affect the results ?

L252-261: what are the response vs predictive variables? what types of models were used, which packages and functions? More details are needed here about the modelling procedure.

L271-272: you should mention clearly in the text (probably at the end of the method) how were the equations in Table 3 built: it should be explained how coefficients were retrieved and converted back to natural scale - it would clarify that these equations are indeed user-ready and can be applied without any log-transformation.

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Reviewer #1: Yes: Raphael Mayaud

Reviewer #2: No

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Attachments

Attachment

Submitted filename: PLOS ONE Review Comments.docx

A regression-based method to estimate vessel mass for use in whale-ship strike risk models

PONE-D-25-34309R1

Dear Dr. Mayette,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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Kind regards,

Tien Anh Tran

Academic Editor

PLOS One

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions??>

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously? -->?>

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available??>

The PLOS Data policy

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English??>

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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Reviewer #1: I would first like to thank the authors for their response, having gone the extra mile by applying their concept as a worked example. The paper reads well and will be a good contribution to ship strike literature and risk assessments.

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed, and the updating of data has improved the analyses. The text is clear throughout, analyses sound, the paper is now ready for publication. It's a great work of high interest for anyone interested in mitigating collision risk in whales. Congrats!

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what does this mean? ). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes: Charlotte Lambert

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