whalestrike: An R package for simulating ship strikes on whales

The collision of ships with whales can result in serious injury or death of the animal.This is particularly concerning for endangered species such as the North Atlantic right whale.Although speed reduction policies have been developed and implemented, simple considerations suggest that other factors, such as ship mass and prow shape, should also be taken into account.An R package called whalestrike has been developed to address such issues.It was used by Kelley et al. (2021) in the development of a biomechanically based criterion for the lethality of ship strikes, but this was just a starting point.The next step, and goal of the present paper, is to introduce the model code to a broader community, encouraging its use and development by diverse researchers and policy makers.