Graphical-user-interface tool for exploring whale-strike simulations.
Details
Sliders, buttons, and choosers are grouped into panes that appear on
the left of the view. When app() first opens, all of these panes
are closed. To get acquainted with the app, try adjusting the controllers
that are visible on the initial view. Then, open the "ship" pane and
increase the ship mass. Do you find that the results make qualitative
sense? Continue this process, exploring all the panes. A
half-hour of such exploration should be enough to build enough
confidence to start investigating practical applications.
To learn more about how the simulations are carried out, and
to read more about the underlying goals of this tool,
please consult Kelley et al. (2021) and Kelley (2024). Extensive
details on the calculations are provided in the help pages
for the various functions of the whalestrike package, of
which that for whalestrike() is a good starting point.
More information on app() in video form on
youtube.
Note that an older version of a similar GUI application is
still available as app_2025(), but it is not maintained
and is slated for removal in the early months of 2026.
References
Kelley, Dan E., James P. Vlasic, and Sean W. Brillant. "Assessing the Lethality of Ship Strikes on Whales Using Simple Biophysical Models." Marine Mammal Science 37, no. 1 (2021): 251–67. https://doi.org/10.1111/mms.12745.
Kelley, Dan E."“Whalestrike: An R Package for Simulating Ship Strikes on Whales." Journal of Open Source Software 9, no. 97 (2024): 6473. https://doi.org/10.21105/joss.06473.
Mayette, Alexandra. "Whale Layer Thickness." December 15, 2025. (Personal communication of a 5-page document.)
Mayette, Alexandra, and Sean W. Brillant. "A Regression-Based Method to Estimate Vessel Mass for Use in Whale-Ship Strike Risk Models." PloS One 21, no. 1 (2026): e0339760. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0339760.
See also
Other interactive apps:
app_2025()