About the Authors

Tim D. Smith

TimDenisSmith@gmail.com

Affiliation World Whaling History, Redding, California, United States of America

Randall R. Reeves

Affiliation Okapi Wildlife Associates, Hudson, Quebec, Canada

Elizabeth A. Josephson

Affiliation Integrated Statistics, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, United States of America

Judith N. Lund

Affiliation New Bedford Whaling Museum, New Bedford, Massachusetts, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have the following competing interests to declare. Reeves is the sole employee of Okapi Wildlife, a consulting company. Josephson is an employee of Integrated Statistics, a consulting company. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLoS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: TDS RRR EAJ JNL. Performed the experiments: TDS RRR EAJ JNL. Analyzed the data: TDS RRR EAJ JNL. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: TDS RRR EAJ JNL. Wrote the paper: TDS RRR EAJ JNL.