Using choice experiment designs to evaluate mitigation solutions to reduce whale-ship collisions

Whale-ship collisions represent a threat to some whale population survival. The shipping industry rarely adopts solutions to reduce the risk of collisions. This lack of compliance is partly due to the fact that previous work has failed to assess the economic and logistic constraints these solutions put on the shipping industry. Our work explored for the first time the logistical considerations affecting the adoption of whale-ship collision avoidance approaches by shipping companies. We used a choice experiment approach to assess the shipping industry’s preferences for mitigation solutions, by questioning ship crews. Amongst other things, our results demonstrated a preference for avoiding a high-density whale area instead of reducing speed in it, and a requirement for upstream information to plan the journey depending on these areas. Our findings could be used as guidelines for the implementation of mitigation solutions depending on situational characteristics (e.g., travel distance, area’s size) and provide insights for policy-making to reduce the risk of whale-ship collisions.