Basic reporting

No comments

Experimental design

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Validity of the findings

No comments

Comments for the author

This is a very well written article that addresses and important issue in the conservation management of marine megafauna ecotourism: how valuable is a living animal population to a nation's economy. Specifically, what direct value does whale shark ecotourism in Sth Ari Atoll, Maldives have? While I am not an economics researcher, the survey design seems appopriate and the statistical methods are similar to those used in scientific analyses. I can find no major flaws with the design, the analysis or the interpretation and have no substantive criticisms of the writing in this manuscript and so I recommend that it be published as is.