I liked the manuscript and consider this work an important contribution that allows an appropriate treatment of individual longitudinal data when offspring cannot always be aged or detected and remain with the mother for multiple seasons. Demographic studies on cetaceans, but of course on other taxa with extended adult-offspring association and uncertain offspring ages, will benefit from this multievent model extension. I think authors may find the paper by Cubaynes et al. (2021) interesting, as it handles multi-year statistical dependency among individual demographic parameters grouped within family units, variable litter size, and uncertainty on the timing at offspring independence.
I also have another question. In this work authors have defined a precise model structure based on ecological knowledge on the study species, but in other situations one may need to contrast multiple models. In this case, would you run the multievent model in E-SURGE to select the best model structure and then implement it in a Bayesian framework that may allow additional futures like temporal random effects? We know that implementing a Bayesian variable or model selection approach is not straightforward for many ecologists. Some advice on the point on model selection using E-SURGE (assuming this model can be implemented in E-SURGE) would add value and utility for readers.

Minor comments:
Line 36/37 and 39: same survival value for both non breeders and breeding females?

Line 226-228: I understand the correctness of your metrics but why not reporting and using the conditional (on mother survival) probabilities $S\_y$ and $\phi\_C$?

Line 313-318: I am not an expert on cetaceans therefore I wonder if comparing your vital rate estimates with those of other cetacean species is indicative, given the potential diversity of species ecology and life-history traits even within a group like cetaceans.

References cited:
Cubaynes et al., 2021 Ecology and Evolution, DOI: 10.1002/ece3.7296

Simone Tenan