Mackerel (Scomber australasicus) Reproduction in Northeastern Taiwan

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This Ms uses a more or less conventional approach to address some (relevant) aspects of the reproductive species of a species with commercial interest for the studied area. Overall, the Ms reads very well and is correctly organized throughout the sections.

In the list of keywords a reference to the study area might be included.

The main aspects to clarify are as follows:

The M&M section mentions that samples were collected from January to May (2017-2019) but figure 3 (GSI) refers to all the remaining months of the annual cycle. This needs to be clarified.

Text would be improved if a description of Figure 4a is included and this is missing.

A figure with the frequency distribution of oocyte diameter in each maturity stage would provide information on the dynamics of oocyte development and to clarify up to which point successive batches of oocytes would (or not) develop from the "recruitment stock" of resting oocytes. This is a long-discussed aspect that might affect the fecundity estimates because if several batches of oocytes develop in a more or less continuous process, this would affect the fecundity estimates, that would be under-estimated.

 

Author Response

Please see the attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

I strongly recommend this manuscript and this manuscript can be accepted in this current form. This manuscript is clearly written and included with the sufficient datas. 

Author Response

Reviewer 2 mention that this manuscript strongly recommend and this manuscript can be accepted in this current form. This manuscript is clearly written and included with the sufficient data.

We express our deepest gratitude for the reviewer’s compliment for this manuscript, Hope this manuscript can be accepted in JMSE

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

The authors provided improvements on the main topics of my previous review. However, I  am not convinced with their arguing about fecundity estimates and the present estimates refer to the number of oocytes in each ovary at the sampling occasion. It is not shown or convincingly demonstrated that new batches of oocytes might, or might not, develop from the resting oocytes, the so called "recruitment stop"

I leave the final decision to the Editors but I would like to have the above mentioned topic clarified because it would benefit the Ms