Review Reports

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Many issues need to be addressed. In particular, your use of the published information is inadequate. Your Discussion can be considerably improved. However, your paper is generally sound, and problems are of relatively minor nature. Please see attached file for detailed advice. 

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Comments on the Quality of English Language

There are moderate problems with English usage. I have suggested some solutions (mainly substituted words).

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Dear Editor and Authors,

I have revised the manuscript Diversity 3048669 entitled “Sex-specific age and growth of mitre squid (Uroteuthis chinensis) in the northwestern South China Sea based on statolith microstructure analysis”. The contribution of this manuscript, concerning the in-depth biological information on this species with high commercial value, is interesting even if the results must be considered preliminary due to the gap relating to the difference in the number of samples between males and females.

For this reason, I would suggest to modify the title in “Age and growth of mitre squid (Uroteuthis chinensis) in the northwestern South China Sea based on statolith microstructure analysis”, I wouldn't emphasize the sexual aspect in the title.

In future I think the authors should overcome this problem by considering sampling with more fishing gears in different seasons. This could be a possibility to catch both males and females comparably, that is an important aspect for implementing robust fisheries management measures.

The manuscript is eligible for publication in this journal, minor comments are reported in the attached text (pdf).

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf