Links and Trade-Offs between Fisheries and Environmental Protection in Relation to the Sustainable Development Goals in Thailand

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments for Water-676290 entitled “ Links and trade-offs between fisheries and environmental protection in relation to the Sustainable Development Goals in Thailand”

Page 3, Figure 1, Although the catch data are not showed for every year, the lines should not be smoothed. Figure 2 in Page 4 is a better presentation.

Page 3, L 118, I assume the fishery products export to US and EU are mostly tuna canning products.

Page 4, L 122, Are these fisheries imports mainly tuna for canning processing in Thailand?

Page 5, L 183-194, This paragraph is a good point.

L 194, “through” or “for”?

Page 12, Table 2, Water scarcity would be a threat to fisheries and aquaculture production. In addition to this, land sink due to over-extracting underground water is another serious problem for freshwater aquaculture. Marine debris or litters resulted from capture or aquaculture fisheries are also negative impacts to the marine environment.

Page 14, L 54, In addition, development of alternate fishmeal instead of trash fish and utilization of fish waste are also important issues.

 

References

Many journal names are not in capital letter such as Page 15, L 175, 177, 184, 193; Page 16, L 229, 233, 244-245, 261, 263; Page 17, L 319; Page 18, L 321, 341.

I suggest the authors check each reference carefully and make necessary corrections.

Comments for author File: Comments.docx

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The paper is a good review bringing out known and issues about fisheries and aquaculture. What is novel is the link to SDGs. However this interaction on linkage has not been deeply analysed and in other instances provide conflicting arguments. 

 

You use fisheries and fisheries sector interchangeably. In certain areas you refer to the sector comprising capture fisheries and aquaculture, in others only capture fisheries please revise and be consistent Page 2 line 66. DoF - write in full every abbreviations used for the first time. page 3 line 108 - ..... 84.6% fish - can you define what fish is - are you referring to fin-fish, tilapia etc? Page 5 line 168 - .... shrimp culture form - consider deleting "form" Page 5 line 170 - 171 - is there no regulation for treating effluents in Thailand. If available, what are the weaknesses? Page 5 line 176 - investigated - consider replacing it with "showed" and check spelling for farmers Page 5 line 188 - Trash fish - please define what this means. What are the dominant species for trash fish. Page 5 line - is line 193 correct? is aquaculture producing more trash fish? I would assume more trash fish in used in fish feed for aquaculture production.  Page 6 Figure 3. Please provide a short explanation on what this figure is demonstrating. Page 9. section 4.2 requires more in-depth analysis and minimise repeatitions; are you in table 2 describing interactions or relationships or linkages.  In conclusion, you talk of sustainable fish practices which you have not said any in your main narrative.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

The paper deals with the links between fisheries and environmental protection; it provides research on topical issues of sustainable development. I find the paper rather interesting and I think that the authors shows a good knowledge of the topic. The paper provides comprehensive literature review

These are my comments:

The abstract needs to show more clearly what problem you want to solve and what contribution you present for a more general conclusion. I believe that it is better to put in the text a description of the plan of the UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. the description of the figure 3 is not sufficient: you should explain better the relationships between the several components. You should define limitations of the study and identify possible future research. The conclusions need to be extended.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 4 Report

Letter to Authors
water-676290-v1
Links and trade-offs between fisheries and environmental protection in relation to the Sustainable Development Goals in Thailand
Tiptiwa Sampantamit, Long Ho, Wout Van Echelpoel, Carl Lachat, Peter Goethals

191218

Dear authors,
Your MS may be worth publishing in the journal after a moderate revision process. At the same time, moderate English editing is necessary because it has some unnatural wording. See below for details.

Page 1-8

L29
waters (repeating) -> {environments, ecosystems, habitats}

L34
6, 12, 13, 14, and 15 (brief explanation needed) -> 6 (Clean water and sanitation), 12 (Responsible consumption and production), 13 (Climate action), 14, and 15 (Life on land)

L66
DoF -> DoF (Department of Fisheries)

L73
this present work -> the present work ?

L77
environmentally-friendly (friendly to whom?) -> environment-friendly (friendly to environment) ?

L101 figure 1
Lines tying points are wavy for wild capture production and aquaculture production. Use zigzag lines such like in total production.

L168
from -> farm ?
Figure 3 demonstrates .. capture production. -> delete
Fig.3 may be cited at L163.

L175
The work of .. in their farms. (redundant) -> delete
You may cite the reference #50 at the following sentence.

L193
trash fish are produced through aquaculture ?
Are trash fish products from capture fisheries? See L186-189.

L235
Figure 4 summarizes .. all 17 SDGs. -> move to L230 with revision to fit in
Citing Fig.4 ahead, you may skip to relate SDG numbers with their explanation.

L251
Soy meal?

Page 9-18

L9
Table 2 lists .. SDGs. -> delete
Table 2 may be cited at L3.

L11
The sixth SDG -> SDG 6

L15
target 6.1 and 6.6 -> SDG targets 6.1 and 6.6

L16
Targets 6.4 and 6.5 -> SDG targets 6.4 and 6.5
Take care also at L75,76,78,88,116.

L24
between 1995 and 2015 -> per year ?

L25
In Thailand, .. illegal trade problems. (redundant) -> delete

L51
-including Thailand-
Use en-dashes.

L58
treat -> threat ?

L66
hilsa shad -> hilsa shad (Tenualosa ilisha) ?

L113
103,00 -> 103,000 ?

L116-
How do you think about tilapias? They are big threats to tropical freshwater biodiversity.

L120
canaliculate -> canaliculata

L121
water hyacinth .. invasive species [93]. (redundant) -> delete

L142
manuscript -> paper

L167 references
Check the list carefully again from the beginning. Reference lists are frequently a den of errors. It is the authors' responsibility that all references are properly cited.

L168
Journal information needed.

L177
PLOS one -> PLoS One

L184,193,229,233,etc
Use title case for journal titles.

L252
Publisher information needed.

 

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 4 Report

Letter to Authors
water-676290-v2
Links and trade-offs between fisheries and environmental protection in relation to the Sustainable Development Goals in Thailand
Tiptiwa Sampantamit, Long Ho, Wout Van Echelpoel, Carl Lachat, Peter Goethals

200115

Dear authors,
You have paid good efforts to improve your MS. A few minor changes are necessary. See below for detail.

L35
SDG 14 (Life below water) -> SDG 14
See L21.

L48,49
fisheries -> fishery?
You seem to use 'fishery' and 'fisheries' interchangeably and arbitrarily. Here, it could be capture fishery and aquaculture together making a fisheries sector.
See also L56,58,60,61,73,etc.

Page 12-
L126-141
Your response 23 should be inserted at an appropriate position in this paragraph. Some additional revision may be necessary to fit with it. This is the reason I rated 3 on scientific soundness.

Page 15-
L185 references
Check the list carefully again from the beginning. Your reference list is still a den of errors. It is the authors' responsibility that all references are properly cited.

L189,265
Is the journal name correct?

L195,201,206,207,209,214,220,222,226-246,247,etc (so many)
Use title case for journal and book titles.

L212
Make sure whether journal titles are spelled out or not. Consult with an assistant editor about the journal style.

L307
Publisher or web information needed.

L353,356,etc.
Should book titles be Italicized? When Italicized, Latin names should be in Roman. Make consistent.

I am looking forward to seeing your paper in the journal.
You should note, however, that there are very few people reading through your MS before publication. Some errors might be overlooked. I actually did it. There will be, on the other hand, many people who read your paper after it is published. Errors, if any, whatever trivial they were, can easily be found by some of the readers. Publishing a paper is a milestone of young scientists' research careers especially among your author group. Be extremely careful to check your MS from the beginning before publication to find and fix any errors.

 

Author Response

I would like to send special thanks to you for your comments and suggestions.

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf