Evaluation of the Economic Performance of Coastal Trawling off the Southern Coast of Sicily (Central Mediterranean Sea)

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Very interesting study showing the detailed profile of coastal trawling off the southern coast of Sicily. Also, based on bio-economic model analysis, insightful results about th impacts from fisheries restriction areas are presented. I appreciate its importance and originarlity. However, there are many points to be improved before publishing.

1. L32: Millennium Development Goals are old. Please refer to SDGs.
2. L37: contest->context?
3. Sub-section 2.1: please add descriptions about FRA
4. Sub-section 2.3: Please give a brief explanation about the structure of SMART bio-economic model. 
5. Sub-section 3.2: more detailed results from SMART bio-economic model should be shown here. For example, how does the catch composition change after the implementation of FRA? How does the distribution of fishing efforts change by the implementation of FRA?
6. Section 4 Discussion: What is the definition of "short-term" in your study? What is the implication to the "long-term" effects?
7. If possible, a brief discussion about the potential effects from climate change would add more value to your study.

Author Response

Thank you for your helpful suggestions. We made all the revisions based on your comments.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

This paper presents important results for the management of Mediterranean fisheries. However, some methodological aspects need to be clarified. I have minor comments, which are listed below. I strongly suggest that the authors take them into account.

L46: Use dots only to separate decimals. Use a comma to separate thousands with five or more digits.

L126-127: The authors are performing an unbalanced comparison (1 year – 2016 – versus 3 years – 2017-2019). How did they handle the interannual variations during the pre-FRAs period?

L161-162: Are the costs (salaries, repair/maintenance of the vessel, etc) based on a general historical average for the region or on real values applied by the vessels in the period studied?

L166: What do you mean with cell "c"? How did the authors handle the cases where a vessel fished in different areas?

L199-201: Did you perform a statistical test to compare the mean values?

L203: What do the boxes represent? The 25-75% quartiles?

L215: The authors present tables and graphs regarding the composition of the fleet and landings for the year 2016 (Table 2, Figure 2, Table 3, Figure 3). However, it would be interesting to present the same information for the post-FRAs period as a comparison.

L237: In Figure 4, it seems odd that the standard deviation's lower limit is identical to the mean value.

L335: Can you cite examples for “a large variety of complex and interdependent parameters”?

Author Response

Please see the attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Table 3 shows the species landed by trawlers. I'm assuming these are only the species the trawlers aim to catch/keep. It would be useful to consider the bycatch taken as well - both to consider the man hours taken up by sorting, but also any income/reuse that bycatch can produce (chum/bait/etc). 

Otherwise, this is a well done study. 

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 4 Report

This was an interesting article to read. For the most part it was well written and the concept was clear. I have made some grammatical suggestions throughout and have reworked some sentences, so hopefully this has improved the flow. There are some areas where I couldn't see the link with some words/phrases. I would like to have seen a better display of the latter graphs. They don't look professional to me and I think they could be improved. I didn't fell strongly that the case for the before and after the implementation of the FRA was strongly communicated, which was the purpose of the paper. This could be rework a little to reflect what is a strong point. I have attached an annotated pdf for your to peruse. 

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf