Navigating Crisis: Insights into the Depletion and Recovery of Central Java’s Freshwater Eel (Anguilla spp.) Stocks

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This is a well-written, straightforward paper that brings important information on a poorly known but nonetheless important eel fishery. However, I have two suggestions that I believe the authors must address.

 

First of all, your introduction is too focused on the aquaculture of anguillid eels, whereas your paper is about fisheries. Thus, I strongly suggest you to add more relevant and updated info on the status of anguillid eel fisheries worldwide.

 

Second point: you need to detail more about the Anguilla bicolor bicolor fishery in Java. What are the fishing gears employed? Are boats used? Is it carried out on an artisanal or commercial scale (or both?) When did the fisheries begin? Is there a seasonality, or are eels caught year-round? Since it is a poorly known fishery, particularly if one thinks in the wider international readership, then details are crucial and more-than-welcome.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Congratulations. Your written English is pretty good, I made a few suggestions on the text. Please, see the annotated PDF in attached.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

In this article, the authors applied a catch-only stock assessment model to Central Java's freshwater eel stock and evaluated various management policies. The article is generally well-written, and the results are clearly presented. However, I have identified some minor mistakes, which are listed below. Additionally, I suggest that the authors expand their discussion on how semelparous behavior and age structure might influence the results and conclusions. Specifically, it would be valuable to explore whether the model's assumptions accommodate these factors and if there are plans to collect more biological data to consider such aspects.

Minor comments:

1. Abstract: "... reducing fish mortality to 80% ..." should be "reducing fishing mortality to 80%"

2. Section 2.2: Check equation 5 for correctness. Confirm the correct placement of 'r'.

3. Equations 6 and 7 are the same as Equations 4 and 5. Consider using only one set of equations.

4. Section 3.1: Clarify the meaning of 't' in table 5.

5. Section 3.1: Figure 3D appears to be the same as Figure 4, with only the axes swapped. Consider including only one of them.

6. Section 3.2: Note that the plot in both Figure 5A and 5B is cut off on high values. Address this issue for clarity and completeness.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

General comments

This work is interesting because it has provided very important information for stock management.

The results are very clear.

The proposed recommendations, such as adaptable seasonal closures to align with climate change and habitat protection, are strong.

However, I did have some changes to suggest to the authors:

« Therefore, the massive exploitation of glass and adult eels has occurred in this region. Moreover, several eel aquacultures managed by fishermen have expanded rapidly to meet export demands. The eel fishing grounds in this region are spread across three watersheds: Citandui, Serayu,and Ijo [29] (Figure 1). The annual catch of eel fisheries was provided by the Marine and Fishery Department of Central Java Province (Figure 2), which was mainly recorded from three regencies: Cilacap, Kebumen, and Purworejo ([30], [31]). »

This section should be placed in the Introduction

Materiel and methods : In this section, the authors did not mention the environmental conditions of the study area. I would like them to talk about the physico-chemical parameters such as salinity, temperature, pH, climate and rainfall in the area.  They said in the discussion that eel populations are sensitive to climate change, which is all the more reason.

« Thus, a recovery plan should be implemented to prevent eel fisheries from collapsing »: This sentence is a recomandation than it shoud be placed in discussionsection

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf