Inheritance and Development: The Evolution and Overview of China’s Fisheries Legal System

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This paper primarily deals with China's fisheries legal system by first providing a historical background. Then, it addresses problems of fishery production control and development. At the end, the authors offer a legal outlook to remedy the current issues with the fisheries in China. The paper is well-written. However, at times the work is sloppy. The following edits are recommended:

1. Page 3, line 105, add “in” before 1981. Similarly, in line 109, ‘In’ needs to be added.

2. Page 13, line 287, drop an extra period.

3. Page 15, line 408, address the lack of reference and delete the authors’ note.

4. Page 15, line 418, drop an extra period.

5. Page 17, line 515, address the lack of reference and delete the authors’ note.

6. Page 17, line 530, drop the second ‘and’.

7. Page 17, last two sentences in the last full paragraph are too long. Break up the sentences.

Author Response

Dear Editor:
Thank you for your letter concerning our manuscript entitled “Inheritance and Development: The Evolution and Overview of China's Fisheries Legal System” (fishes: 2016935).Those comments are all valuable and very helpful for revising and improving our paper, as well as the important guiding significance to our researches. We tried our best to improve the manuscript and made some changes in the manuscript. These changes will not influence the content and framework of the paper. And here we did not list all the changes but marked in red in revised paper.
We appreciate for your warm work earnestly, and hope that the correction will meet with approval. Once again, thank you very much for your guidance and help.

Dear Reviewers:
Thank you for your comments concerning our manuscript entitled “Inheritance and Development: The Evolution and Overview of China's Fisheries Legal System” (fishes: 2016935).Those comments are all valuable and very helpful for revising and improving our paper, as well as the important guiding significance to our researches. We have studied comments carefully and have made correction that we hope meet with approval. Revised portion are marked in red in the paper. (Please refer to the revised version for details.) The main corrections in the paper and the responds to the reviewer’s comments are as following. (Please refer to the page number of the revised version of the manuscript without comments.) 

Responds to the reviewer 1’ s comments:
General comments 

This paper tries to analyze the spatiotemporal evolution of the coordination between the marine environment and marine fishery economy, reveals the characteristics of such coordination, and identifies the factors affecting coordination, in 11 coastal provinces/cities in China as the research object. Taking into account sustainability and environmental uncertainty, it is important to investigate the development of the marine environment and the marine fishery economy to improve the quality of both. 

The objective of the manuscript, in general, is interesting being a study at the regional level, especially when it deals with an important country such as China. Although the paper has good objectives and shows some interesting results, it does not have a good structure (i.e., some parts of the results sections are methods or discussion) and lacks any discussion (a scientific/scholarly ‘discussion’ that links the proposed ideas in this paper into the other existing similar research). The manuscript should become acceptable for publication pending suitable major revision in light of the comments appended below.

More specific comments: 
Title, Abstract and Keywords: reflect the content of the paper. 

Page 3, line 105 and 109: “1981, China adopted the principle of restoring ….”. 
“1985, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued the In January 1986 ….” add “in” before 1981. Similarly, in line 109, ‘In’ needs to be added. 
Response: Thanks very much for the guidance of the Reviewer. We followed your advice by adding the preposition in front of the year to ensure grammatical correctness.

Page 13, line 287: “In the mariculture area, with the rapid development of sea use by port industries and traffic channels, the scope of farming waters is shrinking and being finely divided…”. drop an extra period.
Response: Thanks very much for the guidance of the Reviewer. We removed the extra period by following your opinion.

Page 15, line 408: “On this basis, the legal provisions of Articles 11 ……. and interests of fishery producers following the law. ”address the lack of reference and delete the authors’ note.
Response: Thanks very much for the guidance of the Reviewer. The reviewers' comments are of great reference significance. We added a scientific reference. Changed as follows (Reference 17):
“On this basis, the legal provisions of Articles 11 ……. and interests of fishery producers following the law. ”[17].
17.    Chengye Hu,Fei , Hangbin Lin. Thinking on the law enforcement system and development of marine fishery in China[J].Journal of Anhui Agricultural Sciences,2014,42(11):3413-3414+3429.)

Page 15, line 418: “As early as 2015, Chaos Faze, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, ..... ”.  drop an extra period.
Response: Thanks very much for the guidance of the Reviewer. We removed the extra period by following your opinion.

Page 17, line 515: “To promote the comprehensive and coordinated development of fishing areas ...., fishing villages through fishing ports.” address the lack of reference and delete the authors’ note.
Response: Thanks very much for the guidance of the Reviewer. The reviewers' comments are of great reference significance. We added a scientific reference. Changed as follows (Reference 23):
To promote the comprehensive and coordinated development of fishing areas, explore the implementation of the PPP model for the construction of fishing ports, and improve relevant supporting policies to guide the flow of social funds to the construction and management of operational services such as fishing port supplies, ship maintenance, aquatic processing, and product trading, and properly improve the management norms for leisure fisheries, to drive the development of fishing areas and fishing villages through fishing ports [23]
23.Several opinions of the state council on promoting the sustainable and healthy development of marine fishery[J].Agricultural Technology and Equipment,2014(03):4-6.)

Page 17, line 530: “ and the management of foreign crew members' entry and exit in domestic ports should be regulated ...”. drop the second ‘and’. 
Response: Thanks very much for the guidance of the Reviewer. Your suggestion is so effective that we removed the second and to guarantee grammatical correctness.

Page 17, line 537-545: “We will continue to regulate aquaculture and fisheries .... The revision of the Fisheries Law has attracted much attention because it will greatly promote the high-quality development of China's fishery legal system and fishery, as well as the development of China's agricultural industry and economy and China's comprehensive national strength.” last two sentences in the last full paragraph are too long. Break up the sentences.
Response: Thanks very much for the guidance of the Reviewer. The comments from reviewers are of great reference significance, We've condensed these two sentences.
(1) The original text is：We will continue to regulate the farming and fishing industries, restore the water environment, protect the sustainable development of fishery resources, increase law enforcement and supervision, effectively promote the construction of fishing zones, protect the interests of fishermen, and fit in with China's "One Belt, One Road" and "Strong Ocean State" strategies. It is also in line with China's "One Belt, One Road" and "Ocean Power" strategies, and strives to bring fisheries laws into line with international standards. The imminent amendment of the Fisheries Law has attracted much attention, and will certainly greatly promote the development of China's fisheries legal system, the high-quality development of China's fisheries, the development of China's agricultural industry and economy, and the development of China's comprehensive national power.
(2) Here it changes to：We will continue to regulate aquaculture and fisheries, restore the water environment, protect the sustainable development of fishery resources, strengthen law enforcement and supervision, effectively promote the construction of fishing areas, and protect the interests of fishermen. The move is also in line with China's "One Belt, One Road" and "maritime power" strategy, gradually aligning fisheries laws with international standards. The revision of the Fisheries Law has attracted much attention because it will greatly promote the high-quality development of China's fishery legal system and fishery, as well as the development of China's agricultural industry and economy and China's comprehensive national strength.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

see attachment

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Dear Editor:

Thank you for your letter concerning our manuscript entitled “Inheritance and Development: The Evolution and Overview of China's Fisheries Legal System” (fishes: 2016935).Those comments are all valuable and very helpful for revising and improving our paper, as well as the important guiding significance to our researches. We tried our best to improve the manuscript and made some changes in the manuscript. These changes will not influence the content and framework of the paper. And here we did not list all the changes but marked in red in revised paper.

We appreciate for your warm work earnestly, and hope that the correction will meet with approval. Once again, thank you very much for your guidance and help.

Dear Reviewers:

Thank you for your comments concerning our manuscript entitled “Inheritance and Development: The Evolution and Overview of China's Fisheries Legal System” (fishes: 2016935).Those comments are all valuable and very helpful for revising and improving our paper, as well as the important guiding significance to our researches. We have studied comments carefully and have made correction that we hope meet with approval. Revised portion are marked in red in the paper. (Please refer to the revised version for details.) The main corrections in the paper and the responds to the reviewer’s comments are as following. (Please refer to the page number of the revised version of the manuscript without comments.)

Responds to the reviewer 1’ s comments:

General comments

This paper tries to analyze the spatiotemporal evolution of the coordination between the marine environment and marine fishery economy, reveals the characteristics of such coordination, and identifies the factors affecting coordination, in 11 coastal provinces/cities in China as the research object. Taking into account sustainability and environmental uncertainty, it is important to investigate the development of the marine environment and the marine fishery economy to improve the quality of both.

The objective of the manuscript, in general, is interesting being a study at the regional level, especially when it deals with an important country such as China. Although the paper has good objectives and shows some interesting results, it does not have a good structure (i.e., some parts of the results sections are methods or discussion) and lacks any discussion (a scientific/scholarly ‘discussion’ that links the proposed ideas in this paper into the other existing similar research). The manuscript should become acceptable for publication pending suitable major revision in light of the comments appended below.

More specific comments:

Title, Abstract and Keywords: reflect the content of the paper.

Page 3, line 105 and 109: “1981, China adopted the principle of restoring ….”.

“1985, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued the In January 1986 ….” add “in” before 1981. Similarly, in line 109, ‘In’ needs to be added.

Response: Thanks very much for the guidance of the Reviewer. We followed your advice by adding the preposition in front of the year to ensure grammatical correctness.

Page 13, line 287: “In the mariculture area, with the rapid development of sea use by port industries and traffic channels, the scope of farming waters is shrinking and being finely divided…”. drop an extra period.

Response: Thanks very much for the guidance of the Reviewer. We removed the extra period by following your opinion.

Page 15, line 408: “On this basis, the legal provisions of Articles 11 ……. and interests of fishery producers following the law. ”address the lack of reference and delete the authors’ note.

Response: Thanks very much for the guidance of the Reviewer. The reviewers' comments are of great reference significance. We added a scientific reference. Changed as follows (Reference 17):

“On this basis, the legal provisions of Articles 11 ……. and interests of fishery producers following the law. ”[17].

17. Chengye Hu,Fei , Hangbin Lin. Thinking on the law enforcement system and development of marine fishery in China[J].Journal of Anhui Agricultural Sciences,2014,42(11):3413-3414+3429.)

Page 15, line 418: “As early as 2015, Chaos Faze, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, ..... ”.  drop an extra period.

Response: Thanks very much for the guidance of the Reviewer. We removed the extra period by following your opinion.

Page 17, line 515: “To promote the comprehensive and coordinated development of fishing areas ...., fishing villages through fishing ports.” address the lack of reference and delete the authors’ note.

Response: Thanks very much for the guidance of the Reviewer. The reviewers' comments are of great reference significance. We added a scientific reference. Changed as follows (Reference 23):

To promote the comprehensive and coordinated development of fishing areas, explore the implementation of the PPP model for the construction of fishing ports, and improve relevant supporting policies to guide the flow of social funds to the construction and management of operational services such as fishing port supplies, ship maintenance, aquatic processing, and product trading, and properly improve the management norms for leisure fisheries, to drive the development of fishing areas and fishing villages through fishing ports [23]

23.Several opinions of the state council on promoting the sustainable and healthy development of marine fishery[J].Agricultural Technology and Equipment,2014(03):4-6.)

Page 17, line 530: “ and the management of foreign crew members' entry and exit in domestic ports should be regulated ...”. drop the second ‘and’.

Response: Thanks very much for the guidance of the Reviewer. Your suggestion is so effective that we removed the second and to guarantee grammatical correctness.

Page 17, line 537-545: “We will continue to regulate aquaculture and fisheries .... The revision of the Fisheries Law has attracted much attention because it will greatly promote the high-quality development of China's fishery legal system and fishery, as well as the development of China's agricultural industry and economy and China's comprehensive national strength.” last two sentences in the last full paragraph are too long. Break up the sentences.

Response: Thanks very much for the guidance of the Reviewer. The comments from reviewers are of great reference significance, We've condensed these two sentences.

(1) The original text is：We will continue to regulate the farming and fishing industries, restore the water environment, protect the sustainable development of fishery resources, increase law enforcement and supervision, effectively promote the construction of fishing zones, protect the interests of fishermen, and fit in with China's "One Belt, One Road" and "Strong Ocean State" strategies. It is also in line with China's "One Belt, One Road" and "Ocean Power" strategies, and strives to bring fisheries laws into line with international standards. The imminent amendment of the Fisheries Law has attracted much attention, and will certainly greatly promote the development of China's fisheries legal system, the high-quality development of China's fisheries, the development of China's agricultural industry and economy, and the development of China's comprehensive national power.

(2) Here it changes to：We will continue to regulate aquaculture and fisheries, restore the water environment, protect the sustainable development of fishery resources, strengthen law enforcement and supervision, effectively promote the construction of fishing areas, and protect the interests of fishermen. The move is also in line with China's "One Belt, One Road" and "maritime power" strategy, gradually aligning fisheries laws with international standards. The revision of the Fisheries Law has attracted much attention because it will greatly promote the high-quality development of China's fishery legal system and fishery, as well as the development of China's agricultural industry and economy and China's comprehensive national strength.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

By sorting out China's fishery policies, laws and regulations from 1949 to the present, the manuscript hopes to discuss issues in the process of fishery production and development, and provide a practical path for development strategies. However, the lack of literature review and clear research methods makes the research conclusion relatively weak. Some suggestions for manuscripts:

1. Line 130-132 ‘construction of fisheries law enforcement equipment systems and fisheries diesel 131 subsidies have also been strengthened in a focused manner, addressing some of the 132 difficulties in fisheries development.’ Please explain how to solve the difficulties in fisheries development.

2. The background information of the Line 140 manuscript is from 2018 and has not been updated. What is the reason?

3. Line 77, 100, 254, 267, 408, 515, There is an error message "Error...." in the article, and the author failed to confirm the manuscript before submitting the manuscript.

4. Chapter 3 sorts out fishery laws and regulations, but Chapter 4 points out fishery problems directly. I'm not sure how the author can identify fishery problems, or just find out by themselves. This part lacks the basis for discussion. For example, Line283 mentioned that the compensation standard for expropriation is not clear. How to identify the problem and how to suggest improvement? What is the relationship between 3 "Regulations on the Protection of Aquatic Resources Breeding (1979)" in Table 1?

5. What does Line 279 mean exactly? “many difficulties 11.”

6. There are too many descriptions in Chapter 5, all of which are narrative, and do not present practical practices or clear suggested strategies, which greatly reduces the reference value of the manuscript.

7. It’s recommended that the output of the manuscript issue be more informed and discussed with other fisheries rule of law or policy literature.

Author Response

Dear Reviewers:

Thank you for your comments concerning our manuscript entitled “Inheritance and Development: The Evolution and Overview of China's Fisheries Legal System” (fishes: 2016935).  Those comments are all valuable and very helpful for revising and improving our paper, as well as the important guiding significance to our researches. We have studied comments carefully and have made correction that we hope meet with approval. Revised portion are marked in red in the paper. (Please refer to the revised version for details.) The main corrections in the paper and the responds to the reviewers comments are as following. (Please refer to the page number of the revised version of the manuscript without comments.)

Responds to the reviewer 3’ s comments:

General comments

By sorting out China's fishery policies, laws, and regulations from 1949 to the present, the manuscript hopes to discuss issues in the process of fishery production and development and provide a practical path for development strategies. However, the lack of a literature review and clear research methods makes the research conclusion relatively weak. Some suggestions for manuscripts:

More specific comments:

1. Line 130-132 “construction of fisheries law enforcement equipment systems and fisheries diesel 131 subsidies have also been strengthened in a focused manner, addressing some of the 132 difficulties in fisheries development.” Please explain how to solve the difficulties in fisheries development.

Response: Thanks very much for the guidance of the Reviewer. The reviewers' comments are of great reference significance. We further explain the difficulties in fisheries development.

2. The background information of the Line 140 manuscript is from 2018 and has not been updated. What is the reason?

Response: Thanks very much for the guidance of the Reviewer. The reviewers' comments are of great reference significance.  The background information of the Line 140 manuscript has been updated.

3. Line 77, 100, 254, 267, 408, 515, There is an error message "Error." in the article, and the author failed to confirm the manuscript before submitting the manuscript.

Response: Thanks very much for the guidance of the Reviewer. The reviewers' comments are of great reference significance. 3.Line77,100,254,267,408,515:error message has been modified.

4. Chapter 3 sorts out fishery laws and regulations, but Chapter 4 points out fishery problems directly. I'm not sure how the author can identify fishery problems, or just find out by themselves. This part lacks the basis for discussion. For example, Line 283 mentioned that the compensation standard for expropriation is not clear. How to identify the problem and how to suggest an improvement? What is the relationship between 3 "Regulations on the Protection of Aquatic Resources Breeding (1979)" in Table 1?

Response: Thanks very much for the guidance of the Reviewer. The reviewers' comments are of great reference significance. We will further explain the origin of the fisheries problem,line283 mentioned that the compensation standard for expropriation will be further clarified, and the relationship between 3 "Regulations on the Protection of Aquatic Resources Breeding(1979)" in Table 1 has been further elaborated.

5. What does Line 279 mean exactly? “many difficulties 11.”

Response: Thanks very much for the guidance of the Reviewer. The reviewers' comments are of great reference significance. The Line 279 error has been modified.

6. There are too many descriptions in Chapter 5, all of which are narrative, and do not present practical practices or clearly suggested strategies, which greatly reduces the reference value of the manuscript.

Response: Thanks very much for the guidance of the Reviewer. The reviewers' comments are of great reference significance. The narrative description of chapter 5 is reduced.

7. It recommended that the output of the manuscript issue be more informed and discussed with other fisheries rule of law or policy literature.

Response: Thanks very much for the guidance of the Reviewer. The reviewers' comments are of great reference significance. We will try to make the output of the manuscript issue more informed and discuss with other fisheries’ rule of law or policy literature.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 4 Report

Dear Authors,

I put my corrections and suggestions in text.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Dear Reviewers:

Thank you for your comments concerning our manuscript entitled “Inheritance and Development: The Evolution and Overview of China's Fisheries Legal System” (fishes: 2016935). Those comments are all valuable and very helpful for revising and improving our paper, as well as the important guiding significance to our researches. We have studied comments carefully and have made correction that we hope meet with approval. Revised portion are marked in red in the paper. (Please refer to the revised version for details.) The main corrections in the paper and the responds to the reviewer’s comments are as following. (Please refer to the page number of the revised version of the manuscript without comments.)

Responds to the reviewer 4’ s comments:

General comments:

The paper outlines the history of laws and regulations governing fisheries in China. The paper is mostly an itemization of relevant laws and provides little in the way of synthesis or insight. There are also many formatting, spelling, and grammar problems, including missing words and issues with references. There are also at least a few statements that read as political rhetoric and not objective statements expected in a paper appearing in a scientific journal. For example, the period of 1959-1961 is described by saying the country was extremely tight on food’ – there was a famine. The paper needs substantial revision.

Specific comments:

Lines 7-12: no need to repeat affiliations - just referring to '3' for all these authors is good enough.

Response: Thanks very much for the guidance of the Reviewer. The reviewers' comments are of great reference significance. The duplication on lines 7-12 has been removed.

Line 14“China’s fisheries legal system”: this is a complicated string of words - something like 'The legal system governing fisheries in China' might be easier to read.

Response: Thanks very much for the guidance of the Reviewer. The reviewers' comments are of great reference significance. Modified to “The legal system governing fisheries in China.”

Line 14 “perfect: this is a strong statement and is not backed up by any evidence.”  Perfect is a strong statement and is not backed up by any evidence.

Response: Thanks very much for the guidance of the Reviewer. The reviewers' comments are of great reference significance. "perfect" is not very rigorous, this statement has been revised.

Lines 14-17: Lines 14-17: There is a lot of jargon in this statement not to mention members of an international audience will have no idea who Xi Spinning is. Who says studying China's legal system for fisheries is a well-established path? I think you can drop this entire sentence.

Response: Thanks very much for the guidance of the Reviewer. The reviewers' comments are of great reference significance. This whole sentence has been abandoned.

Lines 19-20: I suggest adding some general statements here about the steps taken over time.

Response: Thanks very much for the guidance of the Reviewer. The reviewers' comments are of great reference significance. Add some general statements about the steps taken over time.

Lines 27-41: Are you considering only aquaculture-related 'fisheries? I was expecting to read about fisheries in natural water bodies not associated with farming.

Response: Thanks very much for the guidance of the Reviewer. The reviewers' comments are of great reference significance. In China, fishery mainly refers to the aquaculture-related "fishery", which is closely related to agriculture, fisheries in natural water-bodies not associated with farming are natural fishing in China and are subject to many policy restrictions, so it is not mentioned too much.

Lines 28-29:  Are fisheries agriculture?

Response: Thanks very much for the guidance of the Reviewer. The reviewers' comments are of great reference significance. Fisheries and agriculture are not the same, fisheries and agriculture are only closely related in some areas.

Line 33: what are modern fisheries?

Response: Thanks very much for the guidance of the Reviewer. The reviewers' comments are of great reference significance. We have removed this part.

Lines 33-35: These are qualitative and unclear statements - I’m not sure what a gradually improving rule of law is.

Response: Thanks very much for the guidance of the Reviewer. The reviewers' comments are of great reference significance. Everything is changing, full of certainty and uncertainty. The rule of law is also a process. As time goes by, the rule of law also needs to make progress through continuous improvement.

Lines 38-41: Ok, so why did you write this paper? Is your intention to describe in detail what the problems were and what was done to resolve them? I don't understand the purpose of your paper.

Response: Thanks very much for the guidance of the Reviewer. The reviewers' comments are of great reference significance. Laws and regulations related to fisheries are listed in this paper. We wrote about relevant regulations on fisheries does not mean it is narrative, not practical. During the development of China, we established a list of laws and regulations on fisheries and what we generate to illustrate our research in Law in this period. These show our Chinese characteristic and I think this characteristic is also what the world wants to know about China. This is our purpose.

Line 42: And what about anything before 1949?

Response: Thanks very much for the guidance of the Reviewer. The reviewers' comments are of great reference significance. Before 1949, China was still experiencing war, and the People's Republic of China was not established, almost all industries stagnated because of the war, and fishing was no exception.

Line 44: Not just time though right? Hasn't each phase arguably been informed by specific or general things from the previous phases?

Response: Thanks very much for the guidance of the Reviewer. The reviewers' comments are of great reference significance. Added a more detailed description beyond time.

Line 48: Typo

Response: The typo has been modified. Thanks very much for the guidance of the Reviewer. The reviewers' comments are of great reference significance.

Lines 52-56: Duplicated text.

Response: Thanks very much for the guidance of the Reviewer. The reviewers' comments are of great reference significance. duplicated text has been modified.

Line 61: Fix referencing.

Response: Thanks very much for the guidance of the Reviewer. The reviewers' comments are of great reference significance. The reference has already been fixed.

Lines 61-68: Ok, so why did they do this?

Lines 68-70: This conclusion is not supported by the use of the word 'development'.

Response: Thanks very much for the guidance of the Reviewer. The reviewers' comments are of great reference significance. "Development" has been modified.

Line 78: Referencing error.

Response: Thanks very much for the guidance of the Reviewer. The reviewers' comments are of great reference significance. Reference error has been modified.

Line 86: There was a famine.

Response: Thanks very much for the guidance of the Reviewer. The reviewers' comments are of great reference significance. Has been changed to a famine.

Lines 87-93: And what were the practical implications of this?

Response: Thanks very much for the guidance of the Reviewer. The reviewers' comments are of great reference significance. Increase the process integrity.

Line 97: Typo.

Response: Thanks very much for the guidance of the Reviewer. The reviewers' comments are of great reference significance. The typo has been modified.

Line 109: Typo.

Response: Thanks very much for the guidance of the Reviewer. The reviewers' comments are of great reference significance. The typo has been modified.

Lines 115-118: You need to either list some more concrete examples of this development or you need to tell the reader that this will be further explained below. I suggest listing the examples here.

Response: Thanks very much for the guidance of the Reviewer. The reviewers' comments are of great reference significance. This is further explained below.

Line 119: Typo.

Response: Thanks very much for the guidance of the Reviewer. The reviewers' comments are of great reference significance. The typo has been modified.

Line 136: When was the 18th party congress?

Response: Thanks very much for the guidance of the Reviewer. The reviewers' comments are of great reference significance. The 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (the 18th CPC National Congress) was held in Beijing on November 8, 2012.

Lines 140-144: I suggest including data from more than a single year to allow the reader to establish for themselves the historical patterns.

Response: Thanks very much for the guidance of the Reviewer. The reviewers' comments are of great reference significance. Data has been added for more than one year.

Lines 151-156: The transition into this material is very abrupt. You may be missing a new header.

Response: Thanks very much for the guidance of the Reviewer. The reviewers' comments are of great reference significance. New titles have been added.

Lines 157-240: I don't think this level of legal scholarship is necessary for the paper - if anything this can be moved to supplemental information unless this is a uniquely Chinese approach - if it is, then that needs to be said more plainly.

Response: Thanks very much for the guidance of the Reviewer. The reviewers' comments are of great reference significance. This section has been moved to supplementary material.

Line 255: This table is not referenced in the text. If the details are not necessarily relevant or are just listed in this table (and not specifically discussed in the text) then I suggest moving it to the supplemental information. Alternatively, finding a more condensed way to present this information (and discussing it specifically in the text) is

another option.

Response: Thanks very much for the guidance of the Reviewer. The reviewers' comments are of great reference significance. This section has been moved to supplementary material.

Lines 271-272: I have no idea what this means - too jargony

Response: Thanks very much for the guidance of the Reviewer. The reviewers' comments are of great reference significance. This word has been deleted.

Lines 307-308: I think you can be clearer in stating that there are other activities governed by other laws which can affect fisheries.

Response: Thanks very much for the guidance of the Reviewer. The reviewers' comments are of great reference significance. Other activities affecting the fisheries have been added.

Lines 310-319: Eutrophication can be a problem, but milder nutrient enrichment can also increase productivity. It'd probably be a hard equation to balance, but it's not impossible.

Response: Thanks very much for the guidance of the Reviewer. The reviewers' comments are of great reference significance. Approve of milder nutrient enrichment can also increase productivity, And it has been modified.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

The paper still needs substantial revision. It does not flow well. Some of the changes made in response to reviewer comments may have been hasty as well. For example, lines 15-17 still refer to studying China's fisheries system as an 'effective path'. An effective path for what? I also did not see any definition of fisheries - are you including fish farming in this? Or are you referring only to fish farming in the entire paper?

Additionally, responses to other comments were taken too literally. The date of the 18th party congress needs to be in this manuscript.

My final example comment suggesting the paper needs to be substantially revised is about the details provided in the response to comment 28 (using the comment bubble tracking number in the paper). Did these make it into the new version of the paper? This sort of nuance is important to include in a peer-reviewed paper since this sort of information is often very relevant, but is often hard to find in the literature.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

1. L522 PPP model suggests that the full name can be added.

2. Whether L526 currently has relevant leisure fishery management regulations, it is suggested that the author can add it.

3. The output of the revised version of the manuscript needs to be more grounded. At the same time, the manuscript lacks discussion with other literature on the rule of law or policy of fisheries. It is suggested that it can be improved and the discussion of the manuscript can be strengthened.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf