PONE-D-19-17373

Characterization of sound scattering layers in the Bay of Biscay using broadband acoustics, nets and video

PLOS ONE

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A. Blanluet doctoral grant was co-funded by the Conseil R ́egional des Pays de la Loire and IFREMER.

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Reviewers' comments:

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Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: N/A

Reviewer #2: Yes

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: First of all, for question 3 above I found some 2013 PELGAS data (475 MB) at

DORAY Mathieu, DUHAMEL Erwan, HURET Martin, PETITGAS Pierre, MASSE Jacques (2000) PELGAS, https://doi.org/10.18142/18,

but I never located the 2016 data analyzed in this paper.

I feel that the paper is publishable. It compares broadband acoustic backscatter data collected from a ship with expectations based on net sampling and forward modeling of scattering strength. The comparison shows some discrepancies between the two that illustrate the challenges of both types of sampling. The acoustic data show some informative patterns.

First of all, the paper cites important and needed scientific work in the area. The net collection and forward modeling is explained. I have only a few other comments on the paper, mostly minor.

There is a font problem with greater than and/or less than symbols, as at line 11, line 163, line 341, line 367, maybe other places.

The sentence at line 15 could be changed to begin 'Uncertainty of the species composition in the SSL's ...

The resonance discussion (line 39) should mention that there is a frequency of energetic response related to the vibrational characteristics of the scatterer, the resonant frequency. The term 'given frequency' doesn't really convey any useful information. Also resonance is not restricted to gaseous inclusions.

Line 104: Do you mean fluorometer?

Page 7: I could not find what EI means.

page 11: I could not determine the reason for making Sv standardized. Is this a function of frequency? If Sv(f) is from calibrated systems, what is the reason for adding on the quantity that is an average over the transducers? (N=6 transducers, correct?)

The language of the sentence at line 364 needs repair. I don't understand the statement. This is true at line 414 also, in S1 Appendix.

Reviewer #2: This is one of a few high quality manuscripts I have reviewed over decades of my professional career. The field experiment was carefully designed and the co-registered acoustic, biological, optical, and oceanographic data were collected properly. Analysis of collected data including the scattering modeling and uncertainty assessment is scientifically sound and very objective. I recommend it be published with some minor revisions suggested in the attached file.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes: Dezhang Chu

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Attachments

Attachment

Submitted filename: PONE-D-19-17373 - Review Comments.pdf

Characterization of sound scattering layers in the Bay of Biscay using broadband acoustics, nets and video

PONE-D-19-17373R1

Dear Dr. Blanluet,

We are pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it complies with all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you will receive an e-mail containing information on the amendments required prior to publication. When all required modifications have been addressed, you will receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will proceed to our production department and be scheduled for publication.

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With kind regards,

Stavros Ntalampiras

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #1: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: The small improvements needed in the paper have been done. There are a few places where the language is troublesome and the meaning is not absolutely clear (e.g lines 16-18) but this does not stand in the way of the science.

Reviewer #2: The figures are all in low-resolution format and may be they are only for the review purpose. If the final pdf will have full resolution, I'll satisfied with this revised manuscript and recommend its acceptance.

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes: Dezhang Chu