Drone-Based Tracking of the Fine-Scale Movement of a Coastal Stingray (Bathytoshia brevicaudata)

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The present manuscript “Drone-based tracking of the fine-scale movement of a coastal stingray (Bathytoshia brevicaudata)” represents an interesting contribution in their field. Work is easy to read and presented in a correct form. The main findings and conclusions are clearly separated from the speculative interpretations.

I found the title correct and informative

Abstract was easy to read and contain a clear structure

The introduction contain the main aspects of the work but in my opinion it is to extensive. I found the Paragraphs related to movement and Sting ray behaviour redundant in some aspects (Line 65-113). Authors was made a great effort in this aspect but as a reader I would be grateful if you would take time to resume and erase redundant information. This is not a mandatory.

Materials and methods

As a first work using drones to study movement behaviour in sea life. I found the methodology really explicative and easy to follow. I would to congratulate the authors of the figures and explanation about calibration and decision making within the sampling protocols.

i.e.  The tortuosity data in previous works, specially using scuba divers , were strongly biases. Present MS represents a great advance in this field.

Results

Results were well presented. To my knowledge  the title of subcases using “Impact of…” is appropriate in front of a disruption or a change. In the present work I would  found more suitable terms as “Effect of…” or “Influence of…”. Generally talking about variables more than a perturbation.

Discussion and Conclusions were well conducted.

Congratulation to the authors

Author Response

Thank you very much for you warm and encouraging feedback. Your suggestions were also very helpful in improving the manuscript and appropriate changes were made accordingly, outlined below. We greatly appreciate your time and consideration in reviewing this research.

Reviewer 2 Report

The manuscript deals with a Drone-based tracking of the fine-scale movement of the species Bathytoshia brevicaudata (coastal stungray), and examinines the species movement in relation to a few environmental parameters (tide, time of day). It tries also to examine the impacts of body size characteristics on its movements.

Authos report that their data analysis indicates that the fine-scale movement behaviour of rays can be driven by specific factors such as time of day, and the size of the ray.

However, the research, under the current framework, is not adequate to help in understanding species life and its ecological dynamics. Also, human activities may have an interaction with the examined natural variables.

I would suggest authors to revise their paper in order to include an ecological explanation of the data collected and their findings. This could result in useful conclusions for developing management strategies.

Accordingly, authors should consider some important ecological data for the studied species, eg. eating habits, daily life cycle, predator avoidance strategies, human disturbances in the studied area, and try to connect the species routes with these data, at least in the discussion.

Author Response

Thank you for your time and consideration while reviewing our research, as well as your insightful comments. We have responded to your primary comment regarding the inclusion of "an ecological explanation of the data collected and their findings" by including an additional paragraph at the bottom of the discussion detailing the species specific and site specific considerations which may influence the movements of the rays.