Description: A giant skate with a broad-based, abruptly narrow-tipped snout covered with small, sharp thorns; pectoral disc angular, and no thorns on nape or back, but three rows of large thorns on tail. Larger immature and adult individuals grey with numerous small white spots above, underside white with no black pores; hatchlings plain reddish-brown above, often with blue spots, and white below with broad dusky grey margins on disc.
Global Distribution: Eastern Atlantic from Ireland and England to South Africa and around to central Mozambique. Also in the western Mediterranean. View Map
BIOLOGICAL FEATURES
Size: Maximum length: male 230 cm (total length); female 202.0 cm (TL).
Reproduction: Distinct pairing with embrace. Oviparous. Eggs are oblong capsules with stiff pointed horns at the corners deposited in sandy or muddy flats. Egg capsules are 12.5-18.3 cm long and 10.0-13.9 cm wide. About 55-156 eggs are produced per female annually.
Maturity:
Behavioural ecology: Young may tend to follow large objects, such as their mother.
Population structure & migrations:
ECOLOGICAL FEATURES
Depth range: FishBase: 30 - 600 m, usually 50 - 500 m.
Habitat: Demersal. Inhabit shelf and slope waters. Found on sand and rock-sand bottom.
Feeding habits: A bottom-predator of bony fishes, other elasmobranchs, fish offal, crabs, shrimps, mysids, octopi, and cuttlefish.
Trophic level: FishBase: 4.4
FISHERIES
Commercial interest: Minor commercial species. Commercially it is not distinguished from other skates of the family Rajidae.
Gibson C., Valenti S.V., Fordham S.V., Fowler S.L. (2008). The Conservation of Northeast Atlantic Chondrichthyans: Repost of the IUCN Shark Specialist Group Northeast Atlantic Red List Workshop. IUCN Species Survival Commission Shark Specialist Groups, NatureBureau, Newbury, UK, 76 pp.
IUCN (2014). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2014.1. www.iucnredlist.org
Nieto A., Ralph G.M., Comeros-Raynal M.T., Kemp J., GarcÃa Criado M., Allen D.J., Dulvy N.K., Walls R.H.L., Russell B., Pollard D., GarcÃa S., Craig M., Collette B.B., Pollom R., Biscoito M., Labbish Chao N., Abella A., Afonso P., Ãlvarez H., Carpenter K.E., Clò S., Cook R., Costa M.J., Delgado J., Dureuil M., Ellis J.R., Farrell E.D., Fernandes P., Florin A-B., Fordham S., Fowle, S., Gil de Sola L., Gil Herrera J., Goodpaster A., Harvey M., Heessen H., Herler J., Jung A., Karmovskaya E., Keskin C., Knudsen S.W., Kobyliansky S., KovaÄić M., Lawson J.M., Lorance P., McCully Phillips S., Munroe T., Nedreaas K., Nielsen J., Papaconstantinou C., Polidoro B., Pollock C.M., Rijnsdorp A.D., Sayer C., Scott J., Serena F., Smith-Vaniz W.F., Soldo A., Stump E., Williams J.T. (2015). Europen Red List of Marine Fishes. IUCN and European Union, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 90 pp.
