Cartilaginous fish · Rajiformes · Rajidae
Blue Skate
Dipturus batis
It faces an extremely high risk of imminent extinction in the wild. See full glossary
The blue skate is the largest skate in the north-eastern Atlantic: it can exceed two metres eighty in length. It was abundant throughout the North Sea and the European Atlantic and today has disappeared from most of its historical range. It is the classic case study of a common species driven to the brink of extinction by fishing.
Weight
20 kg – 100 kg
Size
1 m – 2.9 m
Lifespan
50 years
Diet
Carnivore
Feeds mainly on other animals.
Activity
Nocturnal
Active mainly at night.
Social structure
Solitary
Lives and hunts alone, joining others only to breed.
Sighting difficulty
Very hard
Fun facts
- It is the textbook case of a common species driven locally extinct by fishing: it was extremely abundant in the North Sea and the Irish Sea at the start of the twentieth century and today has disappeared from practically all of that area.
- Its size condemned it: being the largest skate, it was retained in the nets from a very young age, long before reaching maturity at eleven, so the population stopped reproducing.
- What was known as a single species turned out to be two, separated in 2010, which complicated the assessment of its status and revealed that both were worse off than had been thought.
Life cycle & biology
- Skeleton type
- Vertebrate - cartilaginous skeleton (fish)
- Habitat & environment
- Shelf and slope bottoms of the north-eastern Atlantic, between 100 and 600 metres
- Sexual maturity
- 11 years
- Gestation / incubation
- 5 months of egg incubation
- Litter / clutch size
- 40
Sources consulted: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dipturus_batis
Where to find it
See its range on the interactive mapRelated species
Other species in the catalogue with the most in common with Blue Skate — same habitat, park, country, tags or family.
Thornback Ray
Raja clavata
Critically EndangeredAngelshark
Squatina squatina
Eagle Ray
Myliobatis aquila
Sturgeon
Acipenser sturio
Critically EndangeredEuropean Eel
Anguilla anguilla
Tope
Galeorhinus galeus
How to help
The blue skate is classified as critically endangered. Organizations such as UICN, WWF y Wildlife Conservation Society work specifically on its conservation and that of its habitat; looking into their programs is a good starting point if you want to get involved.
Keep exploring
Based on what we already know about blue skate.
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