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Dieren en planten

Fish   Rays   Skate   Starry ray   Spotted ray   Fish biology   Fish communities   Reproduction of fish   Marine fauna   Sea fish   

Mens en Milieu

Water   Seawater   Fisheries   Fisheries, in general   Nature policy   Red Lists   
  • Dut: Vleet (Scate, Vloot)
  • Lat: Dipturus batis, (Raja batis)
  • Eng: Skate
  • Ger: Glattrochen
  • Dan: Skade
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Skate, Ecomare

Skate

The skate is the largest ray species found in the North Sea. It can grow to three meters long with a wing span 1.6 meters wide, weigh 100 kilogram and age to 20 years. Skates are benthic fish, living off of crustaceans, fish and cuttlefish. The skate used to be common in the North Sea. Skate is only sexually mature at age twelve and therefore very sensitive to overfishing.

  • Reproduction

    Skates lay eggs: after internal fertilization, the eggs are laid and develop further outside of the mother ray. The eggs are laid in the months between February and August. Afterwards, it takes 2 to 5 months for the eggs to ripen (depending on the water temperature). When they hatch, the young skates are 20 centimeters long. They have large spines behind their eyes and a few rows of spines on the tail.
    The empty skate egg capsules could regularly found on Dutch beaches up till 1970; they have since become rare. They are around 8 by 15 centimeters large and have short, pointy protrusions on all four corners. The capsules have no membrane along the sides, but they do have filaments that run in length over the capsule. They therefore take on a striped appearance. Freshly laid skate egg capsules are yellowish or greenish; later on, they turn dark brown.

  • The skate as consumption fish

    The skate was the most important ray species for the commercial fisheries. The meat of the side wings and the tail were sold fresh and smoked, and were known as delicacies. Skate was caught a lot in the northern parts of the North Sea and the waters around Ireland, particularly in the autumn and winter. The skate was common in the whole North Sea around 1900, but has since diminished drastically, presumably from overfishing. In the Irish Sea, the skate has just about disappeared. Because it takes so many years before a young skate can reproduce, there is a great chance the animal is caught before he or she has had the chance to reproduce.

  • Catch reports

    In October 2004, a skate 1.5 meters long and a wing span of 2 meters was caught north of Vlieland. The male animal weighed 48 kilogram and was at least fifteen years old. In January 2000, the SL3 caught a skate of 55 kilogram and around two meters long in the vicinity of Smith's Knoll (by Yarmouth). In August 1996, a kilogram, 1.80-meter long skate was brought to the auction at Urk. This skate was caught by the WK 96 in the vicinity of Scotland.
    If skates are caught by nets, then it is usually around Scotland. In 2002, skates were fished with a rod in the Firth of Mull in Scotland as part of a study to mark the fish. Eleven large skates were caught within two days, varying form 33 to 77 kilogram. Three specimen had already been marked, two of which were marked in 1997 close to the same area. One of these specimen weighed 11.3 kilogram in 1997 and almost 40 kilogram in 2002.

  • Distribution of the skate
    Distribution of skates., Ecomare