Big Skate

Fascinating facts about the Big Skate

• At up to 2.4 m (7.9 ft) long and 91 kg (201 lb), this species usually does not exceed 1.8 m (5.9 ft).
• A single "mermaid's purse" from this species can hold up to seven embryos, most often three or four, inside a capsule that measures 23–31 cm long and 11–19 cm wide.
• Although reports place it as deep as 800 m (2,600 ft), big skates are usually found shallower than 120 m (390 ft), preferring sandy or muddy bottoms on the continental shelf.
• In Alaska, big skates live up to 15 years, but off British Columbia they can reach 26 years, with females maturing at 12–13 years and 1.3–1.4 m long, while males mature earlier at 7–8 years and 0.9–1.1 m.
• During the 1990s, skate wings fetched US$0.40-$1.00 per pound, sparking a ten-fold rise in catches off California and prompting a dedicated fishery in the Gulf of Alaska by 2003.

At a glance

About the Big Skate

The big skate (Beringraja binoculata) glides across the Pacific seafloor with a diamond-shaped disc that is slightly wider than it is long, a long pointed snout, and two striking dark eyespots edged in pale on each wing. Adults grow up to 2.4 m (7.9 ft) and 91 kg (201 lb), their backs mottled brown to gray with rosettes of tiny white spots, while the ventral side remains a clean white. Juveniles are smooth-skinned; adults acquire a scatter of small prickles and a few thorns along the midline of the tail and back, sometimes a solitary thorn above each eye. Their modest eyes sit just ahead of large spiracles, and a semi-transparent snout hints at the delicate anatomy beneath. In the chilly waters from the eastern Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands down to Cedros Island off central Baja California, the big skate favors sandy or muddy bottoms of coastal bays, estuaries, and the continental shelf, rarely venturing deeper than 120 m (390 ft). They often bury themselves, leaving only their eyes exposed, and feed on polychaete worms, molluscs, crustaceans, and small benthic fish, young skates relying slightly more on worms and molluscs. A surprising trait sets them apart: their egg capsules, the largest of any skate, can hold up to seven embryos, each pouch measuring 23–31 cm long and 11–19 cm wide, and are deposited year-round in pairs on soft flats, where the young hatch after nine months at about 20 cm in length.

More fish to discover

Browse Feravox