Starry Skate (Amblyraja radiata)

Starry skate, also known as 'thorny skate', are a highly abundant species in the North Sea – and one of the healthiest skate populations remaining (Scottish Government, 2011). It has a huge global range, spreading from Russia to the USA (Fig. 1).

In the Northeast Atlantic, starry skates (Fig. 2) are under little threat from fisheries. They are small and spiny, thus are both less likely to be caught in nets and less desirable as a foodstuff (Shark Trust, 2020). They are caught as food in the Northwest Atlantic, perhaps explaining the variation between their global ‘Vulnerable’ classification (IUCN, 2020), and their European ‘Least Concern’ classification (Shark Trust, 2020). Despite their North Atlantic population stability, Kulka et al (2020) claim that in the last 30-50 years the starry skate population has decreased by 30–49% as a result of fishing pressures and climate change habitat alterations.