Richardson’s skate

7/11/2016

Richardson’s skate doesn’t mean a Richardson owns all of these skates… in fact, Melissa couldn’t find out why they were called “Richardson’s skate.” Bathyraja richardsoni are diamond-shaped with small eyes and covered in fine denticles (dorsal thorns are lacking).

Why Richardson’s would want to own all of these skates when there are prettier skates out there and these are just plain dark grey-brown in color. Their mouth, nasal passages and inner gill slits are white.

They are found in the deep ocean basins of the North Atlantic and off the southern bit of Tasmania. They are what you call benthopelagic (around 865-2,377 meters), and found in the Hikurangi Trough and Chatham Rise to Campbell Plateau. Usually, though, they are below 1,100 meters up to 2,990 meters.

Their IUCN assessment is currently Least Concern (LC).

ever heard of this skate?

glossary

Continental shelf: Extends from a continent underwater, resulting in a shallow-water area.
Continental slope: The steep slope from a continental shelf to the ocean floor; usually around 20 km (12.4 miles) wide and made up of mud and silt substrate. It is an ideal area for deepsea fishing.
Dorsal fin: Fin located on the back.
Endemic: Native to a specific region or environment and not occurring naturally anywhere else.
IUCN: International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Monotypic: Where a genus only has a single species.
Trawl fisheries: Fisheries that pull a fishing net through the water behind one or more boats.