Essential Fish Habitat Source Document: Thorny Skate, Amblyraja radiata, Life History and Habitat Characteristics

摘要

The thorny skate Amblyraja radiata (Donovan 1808), formerly Raja radiata, occurs on both side of the Atlantic. In the western North Atlantic, it ranges from western Greenland, Davis straits, Hudson straits, Hudson Bay and Labrador to South Carolina. In the eastern North Atlantic, it ranges from Iceland, eastern Greenland, Barents Sea and off the coast of Spitzbergen to the English Channel and the southwestern coasts of Ireland and England. Bigelow and Schroeder also reported that in the east it extends from the White Sea and Barents Sea to the North Sea, Dutch coast, and western part of Baltic. In the eastern South Atlantic it is found off South Africa. Thorny skate is one of the most abundant skates encountered in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, off northeastern and southeastern Nova Scotia, and in the Gulf of Main. This paper will focus mostly on the life history and habitat characteristics of thorny skate in the western Atlantic, especially in United States waters.