Starry skate - Amblyraja radiata

Also known as the Thorny Skate, this species is highly abundant in the North Sea – one of the healthiest skate populations remaining (Scottish Government, 2011). Its global range is massive (fig. 1), spreading from Russia to the USA

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.