Thorny skate

Amblyraja radiate

Thorny skate is a groundfish. As the first regional fishery body to manage an elasmobranch species (sharks, rays, and skates), NAFO has started to regulate skates in 3LNO under a 3-year plan.
 

*The following  information is a stock assessment provided by the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization: www.nafo.ca/fisheries/frames/fishery.html

Fishery Status 2009: Total Allowable Catch = 13,500 metric tons for Division 3LNO stock.

Recent Assessment (2008): Studies on skates suggest a single stock within Division 3LNOPs. Although the state of the stock is unclear, the biomass has been stable from 1996 to 2005. The NAFO Scientific Council advised that catches in 2009 and 2010 should not exceed 6 000 metric tons in Division 3LNOPs (the average of catches in the past 3 years). Commercial catches of skates comprise a mixture of skate species, however, thorny skate represents about 95% of the skates taken in the catches.
The next assessment will take place in 2010.

Comments: While the biomass has remained relatively constant since the mid-1990s, the spatial dynamics have not. The density of skate continued to increase within the area on the southwest Grand Bank where >80% of the biomass has concentrated in recent years.
The life history characteristics of thorny skate result in low intrinsic rates of increase and are thought to lead to low resilience to fishing mortality.