FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



61 



poorest 82. Again, on a trip to the northeastern 

 part of the bank, September 1929, on the otter 

 trawler Kingfisher, 37 hauls yielded from to 105 

 skates per haul (total 495) and 42 trawl hauls by 

 the Eugene H, fishing from Nantucket Lightship 

 to the south-central part of Georges Bank in late 

 June 1951 caught an average of 146 skates per 

 haul (total, 6,130 skates), which works out at 

 about 9 to 10 skates per acre. 61 Probably they 

 are equally abundant on Browns Bank; certainly 

 they are familiar enough there, but statistics are 

 not available of the actual numbers caught. 

 Skates are also plentiful inshore as appears from 

 catches of about 1 skate to 33 fishes of all kinds 

 on long lines, at various localities in the Gulf of 

 Maine. 62 



In the Gulf of Maine, skates are only a nuisance 

 for they bite the hook readily and often are caught 

 in great numbers in otter trawls, most of them to 

 be thrown back into the sea, the market demand 

 for them being so small that the total landings 

 reported for New England (Massachusetts and 

 Maine) in 1947 was only 28,200 pounds; and 

 59,100 pounds for 1948. But some are now being 

 landed in Maine for fish meal. 63 They are much 

 more highly valued in northwesternEurope for food 

 with landings for the years just preceding World 

 War II, running around 90 to 100 million pounds. 



Barn-door skate Raja laevis Mitchill 1817 



Bigelow and Schroeder, 1953, p. 217. 

 Garman, 1913, pi. 22, fig. 2, as R. stabuliforis. 



Description.- — The barn-door skate is easily 

 identified by its large size, its very pointed snout, 

 and its smooth skin. The thorns along the mid- 

 line of its back are comparatively small and run 

 only from the hinder part of the disc back along 

 the tail ; the tail also has one or two rows of large, 

 sharp spines (smaller on males than on females) 

 along each side, besides the median row. There 

 are small thorns on the snout also, sometimes 

 below as well as above, and along the front edges 

 of the pectoral fins. The male has a patch of 

 erectile hooks on the outer part of each pectoral 

 covering an area measuring 5 by 1% inches on one 

 side, and 4% by 1% inches on the other in a speci- 



11 Three mile hauls with the trawl sweeping a strip about 35 feet wide. 



•' Examples are: 15 miles off Monhegan I., Maine, June 24-25, 1913, total 

 fish caught, 5,463; skates 170. Twenty miles east of Cape Cod, Nov. 11, 1913; 

 total fish caught 6,532, skates 202. Jeffreys Ledge, Dec. 11-12, 1913; total 

 fish caught 3,996, skates 62. 



B Scattergood, Copeia, 1950, p. 169. 



men 52 inches long; otherwise the pectorals are 

 smooth for the most part. The front angle of the 

 disc is sharper than in our other skates, being 

 more acute than a right angle, but the tip of the 

 snout is blunt. The outer corners of the pectorals 

 are angular and the disc as a whole is diamond or 

 lozenge-shaped. The two dorsal fins are separated 

 by a short interspace, with one or more spines, 

 and the tip of the tail extends farther beyond the 

 second dorsal fin than it does in most skates. 

 The teeth of the female are flat and pavement- 

 like, but those of adult males are provided with 

 sharp slender cusps. Thirty to forty series of 

 teeth have been counted in the upper jaw, 28 to 

 38 series in the lower jaw. 



Color. — The barn-door skate like so many sea 

 fish, varies in color. The upper surface is brown 

 (as a rule usually of a distinctly reddish hue), 

 variously marked with small scattered darker 

 spots or blotches of varying size, and often with 

 pale marblings or waterings; usually there is a 

 large oval spot on the base of each pectoral fin, in 

 line with the outer angle. The lower surface is 

 not as uniformly pale as it is in most skates, 

 its gray or white ground being shaded with darker 

 toward the snout, and speckled on one-third grown 

 specimens and larger, with black or dusky dots 

 or short streaks that mark the mucous pores, 

 a conspicuous feature. 



Size. — The barn-door skate is our largest, 

 growing to a length of 5 feet; it has been said to 

 reach 6 feet though there is no definite record of 

 one that large. One of 58 inches was 42 inches 

 wide with a tail 27 inches long, and a female of 

 50 inches, taken by us, was 33% inches wide, with 

 a 22-inch tail. Barn-door skates weigh about 4 

 to 6 pounds when 28 to 30 inches long, about 10 

 to 11 pounds at 36 inches, and about 19 to 21 

 pounds at 45 to 46 inches. Very small specimens 

 are seldom taken. 



Habits.- — Barn-door skates are bottom fish. 

 They prefer smooth to rocky ground, and we 

 have caught them on very soft mud bottoms as 

 well as on sand and gravel. The fact that the 

 lower surface is more or less pigmented instead 

 of white suggests that it hugs the bottom less 

 closely than other skates, and it is a strong, 

 active swimmer, as anyone will agree, who has 

 landed a large one on a hand-line. Its usual depth 

 range is from close to the tide line, down to about 

 100 fathoms. It is perhaps more plentiful at 25 



