64 



FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



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Figure 26. — Big skate (Raja ocellala), male, about 36 inches long. From Jordan and Evermann. Drawing by H. L. 



Todd. 



close to it. And we have seen two large speci- 

 mens from Georges Bank with several of these 

 eye spots on each side of the disk. There is a 

 translucent or white area on each side of the 

 snout in front of the eyes and the lower surface 

 is white. 



The eye spots, if present, serve to identify 

 this skate at a glance; sometimes, however, they 

 are lacking, in which case half-grown specimens 

 so closely resemble the little skate that recourse 

 must be had to the number of teeth to tell the 

 one from the other. 



Size. — This skate does not mature until at 

 least 25 to 26 inches long, and grows to about 

 3% feet in length, commoidy from 30 to 34 inches. 

 Specimens 32 inches in length are about 20 inches 

 wide. 



Habits. — Big skates feed on the same diet as 

 little skates do (p. 69). Rock crabs and squid 

 are favorite prey, but they also take annelid 

 worms, amphipods, shrimps, and razor clams, and 

 they eat whatever small fish are readily available, 

 the list at Woods Hole including smaller skates, 

 eels, herring, alewives, bluebacks, menhaden, 

 smelt, launce, cbub mackerel, butterfish, cunners, 

 sculpins, silver hake, tomcod, and hake. 96 



u From Vina] Edwards' and Linton's notes. 



It is caught right up to the wharves in the 

 Gulf of St. Lawrence; often comes into very shoal 

 water on sandy beaches, and we once caught an 

 adult male in September in only 2 or 3 feet of 

 water in Nauset Marsh on the outer coast of 

 Cape Cod, but few are found shoaler in our Gulf 

 than 2 to 4 fathoms. They are much more plenti- 

 ful at 25 to 35 fathoms than deeper, on the 

 offshore grounds, as appears from average catches, 

 of 48 per haul at 26 to 35 fathoms, but only 11 

 per haul at 36 to 49 fathoms, and none at 50 to 75 

 fathoms, in 42 trawl hauls by the Eugene H, fishing 

 from Nantucket Lightship to the south-central 

 part of Georges Bank in late June 1951, and very 

 few are caught deeper than about 50 fathoms 

 anywhere. 



In our Gulf they inhabit about the same range 

 of temperature as the little skate does, i. e., 

 from 68° or so, for those along the Massachusetts 

 coast in summer, down to 34-36° in the coastal 

 belt as a whole in winter, and to near 32° in the 

 Bay of Fundy region, at least in some years. 

 In the southern side of the Gulf of St. Lawrence 

 they are found in the icy bottom water on the 

 banks as well as shoaler, where temperatures rise 

 to 61° (16° C.) or more in summer. Those living 

 the shoalest in the southern part of their range 



