Arctic skate
Arctic skate ( Amblyraja hyperborea )
The Arctic skate ( Amblyraja hyperborea ) is a cartilaginous fish belonging to the family Skates and rays ( Rajidae ). It occurs mainly in Arctic waters and adjacent marine areas, but was also registered in the warmer parts of the Atlantic and the Pacific and the Indian Ocean.
Description
The species is characterized by a relatively short tail and a pointed snout. The top is brown -gray to blue-gray and the underside is usually brighter, with darker spots. For single copies outweigh the dark areas. The maximum length is 106 centimeters.
Dissemination
The main distribution area extends in the Atlantic Ocean from the Shetland Islands, Faroe Islands, Iceland and the Davis Strait between Greenland and Canada, North Greenland and Svalbard and the Barents Sea. Individuals have also been discovered in the southern Atlantic Ocean at the southern tip of Africa. Other deposits are found in the southeastern Indian Ocean near Australia and the Pacific to New Zealand. Even in warm ocean areas in Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and Ecuador specimens were caught.
Behavior
The Arctic holds skates usually on the ground, and preferably soft seabed on the continental shelf. An undersea slopes of the species was registered at depths of 140-2500 m, especially 300-1500 m. The water temperature can fall in these areas to -1 ° C. With the exception of the Central American population, the nature rarely holds up in areas that are warmer than 4 ° C. The food consists mostly of bony fish, as well as other residents of the seabed.
Females lay eggs but there is a pairing at the male embraces the female. The egg capsules that can contain several eggs are 8-13 cm long and 5-8 cm wide. You have hard spines at each end and are stored on sandy or muddy bottoms. Fertilization and egg laying take place at temperatures from 0 ° C.
Endangering
The Arctic skate is at times as bycatch in the nets of deep-sea trawlers, which the population has not been affected by previous findings. The IUCN lists the species therefore as uncritical ( Least Concern ).