White skate

Rostroraja alba

5: Avoid How we work out the ratings

What to check for

Location

North East Atlantic: All areas

Technical location

27 - Atlantic, Northeast, All areas

Caught by

Bottom trawl (beam), Bottom trawl (otter), Net (gill or fixed)

Rating summary

It is prohibited to fish for, land, or retain white skate in UK or EU waters. Very little is know about the stock, but it is assessed as Critically Endangered by IUCN and ICES considers this stock to be depleted. Therefore, they are automatically a red-rated species.Rating last updated January 2026.

How we worked out this Rating

White skate are critically endangered and it is prohibited to catch them across this area of Europe. Therefore, this species is a critical fail on the Good Fish Guide.There are no reference points to determine an overfished or overfishing status. Due to the lack of data collected for white skate, there are no robust indicators to determine the population trends.White skate are assessed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List in Europe, and are Endangered on a global scale. They are a prohibited species and cannot be targeted or landed in southerly European waters where they occur.ICES considers this stock to be depleted, and there should be zero catch in each of the years 2024-2027. The perception of the stock is based on the lack of recent records of this species in comparison with historical accounts, which documented a more widespread occurrence and localised abundance in parts of the Northeast Atlantic. Historical information indicates that white skate has formerly been targeted in fisheries in the English channel and around Brittany, but present records show only a few isolated instances in scientific surveys.The species has low resilience with minimum population doubling time 4.5 - 14 years.Landings data for the species are not considered reliable, often due to misidentification. Issues with both fishers and survey staff being unfamiliar with species needs to be resolved to aid in data collection and appropriate releases of this protected species. Despite landings being prohibited some commercial landings are still estimated by ICES to occur, but these are thought to be overestimated due to coding errors or misidentification issues.Discarding is known to take place, but ICES cannot quantify the corresponding catch. Discard survival, which is likely to occur, has also not been estimated.

References

Dedman, S., Officer, R. Brophy, D., Clarke, M. Reid, D. G. 2017. Towards a flexible Decision Support Tool for MSY-based Marine Protected Area design for skates and rays, ICES, 74 (2) pp. 576-587. Available at https://academic.oup.com/icesjms/article/74/2/576/2669563 [Accessed on 04.10.2023].

Eigaard, O.R., Bastardie, F., Breen, M., Dinesen, G.E., Hintzen, N.T., Laffargue, P., Mortensen, L.O., Nielsen, J.R., Nilsson, H.C., O'Neill, F.G., Polet, H., Reid, D.G., Sala, A., Sköld, M., Smith, C., Sorensen, T.K., Tully, O., Zengin, M., Rijnsdorp, A.D., 2016. Estimating seabed pressure from demersal trawls, seines, and dredges based on gear design and dimensions. ICES Journal of Marine Science, Volume 73, Issue suppl 1. Pages i27-i43. Available at https://academic.oup.com/icesjms/article/73/suppl_1/i27/2573989 [Accessed on 04.10.2023].

Ellis, J., Morey, G., Walls, R., 2015. Rostroraja alba. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2015: e.T61408A48954174. 2015. Available at https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/61408/48954174 [Accessed on 12.10.2023].

Ellis, J. R., Burt, G.J., Grilli, G., McCully Phillips, S.R., Catchpole, T.L., Maxwell, D.L. 2018. At-vessel mortality of skates (Rajidae) taken in coastal fisheries and evidence of longer-term survival. Journal of Fish Biology. 92, 1702-1719. Available at https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29675895/ [Accessed on 04.10.2023].

Fowler, S., Mogensen, C.B. and Blasdale, T., 2004. Plan of Action for the Conservation and Management of Sharks in UK Waters. JNCC Report No. 360. Available at https://data.jncc.gov.uk/data/1db13bd9-ead2-4b22-a965-99de5de1c457/JNCC-Report-360-FINAL-WEB.pdf [Accessed on 10.10.2023].

Froese, R. and Pauly, D. (Editors), 2025. Rostroraja alba, White skate, FishBase. Available at Rostroraja alba, White skate : fisheries, gamefish [Accessed on 05.01.2026].

Frost M, Neat FC, Stirling D, Bendall V, Noble LR, Jones CS., 2020. Distribution and thermal niche of the common skate species complex in the north-east Atlantic. Mar Ecol Prog Ser, 656:65–74.

Garbett A, Phillips ND, Houghton JDR, Prodöhl P, Thorburn J, Loca SL, et al., 2021. The critically endangered flapper skate (Dipturus intermedius): Recommendations from the first flapper skate working group meeting. Mar Policy: 1;124:104367.

Griffiths AM, Sims DW, Cotterell SP, El Nagar A, Ellis JR, Lynghammar A, et al. 2010. Molecular markers reveal spatially segregated cryptic species in a critically endangered fish, the common skate (Dipturus batis). Proc R Soc B Biol Sci 277(1687):1497–503.

Hiddink, J., Jennings, S., Sciberras, M., Szostek, C.L., Hughes, K.M., Ellis, N., Rijnsdorp, A.D., McConnaughey, R.A., Mazor, T., Hilborn, R., Collie, J.S., Pitcher, C.R., Amoroso, R.O., Parma, A.M., Suuronen, P. and Kaiser, M.J. 2017. Global analysis of depletion and recovery of seabed biota after bottom trawling disturbance. PNAS. 114:31, pp. 8301-8306. Available at https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1618858114 [Accessed on 04.10.2023].

ICES. 2025. Working Group on Elasmobranch Fishes (WGEF). ICES Scientific Reports. 7:92. 943 pp. https://doi.org/10.17895/ices.pub.30137623 [Accessed on 05.01.2026]

ICES. 2023. White skate (Rostroraja alba) in subareas 1–10, 12,and 14 (the Northeast Atlantic and adjacent waters). In Report of the ICES Advisory Committee, 2023. ICES Advice 2019, rja.27.nea. Available at https://doi.org/10.17895/ices.advice.21856869 [Accessed on 12.10.2023].

ICES. 2022. Working Group on Elasmobranch Fishes(WGEF).ICES Scientific Reports. 4:74. 848pp. Available at http://doi.org/10.17895/ices.pub.21089833 [Accessed on 04.10.2023].

Kennelly, S. J. & Broadhurst, M. K., 2021. A review of bycatch reduction in demersal fish trawls. Rev Fish Biol Fisheries 31, 289–318. Available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11160-021-09644-0. [Accessed on 04.10.2023].

Kynoch, R., Fryer, R. & Neat, F., 2015. A simple technical measure to reduce bycatch and discard of skates and sharks in mixed-species bottom-trawl fisheries. ICES J Mar Sci,72(6):1861. Available at https://academic.oup.com/icesjms/article/72/6/1861/921176 [Accessed on 04.10.2023].

Mangi, S., Kupschus, S., Mackinson, S., Rodmell, D., Lee, A., Bourke, E., Rossiter, T., Masters, J., Hetherington, S., Catchpole, T. and Righton, D. 2018. Progress in designing and delivering effective fishing industry science data collection in the UK. Fish 00:1-21. Available at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/faf.12279 [Accessed on 04.10.2023].

Peverley. M., Stewart, J.E., 2021. Fisheries Research & Management Plan: Skates & Rays in the North of Devon and Severn IFCA’s District. Devon and Severn Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority & North Devon Biosphere.. Available from: https://www.devonandsevernifca.gov.uk/Environment-and-Research/Fisheries-Research-Management-Plans/FRMP-Documents [Accessed on 10.10.2023].

Serena, F., Charles, R., Ellis, J.R., Johnston, G. & Pacoureau, N. 2024. Rostroraja alba. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2024: e.T61408A183781512. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2024-1.RLTS.T61408A183781512.en. [Accessed on 05.01.2025]

Shark Trust. 2023. Fisheries Advisories. Available at https://www.sharktrust.org/pages/category/fisheries-advisories [Accessed on 04.10.2023].

Shephard, S. Reid, D.G.,Gerritsen, H.D, Farnsworth, K.D. Estimating biomass, fishing mortality, and total allowable discards for surveyed non-target fish, ICES Journal of Marine Science, Volume 72, Issue 2, 1 January 2015, Pages 458-466. Available at https://academic.oup.com/icesjms/article/72/2/458/2801434 [Accessed on 04.10.2023].

Silva, F., Ellis, J. & Catchpole, T., 2012. Species composition of skates (Rajidae) in commercial fisheries around the British Isles and their discarding patterns. J Fish Biol., 80:1678–1703. Available at https://www.nwwac.org/_fileupload/Papers%20and%20Presentations/2016/06%20FG%20Skates%20and%20Rays/Silva,%20Ellis%20&%20Catchpole_2012_Skate%20catches.pdf [Accessed on 04.10.2023].

Sguotti, C., Lynam, C. P., Garcia-Carreras, B., Ellis, J. R. and Engelhard, G. H. 2016. Distribution of skates and sharks in the North Sea: 112 years of change. Glob Change Biol, 22: 2729-2743. doi:10.1111/gcb.13316. Available at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/gcb.13316 [Accessed 04.10.2023].

Thorburn J., Dodd J., Neat F., 2018. Spatial ecology of flapper skate (Dipturus intermedius-Dipturus batis complex) and spurdog (Squalus acanthias) in relation to the Loch Sunart to the Sound of Jura Marine Protected Area and Loch Etive.

van Denderen, P. Bolam, S., Hiddink, J.G., Jennings, S., Kenny, A., Rijnsdorp, A., and van Kooten, T., 2015. Similar effects of bottom trawling and natural disturbance on composition and function of benthic communities across habitats. Mar Ecol Prog Ser. 2015;541:31–43. Available at https://backend.orbit.dtu.dk/ws/portalfiles/portal/119579329/Post_print.pdf [Accessed on 04.10.2023].

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