Blonde ray

There is concern for the biomass of blonde ray in the Western English Channel, and concern for the fishing pressure.Route 2 (data limited) scoring has been applied to this rating owing to the lack of reference points for biomass and fishing pressure. Blonde ray is considered to have a low resilience to fishing pressure. Blonde ray in the western English Channel has a patchy distribution, and is locally abundant on certain grounds. This makes it difficult for scientists to interpret survey data, and its tendency to form aggregations makes it vulnerable to localised depletion. There are a lack of surveys conducted in the area in recent years and very little is known about the biomass in this area. Therefore, there is concern for the biomass.Blonde ray is an important commercial species and landings have been increasing since 2017. However, misidentification still occrus between blonde ray and spotted ray and this could have impacted previous reports on landings data. It is a bycatch species in demersal fisheries but may be targeted in areas of high local abundance due to its large size and high market value. Restrictions on fishing for undulate ray from 2009 onwards may have redirected fishing effort to this species. ICES advises that when the precautionary approach is applied, landings should be no more than 213 tonnes in each of the years 2023 and 2024. This is a 20% decrease in the advice for 2021 and 2022 because the precautionary buffer has been applied.Landings in recent years have greatly exceeded the advice given by ICES (by over 300%) and therefore, there is concern for fishing pressure.

For more information about this rating please visit: http://www.cornwallgoodseafoodguide.org.uk/fish-guide/blonde-ray.php

For more information about this rating please visit: http://www.cornwallgoodseafoodguide.org.uk/fish-guide/blonde-ray.php

For more information about this rating please visit: http://www.cornwallgoodseafoodguide.org.uk/fish-guide/blonde-ray.php