Undulate ray

Raja undulata

5: Avoid How we work out the ratings

What to check for

Location

Celtic Sea and west of Scotland

Technical location

Atlantic, Northeast, Southwest of Ireland (East), West of Ireland

Caught by

Bottom trawl (otter)

Rating summary

Updated: November 2020.This stock is data limited, there is a lack of survey data and a lack of landings data. There is concern for both fishing pressure and biomass. ICES advises that when the precautionary approach is applied, there should be zero catches in each of the years 2021 and 2022. Since 2015, no directed fishery has been allowed to take place under EU regulations and there is no Total Allowable Catch (TAC) for this stock. However, some undulate rays may be caught as bycatch in this are and therefore, it is a critical fail. Undulate ray has also been listed as an endangered species globally and as near threatened in Europe. Demersal otter trawls can impact the seabed through abrasion of habitats and can catch endangered, threatened and protected (ETP) species.

How we worked out this Rating

This stock is data limited, there is a lack of survey data and a lack of landings data. There is concern for both fishing pressure and biomass. ICES advises that when the precautionary approach is applied, there should be zero catches in each of the years 2021 and 2022. Undulate ray has a low resilience to fishing pressure.

Undulate rays were a prohibited species for this area between 2009 and 2014. Since 2015, no directed fishery has been allowed to take place under EU regulations and there is no Total Allowable Catch (TAC) for this stock. There are no reference points to determine the undulate rays overfished status however data supplied by Inland Fisheries Ireland suggests that the stock is overexploited. Numbers of undulate ray have been badly reduced in commercial trawling. While they are targeted in some commercial fisheries, they are often caught (and retained) as bycatch elsewhere.

There is no stock size indicator, though the population size is thought to be very low. The stock is isolated and has a very local distribution, mainly in Tralee Bay on the Southwest Irish coast, and discrete populations may make it susceptible to localised depletion. The degree of genetic exchange between populations is unknown.

References

British Sea Fishing. Undulate Ray. Available at https://britishseafishing.co.uk/undulate-ray/ [Accessed on 05.10.2020].

Coelho, R., Bertozzi, M.,Ungaro. N. & Ellis, J. 2009. Raja undulata. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2009: e.T161425A5420694. Available at https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2009-2.RLTS.T161425A5420694.en [Accessed on 05.10.2020].

Ellis, J., McCully, S. and Brown, M. 2012. An overview of the biology and status of undulate ray Ray undulata in the north-east Atlantic Ocean. Journal of fish biology. 80. 1057-74.

Ellis, J.R., McCully, S. & Walls, R.H.L. 2015. Raja undulata. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2015: e.T161425A48909382. Available at https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/161425/48909382 [Accessed on 05.10.2020].

Figueiredo, I., Maia, C. and Carvalho, L. 2020. Spatial distribution and abundance of the by-catch coastal elasmobranch Raja undulata: Managing a fishery after moratorium. Fisheries Management and Ecology, 27(5), pp 454-463.

Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. 2019. FishBase. Undulate ray, Raja undulata. Available at https://www.fishbase.de/Summary/SpeciesSummary.php?ID=7617&AT=undulate+ray [Accessed on 05.10.2020].

ICES. 2020. Undulate ray (Raja undulata) in divisions 7.b and 7.j (west and southwest of Ireland). In Report of the ICES Advisory Committee, 2020. ICES Advice 2020, rju.27.7bj. Available at https://doi.org/10.17895/ices.advice.5814 [Accessed on 05.10.2020].

ICES. 2020. Working Group on Elasmobranch Fishes (WGEF). ICES Scientific Reports, 2:77. Available at http://doi.org/10.17895/ices.pub.7470 [Accessed on 05.10.2020].

Marine Institute EMFF 2014-2020. Management and Restoration of Endangered Skate Stocks. Available at https://emff.marine.ie/marine-biodiversity/management-and-restoration-endangered-skate-stocks [Accessed on 05.10.2020].

Shark Trust. 2020. Identification Guide: Sharks, Skates & Rays of the British Isles & Northeast Atlantic. The Shark Trust. Plymouth, UK.