The grey skate (''Dipturus canutus'') is a species of

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...

in the family Rajidae. It was described in 2008 by Australian ichthyologist

Peter R. Last Peter Robert Last is an Australian ichthyologist, curator of the Australian National Fish Collection and a senior principal research scientist at CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research (CMAR) in Hobart, Tasmania. He is an elasmobranch expert and h ...

Taxonomy

Australian ichthyologist Peter Last described the grey skate from a specimen collected off Maria Island in Tasmania. The species name is the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

adjective ''canutus'' "grey", referring to its colour.Last, P.R. 2008. New short-snout members of the skate genus Dipturus (Rajoidei: Rajidae) from Australian seas. pp. 9–52 in Last, P.R., White, W.T., Pogonoski, J.J. & Gledhill, D.C. (eds). Description of new Australian skates (Batoidea: Rajoidei). CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research Paper No. 021: 1–181 4/ref>

Description

The grey skate is a medium-sized member of the genus, reaching TL. It has grey upperparts, with the snout lateral to the rostral cartilage slightly paler, and paler grey to whitish underparts, with well-demarkated dark markings around the cloaca, internasal flap and chin.

Distribution and habitat

It is found in temperate waters off southern Australia, from Eucla in Western Australia around to Crowdy Head on the New South Wales north coast. In Tasmanian waters, it has been found from Strahan around to Maria Island, but is not in Bass Strait. It lives at depths of on the higher continental slope, rarely extending to above and below. The grey skate is one of four species identified as threatened with extinction by trawling in a 2021 report. Grey skates get caught up in demersal trawling and automatic longline fishing on the upper parts of the continental slope by the Southern and Eastern Scalefish and Shark fishery and the Great Australian Bight Trawl Fishery. Most die as a result. The Upper Slope Dogfish Management Strategy gives some shelter – around between the depths of provide a haven. Little is known about the total population.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5028414 grey skate Fish described in 2008 Marine fish of Southern Australia