The Maltese skate (''Leucoraja melitensis''), or Maltese ray, 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 is a rare endemic species from the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...

found in the coastal waters of Algeria, Italy, Malta, Tunisia, Greece and Turkey. Its natural

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

is open seas. It is threatened by

habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...

Sustainable consumption

In 2010,

Greenpeace International Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth t ...

added the Maltese skate (''Leucoraja melitensis'') to its seafood red list. "The Greenpeace International seafood red list is a list of fish that are commonly sold in supermarkets around the world, and which have a very high risk of being sourced from unsustainable fisheries."

References

Maltese skate The Maltese skate (''Leucoraja melitensis''), or Maltese ray, is a species of fish in the family Rajidae. It is a rare endemic species from the Mediterranean Sea found in the coastal waters of Algeria, Italy, Malta, Tunisia, Greece and Turkey. It ...

Fish of the Mediterranean Sea Marine fish of North Africa Fauna of Malta Fish of North Africa Critically endangered fish Critically endangered fauna of Africa Critically endangered biota of Europe

Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Rajiformes-stub