Sydney skate

Scottish-Australian naturalist William John Macleay described the species as Raja australis in 1884, from specimens collected from a trawl off the south head of Botany Bay. He was excited by the find of a skate species in Sydney waters and wondered about its potential as a food item. He observed, "As an article of food, skate has never been much in favour here, in fact, except in French cafés and places of that kind."[5] It was placed in the genus Dipturus in 2002, with other members of the then subgenus Dentiraja before the group was raised to genus level as a whole in 2016, when it gained its current binomial name Dentiraja australis.[6]

As well as Sydney skate, the species is also known as common skate, Pommy skate, or simply skate.[4]

Generally between 43 and 48 centimetres (17 and 19 in) long, the Sydney skate can reach 55 centimetres (22 in) in length.[3] The upperparts are brown, with lighter color on the snout and pectoral fins, while the underparts are white.[5]

The Sydney skate is found on the continental shelf off the east coast of Australia, at depths of 20 to 325 metres (66 to 1,066 ft).[3]

Once one of the most abundant skate species the continental shelf off Eastern Australia, the Sydney skate has drastically declined in numbers.[7] Skate species declined in trawl catches off the New South Wales central and south coast by 83% between 1976/1977 and 1996/1997.[8]

It is one of four species identified as threatened with extinction by trawling in a 2021 report.[9]