Rajidae

Blonde ray

Raja brachyura

Ochre wings leaving horned eggs on sand

• Brown
• Gray
• Temperate
• Coastal
• Globally widespread
• Marine fish
• Depressed
• Large
• Temperate fish

Covered across its broad wings in an immaculate shower of dark freckles, the blonde ray is an impressive, large-bodied skate inhabiting the sandy shelf waters of the northeastern Atlantic. Its disc is broad and angular with an obtuse, short snout, bathed in a warm blonde-brown, pale fawn, or yellowish base color peppered with tiny dark spots that extend to the absolute margins of the pectoral wings. Unlike the thornback ray, its tail is noticeably short and stout, armed with a single central row of sharp thorns flanked by additional thorns in mature adults. Distributed from the Shetland Islands and North Sea south along the British Isles, France, and Spain to Morocco and the western Mediterranean, it occupies clean sand, gravel, and shell-littered ocean floors from ten to one hundred and fifty meters depth. An active benthic hunter, it ambushes sandeels, sprats, small flatfishes, and swimming crabs from sediment hideouts. Oviparous females deposit large oblong egg cases equipped with curved horns. Maximum recorded total length attains one hundred and twenty centimetres.

Sources: FishBase & Shark Trust — Blonde Ray, Raja brachyura