Thorny skateboard will not be added to endangered species list.

Thorny skateboard will not be added to endangered species list.

The population of thorny skates may have declined, but not enough to justify listing them under the Endangered Species Act, the federal government has ruled.

Environmental groups had argued that the loss of the bottom-dwelling fish population in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean was considerable enough to allow for the protection reserved for endangered animals. But the National Maritime Fisheries Service does not agree.

The agency agreed with the petitioners that skid surveys have declined over time. Recent catch surveys show less than 5 percent of the peak reached in the 1970s, according to the report.

However, the skates remain numerous throughout most of their range, numbering in the hundreds of millions, the report stated.

The thorny pattern varies from Greenland to South Carolina. Animal Welfare Institute and Defenders of Wildlife asked the federal government to provide the listing of the Endangered Species of Fish Act, which could have led to habitat protection or new fishing restrictions.

Skates live in the Gulf of Maine, a key commercial fishing zone, and the call to protect them generated some resistance from fishing groups.


Climate change and other factors continue to affect this species for fishermen are prohibited from collecting spiny skate commercially since 2003. Fish are sometimes taken as bycatch in other fisheries, even by boats looking for cod and others looking for other skates .

Skates have commercial value as bait as well as food, with meat appearing frequently as skate wing on the menus. It tends to be slightly less expensive for consumers than other types of fish.

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