barn-door skate

fish

Also known as: Raja laevis

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Last updated

July 16, 2026

Quick Summary

The barn-door skate (Raja laevis) is a large North American skate that can grow to be four feet long or more. Skates, in general, are flat-bodied cartilaginous fish found worldwide in various waters, from shallow to deep. They have diamond-shaped bodies with large pectoral fins and mouths and gills on their undersides. Skates lay eggs protected by leathery cases, often called mermaid's purses. While some species are caught for food, many skates are vulnerable to overfishing due to long generation times and low reproductive rates.12

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conservation
Fishing
One species, the barn-door skate (Raja laevis), was an incidental catch of western North Atlantic fisheries in the second half of the 20th century. As the name suggests, this is a large fish, too big to go unrecorded. Its numbers fell every year, until by the 1990s none…
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One species, the barn-door skate (Raja laevis), was an incidental catch of western North Atlantic fisheries in the second half of the 20th century. As the name suggests, this is a large fish, too big to go unrecorded. Its numbers fell every year, until by the 1990s none…
Read More