13
Nov
A ‘ray’ of light ?
After having learned earlier this year of two new areas where common skate have started to show again in Scotland we were pleased to hear today that a few have started to show in the Bristol channel - Dr David Sims, Deputy Director (Research), and Senior Research Fellow of the Marine Biological Association of the UK, writes in a letter :
We are planning to do some electronic tagging of common skate next summer in Loch Sunart.
The common skate tagging forms part of a wider tagging programme we are conducting on skates and rays that is principally focused in the western English Channel and Bristol Channel. We have recently found common skate in deeper parts of the Bristol Channel which raises the question of connectedness with the Scottish concentration around Mull.
The behavioral work is complemented by studies already underway here in our ecology group on assessing population structure of skates and rays with molecular genetic techniques.
Long may the smallest of recoveries continue.
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