Distribution and Size and Sex Composition of the Mud Skate Bathyraja taranetzi in the Pacific Waters off the Northern Kuril Islands and Coasts of Southeastern Kamchatka in the Summer Period

Abstract

In the summer period, the mud skate Bathyraja taranetzi lives at depths from ~100 to 757 m in the Pacific waters off the northern Kuril Islands and southeastern Kamchatka; it concentrates off the northern Kuril Islands in the depth range of 250−360 m. Specimens of 11.3−67.5 cm in length (TL) were recorded in catches. Only large fish occur at a depth of 60 cm because they attain larger sizes than males In general, the sex ratio in the population of mud skate is close to 1 : 1.