Sympterygia acuta
Bottom skate of the South Atlantic, threatened in Brazil. Capture is prohibited in the country: if you hook it by accident, release it right away.
Also called: raia-emplastro, emplastro-bicudo, raya marrón oscuro, bignose fanskate
The emplastro skate is a skate of the family Arhynchobatidae, with a flattened body and wide pectoral fins that form a disc. It reaches 150 cm, and the usual size is 36 cm of disc width. It lives on the shelf bottom, 10 to 188 m deep, from Rio de Janeiro to the Río de la Plata, in Argentina. It lays eggs with horn-like projections on the shell. It appears in commercial fishing and is on the national list of threatened species as endangered, with full protection: capture is prohibited in Brazil.
Essential profile. Identification, where it occurs and rules, with data from FishBase and the cited regulations. Season, time of day, technique and bait are added once we have a good source for the bignose fanskate; in the meantime, see the similar species.
Bottom skate with a wide, flattened fan-shaped disc, large pointed snout and a thin tail separated from the disc. The back is dark brown, and the mouth is on the underside of the disc. It shares the southeastern and southern coast with the marbled emplastro skate (Sympterygia bonapartii), which has a smaller snout and a marbled back.
Loading the next 7 days…
Each card shows the day's index (0 to 100) and, below it, a strip with the index for each hour, from 0h to 23h. from poor to excellent.
Essential profile: the index uses a general fish model (weather, sun, moon and tide), without a season or time of day specific to this species.
Southwestern Atlantic, from Rio de Janeiro to the Río de la Plata, in Argentina. In Brazil it lives on the southeastern and southern coast.
Habitat: Shelf bottom, 10 to 188 meters deep.
coast
Summary of the regulations we found, with the source for each. Rules change; before keeping or transporting fish, check with the state environmental agency.
Conservation: On the national list of threatened species as EN. Global IUCN assessment: CR.
The national list (Portaria GM/MMA nº 1.667/2026) classifies the species as EN. Under Portaria GM/MMA nº 1.666/2026 (art. 3), species listed as VU, EN and CR have full protection: capture, transport, storage, processing and sale are banned. If you hook one by accident, release it right away, with minimal handling.
Source: Portaria GM/MMA nº 1.666/2026, art. 3º, and Portaria GM/MMA nº 1.667/2026
Threatened species with capture prohibited in Brazil. If it comes on the line, keep the skate in the water whenever you can, remove the hook with long-nose pliers or cut the line close and release it right away. Avoid lifting it by the tail and watch the spines on the back and tail.
Length-weight relationship W = a·Lb (a = 0.00398, b = 3.03; FishBase (relação peso-comprimento bayesiana, estimativa da própria espécie)). It's an average: a fat or lean fish can vary by 10% to 20%.
estimated weight
—
Essential profile: size, length-weight, depth, countries and conservation come from FishBase and the cited regulations, and the texts were written from those sources. Season, time of day, sensitivities, technique and baits and lures are not included yet, because we did not find a good source for this species.
Your location is saved only on this device and feeds the forecast, the map and the "today" on the home page.
