Sympterygia bonapartii
Bottom skate of the South Atlantic, threatened in Brazil, where it occurs on the southern coast. Capture is prohibited in the country: if you hook it by accident, release it right away.
Also called: raia-emplastro-marmorada, emplastro, raya marmorada, smallnose fanskate
The marbled emplastro skate is a skate of the family Arhynchobatidae, with a flattened body and a disc formed by the pectoral fins. It reaches 63 cm in disc width and lives on the shelf bottom, on sand and mud, down to 150 m, from Chile and from Rio Grande do Sul to Argentina. It is oviparous: the female lays oblong egg cases with pointed horns at the corners, and adults pair up and embrace during mating. It is bycatch of trawl nets and bottom longlines in the common fishing zone of Argentina and Uruguay. It is on the national list of threatened species as endangered, and catching it 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 smallnose fanskate; in the meantime, see the similar species.
Bottom-dwelling skate with a wide, flattened fan-shaped disc, short rounded snout and a thin tail set apart from the disc. The dorsal pattern is marbled, as its Spanish name says. Its snout is smaller than that of the emplastro skate (Sympterygia acuta), which has a dark brown back. In Brazil it occurs only on the southern coast.
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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.
Southeast Pacific (Chile) and Southwest Atlantic, from Rio Grande do Sul to Rawson, Argentina. In Brazil it occurs only on the southern coast.
Habitat: Sand and mud bottom of the shelf, down to 150 meters.
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: NT.
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 = 0.00427, b = 3.09; 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
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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.
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