ROUGHTAIL STINGRAY

Photograph copyright Andy Murch

View all available Roughtail Stingray Pictures in the Shark Pictures Database

Common English Names: Roughtail stingray, Roughtail ray, Rough-tailed stingray, Rough-tailed northern stingray.

Latin Name: Bathytoshia centroura

Family: Dasyatidae

Identification: Rhomboid disc with rounded pectoral tips and straight leading edges. Thorns scattered on midline of back and prominent thorns along midline and sides of tail. Tail approx twice body length with deep ventral finfold. Dorsum grey-brown to olive-brown. Ventrum pale. Adults may display a diagonal row of spots from mid pectoral level with eye to just before base of tail. Another parallel row of white spots runs along either side of center-line from mid back to tail.

Size: Maximum disc width 220cm. At birth 34-37cm.

Habitat: Sand and mud bottoms from intertidal to 275m. Inhabits coastal areas, estuaries, and rivers.

Distribution: Western Atlantic - Georges Bank to Florida, Gulf of Mexico, and Uruguay to Southern Brazil. Subtropical; 45°N - 35°S, 90°W - 36°E.

Diet: Preys on teleost and cartilaginous fishes, crustaceans, and cephalopods.

Reproduction: Ovoviviparous. Gestation about 4 months. Litter size 2 - 6. Breeds annually.

Conservation Status: The IUCN lists the Roughtail Stingray as LEAST CONCERN. However, the assessment is out of date and still refers to populations on both sides of the Atlantic. Consequently, the following information should not be relied upon to determine policy.

Southwest Atlantic: This stingray is taken by demersal trawl, gillnets, longlines, and hook and line (Stehmann 1981). Fishing pressure is intense throughout the range of this coastal ray and it is considered Vulnerable in Rio de Janeiro Municipality (Buckup et al. 2000). Brazil has reported among the highest capture production of elasmobranchs to FAO in recent years (Bonfil et al. 2005). Coastal species are the most important commercial elasmobranchs in the Southwest Atlantic and fishing pressure is intense throughout much of the relatively shallow habitat of this species (Bonfil et al. 2005). Skate and ray landings in the artisanal fishery in the Rio Grande do Sul, southern Brazil have declined significantly since the early 1950s (Klippel et al. 2005). One female specimen was recorded in a year's sampling of the landings of artisanal fleet at Caicara do Norte in northeastern Brazil (Yokota and Lessa 2006). Like many elasmobranch species, anecdotal evidence from interviews with fishermen (from Caiçara do Norte, Rio grande do Norte State, northeastern Brazil) indicate that the D. centroura is more rarely caught now than previously (L. Yokota pers. comm. 2006).
Coastal trawling effort is also intense in Argentina, where batoids are an important resource in most demersal trawl fisheries (Tamini et al. 2006). A coastal multispecies demersal trawl fishery operates at Quequén (38°37S, 58°50) down to about 60 m depth, in which bycatch of batoids fluctuates seasonally between 44.5% and 67.5% of total capture (Tamini et al. 2006). The species is apparently only rarely captured in Uruguay (A. Domingo pers. comm).
Fishery industries tend to show an interest in large dasyatids as a source of minced fish products, implying that exploitation pressure and population depletion may increase in the future.
Northwest Atlantic: This species is not targeted in US waters of the Northwest Atlantic and the available data on population trends suggest stable populations off the east coast of the USA. Although there is some bycatch in shrimp and groundfish trawl and bottom longline fisheries (G. Burgess pers. comm.), the impact is considered to be minimal.

Photographs: Outer Banks, North Carolina, USA.

Similar species: The Southern Stingray and Bluntnose Stingray share some of the Roughtail Stingray's range but neither have the telltale thorny tail.

Reaction to divers: May be approached with non threatening movements.

Diving logistics: Possibly a regular sight on wreck dives on the Outer Banks although I have only seen it once.

Other diving locations submitted by readers:

Tim Costikyan wrote:

I spotted two roughtail Stingrays off Zach's Beach in Marthas Vinyard in about 8' of water (july 24 2006).

Citations: Rosa,

R.S., Furtado, M., Snelson, F., Piercy, A., Grubbs, R.D., Serena, F. & Mancusi, C. 2016. Bathytoshia centroura. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T63152A104065289. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T63152A104065289.en. Downloaded on 23 October 2017

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