February 22, 1990 - Don't Underrate the Lowly SkateC12 The Suffolk Times - February 22, 1990
Don't Underrate the Lowly Skate
By Paul Stoutenburah
I'll bet there isn't a person who has
ever strolled one of our outer beaches
who hasn't found one of the odd- shaped
black skate egg cases along the way. As
a kid they'd be one of the great finds and
we'd collect them and excitedly bring
them to our parents to show our trea-
sures. We'd be told they were "mermaid
purses" and for that day it was suffi-
Focus on
Mature
cient. Since that time we've all learned
much more about life in general and we
now know that these two - to three -inch-
long black rectangular "purses" with
their long tendrils are the egg cases of
the skate.
We have many different kinds of
skates in our waters here on the East
End but there are only two or three gen-
erally known. Occasionally we'll see
their curled -up, dried -out, long - tailed
bodies lying along the beaches as we
explore. These probably were caught by
fishermen who tossed them up on the
beach as nuisance or trash fish, never to
take their bait again. It's a shame that
fishermen didn't know that probably
they had caught one of the tastiest fish
our waters produce. If you were in Eu-
rope the fish would be welcome for
there — and slowly here — the value is
truly being realized to the point that in
many gourmet restaurants they are con-
sidered delicacies.
We just celebrated two family birth-
days in our house and my wife, Barbara,
had a seafood bash. We had everything
from lobsters, clams, mussels, shrimp
and, for hors d'oeuvres, long tender
strips of fried skate wings. For those
who have never tried them they are deli-
cious. See your local fish dealer for a
pound or two and give them a try.
You'll find they are one of the least ex-
pensive fish in the counter but don't let
that low price fool you. It's only be-
Photo by Paul Stoutenburgh
BABY SKATE —These strange egg cases are seen along our
beaches. This one was found at Montauk Point where your chances
are best in locating something inside these interesting "mermaid purses."
cause the public hasn't caught on to the
fact that they are so good.
Once Considered Trash
Some of you I'm sure can remember,
as I do, that blowfish were once thought
to be trash fish and thrown away; then
the public slowly started enjoying
them. Check the price of blowfish
(chicken of the sea) at the market the
next time you go and you'll see the
price of what skate will be when the
public awakens to its value.
The skate wing is actually an enlarged
pectoral fin that the skate has evolved
through time into large wings. When
cleaned, the skate wings and the con-
necting membrane are the only part of
the fish saved. When you get your skate
wings from the market you'll see they
are sort of ribbed. When I prepared them
I cut long strips following the ribs and
dropped them into a brown paper bag
with flour, salt and pepper in it. After
shaking the bag and coating them well I
dropped the strips into a good choles-
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terol -free oil and fried them for just a
few minutes. Of course, you can cook
each wing whole in the same manner
but fried in strips they make tasty finger
food.
To show that skate is starting to
catch on, the Big Skate (Raja Ocellata),
along with others, is commercially
caught. The Seafood Leader Buyer's
Guide states, "The wings of the skate
are punched out with a pipe -like tool
into the size of scallops and sold to the
customers (as scallops) who are happy
not knowing the difference."
The skate surf fishermen usually get
are the Brier or the Clear Nose Skate
and the Little Skate. Each are found in
shallow waters to deep waters along our
sandy and pebbled bottoms. All skates
generally eat on the bottom. Therefore,
mud and sand and other debris could get
into their system because water is drawn
in through a fish's mouth and out its
gills. To overcome this, these bottom -
dwellers have been forced to change
their intake to openings on the top of
their back. In this way clear water enters
and is passed through the gills. Rays,
on the other hand, that look somewhat
like skates but larger, do not feed on the
bottom and therefore have the same
mouth -gill system as normal fish.
The Same But Different
As mentioned above, rays and skates
look alike. They're flat and have long,
thin tails. They differ in their mode of
reproduction though. The skate produces
that interesting black egg case I men-
tioned in the beginning but the rays
bear their young live. The skate's eggs
are mainly laid during the winter
months. The long tendrils on the egg
cases help attach them to the bottom. I
have picked up hundreds and hundreds of
these cases in my lifetime and have
only once or twice found anything in
them. Usually they are empty and their
evidence of emptiness can be checked by
a slit in one end.
The ones I found with young had the
egg yolk still attached and were dead for
they had been out of the water and
frozen. These were found at Montauk
Point where literally hundreds of them
can be seen amongst the millions of
mussel shells that are wind -rowed along
the north shore of the Point. It was
something to see, a perfectly formed
baby skate within this black capsule.
Skates are omnivorous, meaning they
are opportunists in eating. Their diet
could be anywhere from crabs, shrimps,
worms, squid, sand eels or any other
small fish. A usual color is a light
brown to dark with a white underside.
Skates are older on the evolutionary
scale than most fish today. They've
been around a long, long time and it
will be interesting to see how these
once - thought trash fish will fare in the
future if their delicious taste is once dis-
covered. Could it be that they would
disappear like the blowfish? Remember
how plentiful they once were.
Senior Citizen
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