First Rare White Skate Egg Case sighting of 2026
First Rare White Skate Egg Case sighting of 2026 –An EGG-CITING Discovery in Furbo, Co Galway.
Galway Atlantaquaria is delighted with the first discovery of a very rare White Skate (Rostroraja alba) egg case by Sandlarks, Clean Coasts volunteers who were cleaning the shoreline of marine litter in Furbo Co. Galway.
Garry Kendellen, marketing of Galway Atlantaquaria, said “We believe this discovery is really amazing, as we have very little records of these egg cases along our shore. This is why we encourage everyone to become ocean stewards of the shore and get involved in campaigns like Explore Your Shore from the national biodiversity data centre, and Clean Coasts.”
White Skate (R. alba) is included on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species as “Endangered” globally and “Critically Endangered” in the North-East Atlantic (Dulvy et al. 2006).
This is a large, long-lived coastal, shelf and upper slope species with a low reproductive rate. Its age and very large size at maturity means that all size classes are vulnerable to capture in demersal fisheries. Mortality of the large juveniles is high for many years before they reach maturity. Recovery of populations will be extremely slow even if fishing pressures are lifted.
The key threats to this species are, Fisheries mortality:By-catch in commercial fisheries.
Target fishing (if occurring – primarily sport angling and possibly obtaining specimens for aquaria), and Habitat deterioration (secondary threat).
OSPAR COMMISSION REPORT
by the “Marine and Coastal Nature Conservation Unit” of the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) in collaboration with Dr. Sarah Fowler, Naturebureau International, UK.
This is a very important discovery as Galway Bay seems to be a host of other critically endangered Skates egg cases like the Flapper Skate, (Dipturus intermedia).
In March of 2025, Dr Róisín Nash from ATU Galway and Michael Bell of Nature Learn discovered more Flapper eggcases in the same month. These were the first recorded eggcase of 2025, and we are delighted for Sandlarks to be the first egg case recorders of 2026.
There is no doubt that this discovery will excite members of the public, academics and researchers as they will be encouraged to explore the shore and learn more about the wonderful discoveries that can be found all along our coasts.
Amelia Walker, of Sandlarks, said, “We found the distinctive large, tough leathery pouch of the White Skate egg case during a beach clean between Furbo and Spideal. We have previously discovered Flapper egg cases in the area before, but this was the first example of the critically endangered White Skate that we have come across.“
As Clean Coasts volunteers, it is always good practice to explore, discover and remove marine litter from our shores.
Credits
Sandlarks is a Clean Coast volunteer group based in Galway, founded by Ultan McManus and Amelia Walker. They organise beach cleans and coastal discovery days from Galway City to Connemara. As previous ambassadors for the Galway Atlantaquaria, they are actively involved in citizen science, ‘I Like Beaches’ Sand Dune conservation, and Explore Your Shore.
Sandlarks can be found on Instagram at @sandlarks
.