Identification
The best-known ray on the Dutch coast, reaching about 1.4 metres in total length. The disc is rhomboid with a slightly pointed snout. The back is marbled in brown, grey-brown and ochre with irregular darker and lighter patches — camouflage rather than a crisp spot pattern. The thorns are the giveaway: stout curved spines each mounted on a broad, button-like base, scattered across the disc and running in a row down the midline of the back and tail. Older females are markedly thornier than males.
Behaviour & ecology
It lives over sand, gravel and mud from shallow coastal water down to about sixty metres, often lying half-buried with only the eyes and the midline thorns clear of the sediment. It feeds mainly on crabs and shrimp, supplemented with sandeel and small flatfish. It lays egg cases with stiff points at each corner — the "mermaid's purses" that wash up regularly. The species moves into shallower water in spring and summer and back out in winter.
In the Netherlands
Of all the rays, this is the one you are most likely to meet along the Dutch coast, with the Oosterschelde and Voordelta serving as important nurseries. The IUCN Red List assesses it as Near Threatened. It shares the vulnerability common to all rays: slow growth, late maturity and few young per year, so a population recovers only slowly. VisScanner therefore marks it for release. Never lift a ray by the tail or the wingtips — support the whole disc, and return it flat and quickly.
