📸 PhotoPhoto: OpenCage.info · CC BY-SA 2.5 · Wikimedia Commons Source
Mottled skate
Beringraja pulchra (Mottled skate · Mottled skate)
💡 Everyday Comparisons for Size, Mass & Speed
- 💡 Under the closed season and size limit rules of Korea's Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, catching this species is prohibited from June 1 to July 15, and individuals with a disc width of 42 cm or less cannot be caught.
- 💡 Its maximum body length of 1.15 m is about two-thirds of an adult human height (about 1.7 m) (Comparison).
- 💡 The maximum egg case length of 16 cm is similar to the length of a smartphone (about 15 cm) (Comparison).
Reference standards: coach bus ~12 m, mid-size car ~4.9 m, compact car ~1 t, basketball hoop 3.05 m, credit card 8.56 cm.
📖 1. Overview
The Mottled skate is an egg-laying skate that lives on shallow bottoms of the northwestern Pacific, including Japan, the Sea of Okhotsk, and the East China Sea. It is listed as Chamhongeo (Korean name) on the National List of Species of Korea and assessed as Endangered (EN, 2020) on the IUCN Red List.
🦴 2. Anatomy & Morphology
It grows up to 1.15 m, with males maturing at around 47 cm and females at around 69 cm. Its egg cases are 14.5–16.0 cm long and 7.0–7.5 cm wide.
🔍 3. Ecology & Behavior
It mainly eats fish, crustaceans, and squid. It lays paired egg cases on sandy or muddy bottoms, and the young hatch at 9–10 cm.
🇰🇷 4. Connection to Korea
Under the Enforcement Decree of the Fishery Resources Management Act in Korea, catching or harvesting Chamhongeo (Korean name, Raja pulchra) is prohibited from June 1 to July 15, and individuals with a disc width of 42 cm or less cannot be caught (Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, as of January 2026).
📚 Sources & References
- • IUCN Red List EN (2020) — https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/161669/124525206
- • IUCN Red List category EN — latest assessment at iucnredlist.org
- • catalogueoflife.org — LKZW
- • iucnredlist.org — 124525206
- • 국가생물종목록(국립생물자원관) ktsn 120000057366 — https://species.nibr.go.kr/home/mainHome.do?cont_link=009&subMenu=009002&contCd=009002&ktsn=120000057366
- • wikidata.org — Q28146365
- • commons.wikimedia.org — File:Raja pulchra.jpg
- • fishbase.se — Beringraja-pulchra.html
- • mof.go.kr — selectDoc.do
- • species.nibr.go.kr — mainHome.do
- • Silhouette: PhyloPic — Tessa Rehill · CC0 1.0 (Congeneric silhouette — Beringraja binoculata)
Recorded dimensions are widely cited representative estimates from public literature and may vary by study or specimen.