Photos Guido Zsilavecz
In Cape Town waters skates and stingrays are relatively rare sightings, with the Long Beach area, with its flat, slightly silty bottom, providing more than any other diving site around the Peninsula. Recently SURG members saw two of the same species: one male, one female. The biscuit skate grows to a width of about 70 cm, has a pale brown to grey base, and is covered with many dark blotches. The two larger dark spots, usually oblong but occasionally round, are distinctive. The skate shown is a male - the bottom photo clearly shows the large, fat claspers. Peter Southwood, who saw his within the Simon's Town harbour, remarked on a small set of fins normally hidden below the fins forming the disk, and said that it "appeared to use these to push itself along at slow speed with almost a frog-kick motion." These fins are shown in the drawing in Smiths', as well as on fishbase.org
Both individuals were not particularly skittish, and could be approached with some care.
See "Coastal fishes of the Cape Peninsula and False Bay", available from SURG and better Cape Town dive shops, for more details about the biscuit skate.
Coastal fishes of the Cape Peninsula and False Bay, a divers' identification guide, G Zsilavecz, 2005.
Smiths' Sea Fishes, MM Smith and PC Heemstra, 1986.
Guide to the Sharks and Rays of Southern Africa, LJV Compagno, DA Ebert, MJ Smale, 1989.
www.fishbase.org