All their eggs in one basket: a rocky reef nursery for the longnose skate (Raja rhina Jordan & Gilbert, 1880) in the southern California Bight

Skates (family Rajidae) are oviparous and lay tough, thick-walled eggs. At least some skate species lay their eggs in spatially restricted nursery grounds where embryos develop and hatch (Hitz, 1964; Hoff, 2007). After hatching, neonates may quickly leave the nursery grounds (Hoff, 2007). Egg densities in these small areas may be quite high. As an example, in the eastern Bering Sea, a site <2 km2 harbored eggs of Alaska skate (Bathyraja parmifera) exceeding 500,000/km2. All skate nursery grounds have been identified over soft sea floors (Lucifora and García, 2004; Hoff, 2007). In 2005, while conducting f ish surveys using a manned submersible over natural reefs in the Santa Barbara Channel, southern California, we found an area of high skate egg density, located on the edge of Hueneme Submarine Canyon. Until that date, we had rarely observed skate eggs in our southern California surveys. For example, in 362 other submersible dives, in waters between 18 and 365 m deep and encompassing 395 km of transects over a wide range of habitats, we had observed All their eggs in one basket: a rocky reef nursery for the longnose skate (Raja rhina Jordan & Gilbert, 1880) in the southern California Bight