Blonde and spotted - two very common types of ray landed pretty much every day on the market in Newlyn - but which one is the spotted one?
It's the one on the right - where the spots don't extend to the edge of the wings and are generally less well defined. Spotted ray also don't grow to the size that blondes can.
Spotted rays are a small to medium sized, inshore and coastal shelf species attaining a maximum length of 80cm and weight of 4kg. Males mature at a length of about 54cm and females at about 57cm (both between 3 to 8 years old). The species has a maximum recorded age of 14 years. Mature females produce between 20 and 70 eggs per year. Its small body size and relatively high recruitment rate means that it is less vulnerable to fishing pressure than many. All skates and rays are managed by a mixed quota system in EU waters.Ray and skate are a bit of a marmite fish it seems - though once tried are a firm favourite. An added bonus is that they are good fish to introduce to the small ones in the house as there are no bones to speak of - only cartilage from which the flesh is very easily separated.
Local fish-meister, Ben Tunnicliffe at the Tolcarne Inn is a big fan of ray cooking as can be seen from his demonstration some years back at the Jubilee Pool restaurant. There is hardly a fish cook book from the likes of Nathan Outlaw, Mitch Tonks, Gordon Blackiston, Rick Stein all have great ray recipes in their armoury.
