In One Ear: Skating along

“A common treasure a sharp-eyed visitor might happen across is a skate egg casing,” Tiffany Boothe, of the Seaside Aquarium, told Oregon Coast Beach Connection. “About a foot in length and resembling a chunk of seaweed, these egg casings are produced by the female skate, and after fertilization are deposited on the ocean floor.” One casing can contain from one to seven embryos.

Last October, a casing was found on the beach and brought back to the aquarium. “Unable to simply place the egg casing back into the ocean, due to the fact that they would wash back up, we place them in holding tanks in the back of the aquarium,” the Seaside Aquarium recently posted on Facebook. The tiny critters can reach up to 8 feet, weigh over 180 pounds, and live for 30 years.

“It can take up to 11 months for the embryos inside to fully develop. Once they hatch, we start fattening them up. When they are a few months old and eating well we can release them back into the ocean.”

The outcome was that five healthy baby skates were released into Netarts Bay recently. The Facebook post also includes a video of the timeline from when the egg case is found, through the embryos’ development to the release.

Netarts Bay was chosen because it “provides protection from the surf and has a lot of food for them,” Boothe said. “It is an ideal place for these guys to start their journey.”