Webinar on Genetics for Fisheries Management: An Application to the Thorny Skate in the North Atlantic

On Wednesday, September 18, 2019, Drs. Gavin Naylor, Shannon Corrigan, and John Denton participated in a webinar to provide an update on their application of genomic techniques to the thorny skate (Amblyraja radiata) in the North Atlantic Ocean. The species is considered overfished in U.S. waters but supports a targeted fishery in Europe. Previous research has suggested that there is a single, continuous thorny skate population across the North Atlantic, but some suspect that there may in fact be geographically separate subpopulations. Using genomics, the research team is working to tease out the species’ spatial structure and to explore which factors may have led to past changes in abundance. Their findings could inform the appropriate spatial scale for thorny skate management and lead to recommendations for effective conservation strategies.