Skate

[spudqueen]

A man in the pub told me that skate have genitalia similar to womens and that fishermen on long trips would, er, 'use' any female skates caught to 'relieve' themselves. Can this possibly be true or is it just a big wind up?

[dotjhawkes]

Sounds like a fishy story to me, they might have caught something!

[Lonnie]

I've heard this story, does sound like a bit of fiction, but a here's a nice fact for you, might even put you off eating Skate, if you look at the underside of the fish, it looks just like a miniture unborn human baby, head, two eyes, small legs, mouth two nostril holes, no protruburences though. I believe, though I stand to be corrected, that this is why you can't buy a whole one in the Fishmongers,

[logman]

I'm sure this man in the pub must have a bike,as he seems to get around a lot, i've heard a variation on the story,that a whole skate are not allowed to be brought ashore without first having the male and female genitalia removed out at sea, as they so resemble human privet parts.

Can a fisherman or fishmonger confirm this, or is it a load of cods wallop ?

[Lonnie]

I'm grateful to logman asking that question, i'll be keeping an eye on this for the answer, but what I said regarding what the underside of the fish looks like is true, I got this from a photo in the Oxford Illustrated Dictionary. actually, we have a few fishermen at work, i'm off at the momentm but i'll send an email, and get back later in the day.

[vicalncraig]

Absolutely true! My family are from generations of fishermen If I remember correctly when my grandfather told me this in the 1960s he was referring to the 1800s. He told me the genitallia of the female skate had to be removed before entering port. On the other hand it could just have been a fishermans tall tale, although he convinced me.