THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 24, 1994 TAG: 9407220281
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 34 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF REPORT
LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
If you are hunting a treasure on the Outer Banks beaches, then don't look for it in a mermaid's purse.
Mermaids' purses, actually skate egg cases, are the flat, black cases with two horns on each end that wash ashore. And they're usually empty.
Skates, also known as sting-rays, manta rays and eagle rays, are fish. They have flat, almost diamond-shaped bodies with long thin tails. Their bodies have two fins shaped like wide wings.
The female skate lays the egg in the horned case. The horns on each end of the case serve as hooks, to latch onto plants that live on the ocean's bottom. There the case stays until the baby skate is developed. Then the baby skate leaves the case and the empty case is carried ashore by the waves.
Deborah Coulombe writes in her book, ``The Seaside Naturalist,'' that skates are harmless fish who live on the water's bottom. Because they live on the bottom of the water, they must breathe through special gills on top of their bodies.
They have two slits behind the eyes that allow water in. They dispose of the water through five pairs (that's 10) gill slits on the underside of their bodies. The gills for disposing of the water are located behind a skate's mouth.
A few other facts about skates:
They like to eat shellfish, worms and crabs.
They have jaws and bone-like teeth that they use to crush shells to get out the food inside.
Two species of skate can be found in the waters off North Carolina: the Barndoor skate and the little skate.
The skate's wing-like fins are edible. MEMO: To find out more about skates, visit the North Carolina Aquarium on
Roanoke Island. It has exhibits on a variety of aquatic life. There is
an admission fee. Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday-Saturday; 1 p.m. to
5 p.m., Sunday. It's located on Airport Road off U.S. Route 64/264 in
Manteo. For information, call 473-3493.
ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by DREW C. WILSON
Ian Saville, 10, of Winchester, Va., checks a skate egg case, also
called a mermaid's purse, that he found.
Drawings
Skate emerging from egg case
Underside of a skate
by CNB