Age and growth characteristics of the Starry Skate, Raja stellulata, with a description of life history and habitat trends of the central California, U.S.A., skate assemblage Kelsey C. James & David A. Ebert & Lisa J. Natanson & Gregor M. Cailliet Received: 23 July 2012 / Accepted: 22 July 2013 # Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013 Abstract Skates are prevalent in fisheries worldwide, but rarely are they identified to species. This is of conservation and management concern since skates exhibit a broad range of life history characteristics. The present study investigated the age and growth of the Starry Skate, Raja stellulata, and compared it to other regional skates inhabiting the U.S. West Coast. Age and growth parameters were determined using two vertebral preparation techniques: gross sectioning and histological sectioning. Gross section age estimates ranged from zero to 11 years and growth was described by the two parameter von Bertalanffy growth function (2 VBGF; L ∞ =915 mm total length (TL) and k=0.13 year -1 ; n=189). Histological section age esti- mates ranged from zero to 15 years and growth was also described by the 2 VBGF (L ∞ =1092 mm TL, k=0.06 year -1 ; n=68). Histological section results re- flect a more conservative life history, specifically a lower von Bertalanffy growth coefficient, but had slightly biased results and a smaller sample size than the gross section results. An age and depth trend was found within the central California skate assemblage, in which habitat depth and maximum age were positively correlated. Keywords Age . Growth . Skates . Elasmobranchs . Life history . Central California Introduction Skates (Chondrichthyes, Rajiformes), like many elas- mobranchs, are generally characterized as having slow growth, late age at maturity, and extended longevity, making this group susceptible to targeted and incidental fishing pressures (Holden 1973; Stevens et al. 2000). Despite this commonly held axiom, considerable varia- tion exists in life history characteristics within this group (Dulvy et al. 2000; Ebert et al. 2007, 2009). Recent research indicates skates can live between seven and 37 years and mature between three and 23 years (Cailliet and Goldman 2004; Gallagher et al. 2004; Ebert et al. 2009; Ainsley et al. 2011). Given this high degree of variability, a species-specific approach to studying all skate species is warranted to better under- stand the group as a whole. The observed differences in life history characteristics among individual species may be driven in part by differ- ences in habitat. It has been observed that in the eastern North Pacific skate species tend to segregate by depth (Ebert, unpubl. data). A recent study on Alaskan bathyrajids (Winton 2011) found that life history charac- ters among species were correlated to habitat and depth; deeper-dwelling species exhibited increased maximum Environ Biol Fish DOI 10.1007/s10641-013-0164-0 K. C. James (*) : D. A. Ebert : G. M. Cailliet Pacific Shark Research Center, Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, 8272 Moss Landing Road, Moss Landing, CA 95039, USA e-mail: kelsey.c.james@gmail.com L. J. Natanson National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), Northeast Fisheries Science Center, NOAA, 28 Tarzwell Drive, Narragansett, RI 02882, USA