Marbled electric ray

Torpedo marmorata · Rays and skates

Also called electric ray, torpedo ray

Marbled electric ray — Photo: Philippe Guillaume, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

What fish is this?Identify a fish from a photo

A small ray that can give an electric shock, recorded all around the coasts of Britain and Ireland. It lies buried by day and hunts at night.^[1]

How to recognise it

Marbled pale and dark brown. The other UK electric ray is a plain dark greyish-blue to brown.^[1]
Round, flabby disc with very small eyes on top of the head and two dorsal fins set close together on the tail.^[1]
It can produce a shock of up to about 200 volts, so do not handle it bare-handed.^[2]

When and where

Found over: sand, mud^[1]
Light: It is nocturnal, usually buried in the seabed by day and hunting at night.^[1]

Sources

These notes are a draft: we gathered them from the sources above and are still checking them. We don't work out best times for this fish yet. The size rules come from the same checked byelaws as every other fish.

Fish guide