Modeling the distribution of thorny skate (Amblyraja radiata) in the Southern Grand Banks (Newfoundland, Canada).

Globally, commercial fisheries have had a strong impact on elasmobranch populations directly through high catch rates and indirectly through by-catch. Consequently, the abundance of many species is declining and some of them are considered to be under threat of extinction. On a regional scale, this negative trend has also been evidenced in international waters of the Southern Grand Banks area (off Newfoundland, Canada), where the occurrence of the thorny skate (Amblyraja radiata, Donovan, 1808) has declined by nearly 70% in the last decades. This study used Bayesian Species Distribution Models to investigate the habitat preference and biomass trends of the thorny skate during a 14-year period (2003-2017), linking five environmental predictors (i.e., bathymetry, sea bottom temperature, seabed aspect, slope and rugosity) and prey distribution with fishery-independent data. Our findings identify some of the sensitive habitats for this species and the ecological factors that may drive its population dynamics in the area. We argue how spatial-temporal effects could be exploited as potential mitigation measures for future fishery management strategies.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author