{"id":505099,"date":"2026-05-27T12:11:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T12:11:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/505099\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T12:11:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T12:11:15","slug":"maugean-skates-released-back-into-macquarie-harbour-after-two-years-in-captivity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/505099\/","title":{"rendered":"Maugean skates released back into Macquarie Harbour after two years in captivity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two Maugean skates have been released back into the wild on Tasmania’s west coast after more than two years in captivity.<\/p>\n

The male and female skate were taken from Macquarie Harbour in December 2023 by a team of researchers from the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS).<\/p>\n

Since then, the female skate laid approximately 430 eggs, helping to produce about 80 hatchlings for the institute’s research and captive management program.<\/p>\n

Researchers and representatives from Tasmania’s Aboriginal community released the pair of skates into the harbour at the end of April.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The female skate had produced about 80 hatchlings for the captive program being run by IMAS. (Supplied: Mark Priest)<\/p>\n

Professor Jayson Semmens said the animals had “contributed incredibly” over this period, and it was time for them to now see out the rest of their lives in the harbour.<\/p>\n

“It’s not just the eggs \u2026 the learnings that we’ve had from them are absolutely incredible,” Professor Semmens said.<\/p>\n

“Putting them back isn’t a simple thing, so we then had to work out how to do that.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Crab hunting lessons, oxygen trials<\/p>\n

Despite the two skates having spent most of their lives in the wild prior to their capture, there were concerns about how they would cope after more than two years in captivity.<\/p>\n

The experimental science of raising Maugean skates<\/a><\/p>\n

From a specimen dying from “blunt force trauma”, to another dying from a gastrointestinal blockage, to specimens biting during sex, the ABC can reveal the challenges scientist face keeping the endangered Maugean skate species alive.<\/p>\n

Dr Bailee Woolley, a junior research fellow and co-lead for the program, said the first consideration was determining whether the skates would cope with the lower oxygenated waters in Macquarie Harbour.<\/p>\n

“In the facility here for the last two years, they’ve been at 100 per cent oxygen and that is not what they would experience in Macquarie Harbour,” Dr Woolley said.<\/p>\n

“So we did an acclimation protocol where we gradually reduced the oxygen levels in their tank waters and made sure that they were still behaving normally and coping well with the lower oxygenated waters, which they did.”<\/p>\n

The second consideration was the skate’s diet.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Since being caught in 2023, the Maugean skates have been part of IMAS’ research and captive management program. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

In captivity, researchers fed the animals a variety of food to keep them as healthy as possible.<\/p>\n

But in their native habitat, their main prey are native crabs.<\/p>\n

“We had to actually train the skate to prey on live crabs again,” Dr Woolley said.<\/p>\n

“That took a little bit of processing and putting live crabs and dead crabs into the tank and sort of kicking in their natural instincts to be able to hunt again.<\/p>\n

“But both skate did really well and were able to prey on the live crabs.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The release has helped provide a “starting point” for how IMAS could eventually free the maugean skates born and raised in the captive program. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

The researchers said the lessons learned from this release would help inform how they introduce other skates, which were born and raised in captivity, into the wild.<\/p>\n

It is expected that process could be more complex.<\/p>\n

“The skate that we’ve released, they spent six or seven years of their life in the harbour first, so we knew they had these capabilities to be able to adapt to the harbour conditions,” Dr Woolley said.<\/p>\n

“Whereas our other skate here, they’ve been hatched and raised in captive conditions. They’ve never had to hunt for live prey, they’ve got really good water holding conditions.<\/p>\n

“So it could definitely be a little bit more complex training these other animals, but we sort of have now established a bit of a protocol, which is an awesome starting point for us.”<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/p>\n

The female Maugean skate laid more than 400 eggs for the IMAS program while in captivity. (Supplied: Jayson Semmens)<\/p>\n

What’s next for the program<\/p>\n

The plight of the endangered Maugean skate was thrust into the spotlight in 2023 when environmental groups successfully lobbied the federal environment minister to reassess the approval of salmon farming in Macquarie Harbour<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The skates population in the harbour \u2014 its only known habitat \u2014 crashed by nearly 50 per cent between 2014 and 2021 due to reduced levels of dissolved oxygen, caused in large part by salmon farming.<\/p>\n

Last year, the federal government amended legislation to guarantee the future of salmon farming in the harbour<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, the salmon industry and federal government are funding a re-oxygenation program aimed at restoring dissolved oxygen levels in the harbour<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The captive management program is another government-funded effort to protect the skate.<\/p>\n

The two recently released skates were originally captured to establish an “insurance population”, but the focus has now shifted to determining how to get the most out of the captive population.<\/p>\n

\"Aerial<\/p>\n

Located on Tasmania’s west coast and used for salmon farming, Macquarie Harbour is the only place in the world Maugean skates are found in the wild. (ABC News: Sophie Zoellner)<\/p>\n

Professor Semmens said this would require researchers to gain a better understanding of the genetics of the roughly 100 skates they have in captivity.<\/p>\n

“There’s various ways of having a captive population,” he said.<\/p>\n

“You could captively breed, you could collect eggs from the wild \u2026 and you could what’s called head start those animals, get them past the vulnerable early period which most animals go through.”<\/p>\n

“It mightn’t be a breeding population, but we definitely wouldn’t be breeding until we understand the genetics.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Because if you are going to breed, you need to know who you’re pairing up and their genetics and the offspring that those genetics will create.”<\/p>\n

\"Maugean<\/p>\n

Dr Woodley says it was a “poignant experience” releasing the male and female skates back into the harbour. (Supplied: Bailee Woolley)<\/p>\n

He hopes the team will have a better understanding of which direction they will take by the end of the year.<\/p>\n

While the researchers have their sights on what’s next for the program, Dr Woodley said releasing the two skates was an “incredible experience”.<\/p>\n

“It was an incredibly poignant experience and very meaningful for everyone there to be able to collaborate and come together to release the skate back into the harbour, it was amazing.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two Maugean skates have been released back into the wild on Tasmania’s west coast after more than two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[269],"tags":[24185,219382,47475,18,49049,440,141167,19,219383,219386,17,219385,219381,219380,3527,207639,12712,35949,133,219384],"class_list":["post-505099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-breeding","tag-captive","tag-eggs","tag-eire","tag-endangered","tag-environment","tag-hatchlings","tag-ie","tag-imas","tag-institute-for-marine-and-antarctic-studies","tag-ireland","tag-jayson-semmens","tag-macquarie-harbour","tag-maugean-skate","tag-program","tag-rays","tag-release","tag-salmon","tag-science","tag-skates"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116646477910347573","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}