What’s the difference between skates and rays?

A. They look much alike and share a number of common traits. It especially pays to know the difference if you’re trying to get one off a hook.

Generally speaking, stingrays are kite-shaped and have streamlined tails with one or more venomous barbs. Skates tend to be roundish or triangular in shape, with heavier, fleshier tails that have small fins toward the end.

There are always exceptions, of course, such as the deep-sea blind ray and the lesser electric ray that have tail fins. For the most part, skates commonly found in North American waters have elongated noses.