A Washington State harbor master on Tuesday captured rare footage showing an enormous skate swimming to his boat as if to offer a seasonal greeting.
“Halloween is coming early to Deer Harbor this year!” Deer Harbor Charters announced via Instagram, in reference to the sea creature’s alien-like appearance.
“Appropriately named ‘Big Skate,’ this impressive creature is the largest in the skate (Rajidae) family. It is rare for us to have such an amazing encounter!”
(Click here if footage doesn’t appear below.)
The harbor master is Marc Broman, who presumably is among those chatting in the audio.
According to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, big skates range from central Baja California to the Bering Sea off Alaska. (The aquarium has at least one big skate on exhibit.)
They can measure 8 feet and they prey largely on shrimp, worms, clams and small fishes.
Big skates typically hide in the sand with only their eyes visible, so Tuesday’s surface encounter was indeed extraordinary.
Big skates are sometimes caught by anglers and, according to the International Game Fish Assn., the world record stands at 91 pounds, for a skate caught off Eureka, Ca., in 1993.
