Blonde rays and related skate species have experienced dramatic population collapses. Their welfare in fisheries and the ethics of directed skate fisheries are increasingly debated.
Skate caught in trawls experience barotrauma as they are rapidly brought from depth, causing internal injuries. Their flat body shape means they can be trapped beneath heavier catch in the trawl, causing crushing injuries. Critically endangered species like flapper skate face a situation where each individual death has outsize conservation significance beyond the individual welfare harm. Discarding of undersized or non-target skate species is common, but fish thrown back after trawl trauma have poor survival prospects. Directed skate wing fisheries continue even for declining species in some regions.