Brown on back, mottled with white and black spots, and a large dark blotch on each wing; white on belly. Lack the barb of the stingrays.

Inhabit the continental shelf and upper slope, usually in coastal waters. Found partially buried in sand.

Predator. Feed on fish, shellfish, crabs, and worms.

Oviparous. Distinct pairing with embrace. Young hatch from egg cases at about 18-20 cm. Young may tend to follow large objects, such as their mother. Eggs are oblong capsules with stiff pointed horns at the corners deposited in sandy or muddy flats. Egg capsules are 10.2-12.7 cm long and 6.3-8.3 cm wide. Skate breath in water from the spiracles behind their eyes so they don't breath in sand and mud through their mouth when sitting on the bottom. Most common skate in NZ. Commercially fished.
The wings or flaps of these fish are extremely good boiled.

A Treasury of New Zealand Fishes: Graham
http://www.fishbase.org/summary/Zearaja-nasuta.html McEachran, J.D. and K.A. Dunn, 1998. Phylogenetic analysis of skates, a morphologically conservative clade of elasmobranchs (Chondrichthyes: Rajidae). Copeia 1998(2):271-290.