India, Sept. 2 -- Scientists from the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), in collaboration with ICAR-Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) and international experts, have discovered a new species of deep-sea skate in the Arabian Sea off India's southwestern coast, an official said on Tuesday.

The discovery was made during surveys carried out under the Ministry of Earth Sciences Deep Ocean Mission, aimed at studying and documenting little-known marine life in India's deep waters.

A deep-sea skate is a flat, shark-related fish that lives on the dark bed of the ocean.

The new species, commonly called the Arabian skate, can grow up to about 1.3 metres in length and was found at depths of 400 to 600 metres off the Kerala coast a...