UTTAR PRADESH JOURNAL OF ZOOLOGY

The Honeycomb Whipray (Himantura uarnak Forsskål, 1775) is a large Indo-West Pacific stingray regarded as a Lessepsian migrant in the Mediterranean Sea and currently listed as endangered due to fishing pressure and habitat degradation. Despite several records from the Levantine Basin, no confirmed occurrence had previously been documented from the Gaza Strip, Palestine. The present study documents rare records of the species from the coastal waters of the Gaza Strip based on opportunistic surveys of fish landing sites, coastal markets, fishermen interviews, and photographic examination of landed specimens. Identification was based on external diagnostic features, particularly the broad rhomboidal disc, whip-like tail with venomous spine, and the characteristic dorsal honeycomb reticulated pattern. Recorded individuals included juveniles and large adults, with one specimen reaching approximately 2.5 m total length, disc width of 1.3–1.5 m, and an estimated weight of 150 kg. Local ecological knowledge indicated that the species has been sporadically present in the Gaza Strip waters for more than two decades, with an estimated annual bycatch of 10–20 individuals. Most captures occurred incidentally in bottom trawls, gillnets, and occasionally longlines over soft-bottom shelf habitats. Captured specimens were usually landed dead or weakened and fully utilized for local consumption and market sale, representing an economically valuable low-cost protein source. The occurrence of multiple size classes suggests that the Gaza Strip coastal waters may function as feeding or seasonal habitat rather than a site of accidental visitation. These findings extend the known southeastern Mediterranean distribution of the Honeycomb Whipray, highlight the Gaza Strip as an under-reported hotspot for rare elasmobranch records, and emphasize the urgent need for fisheries monitoring, taxonomic verification, bycatch mitigation, and conservation measures for threatened batoids in Palestinian waters.