---
title: Whitespotted Wedgefish (Rhynchobatus djiddensis)
scientific_name: Rhynchobatus djiddensis
common_name: Whitespotted Wedgefish
taxon: Wedgefish
conservation_status: CR - Critically Endangered
published: 2024-11-04T12:00:25.721Z
updated: 2026-08-23T14:02:16.801Z
tags: Whitespotted Wedgefish, Rhynchobatus djiddensis, Wedgefish, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/rays/wedgefish/whitespotted-wedgefish
---

# Whitespotted Wedgefish (*Rhynchobatus djiddensis*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Wedgefish (*Rhinidae*)
- **Size:** up to 3.1 m
- **Depth:** 1-70 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Cathemeral
- **Rarity:** Very Rare
- **Habitat:** Shallow sand and rubble near reef, and open coastal bottom
- **Reproduction:** Live-bearer
- **CITES:** Appendix II
- **Conservation status:** CR - Critically Endangered

## How to recognise it

- wedge-shaped head running into a shark-like body and tail
- rows of white spots over the back, and a pair of dark spots above the pectoral fins
- ridges of thorns along the back and around the eyes
- up to 3.1 m

The species name means of Jeddah, and that is not decoration: it was described from this sea, and it is the reason a global identification problem got sorted out here.

For most of the twentieth century almost every large white-spotted wedgefish caught anywhere between South Africa and Australia was filed under this name. When the group was finally examined properly it turned out that most of those animals were other species, and the real one has a much smaller range in the western Indian Ocean. Records, catch statistics and conservation assessments across half the world had been attached to the wrong animal, which is a serious problem when the numbers are used to decide whether a species is in trouble.

It matters because these are among the most heavily fished large fish in the sea. Getting the names wrong means a species can decline to near nothing while its statistics are being diluted by catches of something else, and the true state of the population only becomes visible after the fact.

The animal itself is three meters of ray built like a shark, with a wedge-shaped head, rows of white spots over the back and thorn ridges along the spine. Here it is very rare, and a sighting is worth reporting.

## Also known as

- **English:** whitespotted wedgefish, Giant guitarfish, spotted guitarfish
- **Arabic:** سمكة الوتد المنقط الفاتحة
- **French:** Poisson paille à pois, Requin raie
- **Turkish:** dev gitarbaligi
- **Japanese:** トンガリサカタザメ
- **Chinese:** [魚本]仔, 及達尖犁頭鰩, 吉打龍紋鱝
- **AF:** Reuse Sandkruiper

## Scientific synonyms

- *Raja djiddensis* Forsskål, 1775
- *Rhinchobatus djiddensis* (Forsskål, 1775)
- *Rhinobatus djiddensis* (Forsskål, 1775)
- *Rhinobatus maculata* Ehrenberg, 1829
- *Rhynchobatis djiddensis* (Forsskål, 1775)
- *Rhynchobatus djeddensis* (Forsskål, 1775)
- *Rhynchobatus djiddenis* (Forsskål, 1775)
- *Rhynchobatus djidensis* (Forsskål, 1775)
- *Rhyncobatis djeddensis* (Forsskål, 1775)
- *Rhyncobatus djeddensis* (Forsskål, 1775)
- *Rhyncobatus djiddensis* (Forsskål, 1775)
- *Rynchobatus djiddensis*
- *Rynchobatus djiddensis australiae* Whitley, 1939

## Range

Djibouti, Eritrea, Federal Republic of Somalia, Indian Ocean, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Red Sea, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/rays/wedgefish/whitespotted-wedgefish)*
*Updated: August 23, 2026*