The Winter Skate (Leucoraja ocellata) is captured in demersal trawl, longline, and gillnet fisheries. Like many skates, this species has a slow life history, particularly in the part of its Canadian range where it matures at 13 years and has a generation length of 17 years. In the USA, it is a major component of the skate wing fishery, taken as bycatch of demersal trawl and gillnet fisheries. In Canada, it is a discarded bycatch (mandated by legislation) of demersal trawl, longline, and net fisheries. Historically, this species underwent very steep declines coinciding with high levels of demersal fishing from international fleets targeting shelf and slope groundfish. The extension of Exclusive Economic Zones out to 200 nautical miles in 1977 restricted fishing access to USA and Canadian vessels. Effort was renewed on skates in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with the encouragement of directed fisheries as other groundfish fisheries collapsed in USA and Canadian waters and as international demand for skate wings increased. In the southern part of its USA range, the annual population growth rate is increasing at a rate of 2% per year and the stock is sustainably fished, assessments revealed that the stock is not being overfished and that overfishing is not occurring. In stark contrast, there have been very steep reductions in Canadian waters, of 98.2%, 98.3% and 90.6%, in the southern NW Atlantic (Northeastern USA, Georges Banks, Canada/Gulf of Maine, USA (5Z), Scotian Shelf and Bay of Fundy, Canada (4VWX) and Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence (4T), respectively. The directed commercial skate fishery on the Grand Banks and Scotian Shelf was closed in 2004 and all Winter Skate were to be discarded, and discard rates were to be monitored. Predation from recovering populations of Grey Seal (Halichoerus grypus) is estimated to have caused high levels of adult mortality in the Gulf of St Lawrence and which may be inhibiting recovery there. Overall, the combination of very steep estimated population reduction in the bulk of this species’ distribution in Canada is partially offset by the sustainably managed and increasing fraction of the species range in USA waters, and it is estimated that this skate has undergone a population reduction of 50–79% over the past three generations (51 years). Therefore, the Winter Skate is assessed as Endangered A2bd.