Sawfish

The Sawfish, represented here by the Smalltooth Sawfish (Pristis pectinata), is a ray in the family Pristidae, instantly recognizable by its long, flattened, tooth-lined rostrum, or saw, used to detect and disable prey. Despite its shark-like body shape, it is a true ray, related to skates and stingrays rather than sharks. Once found throughout warm coastal waters worldwide, sawfish populations have collapsed dramatically due to habitat loss, bycatch, and the vulnerability of their saws to becoming entangled in fishing nets, making them among the most endangered families of marine fishes globally, with most species classified as Critically Endangered.

Key field marks:

• Long, flat, blade-like snout lined with paired sharp teeth along both edges
• Elongated, shark-like body with broad pectoral fins and shark-shaped tail
• Grayish-brown to olive dorsal coloration, pale underside
• Gill slits located on the underside of the body, a ray trait, unlike sharks
• Large size, with some species exceeding 5 m

The toothed, blade-like rostrum is unique among marine fishes and makes sawfish unmistakable.

Historically found in shallow tropical and subtropical coastal waters, estuaries, and river mouths worldwide, with juveniles especially dependent on shallow mangrove-lined estuarine nurseries. Tolerates a wide salinity range, including fully freshwater rivers in some regions. Now largely restricted to a small number of strongholds such as Florida and northern Australia, having been extirpated from much of its former range. Prefers depths under 10 m in nursery areas, though adults can range into deeper coastal waters.

Sawfish use their long, sensory-rich rostrum, lined with electroreceptors, to detect buried or schooling prey, then swing it side to side to stun or impale small fish before consuming them. They are generally slow-moving bottom dwellers, most active at dusk and night. Juveniles rely heavily on shallow, sheltered mangrove and seagrass nurseries for protection from predators. Reproduction is ovoviviparous, with females giving birth to small litters of live young whose rostral teeth are covered in a protective sheath at birth. Due to catastrophic population declines, sawfish are a major focus of international conservation efforts and fishing bans.