With an elongated body similar to that of sharks and a long snout with lateral teeth, which resembles a saw, the sawfish Pristis zijsron is classified as critically endangered. Overfishing and habitat loss are among the main factors driving the species’ decline, which has already disappeared from several areas of its historical distribution, including parts of Africa and southern Asia.
A review of decades of research, published in the journal Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries, concludes that northern Australia continues to host some of the last relatively intact populations of this species on a global scale.
The work was conducted by researchers at the Centre for Sustainable Aquatic Ecosystems at Murdoch University, with support from the Western Australian Marine Science Institution, the Save Our Seas Foundation and BCI Minerals. The Pilbara region in Western Australia stands out as one of the most important areas to study this species, because it still maintains relatively healthy populations and essential habitats.
This situation offers scientists a rare opportunity to understand how the sawfish uses its environment and what measures could support its recovery. The reduced intensity of some of the threats that contributed to the global decline could also help explain why Australia has become a reference in this fish’s research.
Despite these advances, the review identifies important gaps in the knowledge needed to guide conservation. There is little information available about the size of remaining populations, the location of critical habitats, and the number of adult individuals still living in the wild.
Without these data, it becomes more difficult to set priorities and assess the effectiveness of recovery measures. Jack Ingelbrecht, the lead researcher on the study, considers that scientific research should guide conservation strategies and warns that Australia has an added responsibility in protecting the species, precisely because it hosts some of the remaining populations and leads much of the research conducted so far.
The authors argue that it is still possible to avoid the extinction of the sawfish Pristis zijsron, provided there is continued support for research and conservation measures that meet the species’ needs. Protecting habitats and deepening knowledge about existing populations will be essential to guide this work. For the researchers, the northern Australia represents an important opportunity for the recovery of a species that has disappeared from large parts of its former distribution.
