Themes > Science > Zoological Sciences > Endangered and Rare Species > Endangered Animals > Sawfish and CITES

International trade in sawfish and their products was and continues to be an important contributor to their decline. To protect these rare and endangered animals, the United States has proposed listing sawfish on CITES Appendix I. This would reduce one of the threats to these threatened species by restricting international trade in sawfish parts, such as saws, fins, and skin.

Sawfishes: Once Abundant, Now an Uncertain Future

Sawfish are now so rare, scientists have had little opportunity to study them and know little about their biology. But historically, sawfishes were extensive and impressive enough to inspire an extensive mythology and acquire religious significance among tribal societies, particularly in Central America, West Africa, Australia, and Papua New Guinea. Sawfishes figure prominently in paintings in Thai Buddhist temples and appear in Islamic art in Indonesia.

In the late 1700s, sawfish were so common in the United States that one fisherman reportedly took 300 sawfishes from a Florida river system in a single season. But a 1981 survey of the Indian River Lagoon System in Florida found no sawfishes and now scientists have concluded that the smalltooth sawfish no longer occurs along the East Coast of the U.S. Where sawfish were once common in Southeast Asia, they are now absent -- including the Chao Phraya River in Thailand, where sawfish have not been reported for 30 years. Sawfish have also disappeared from the waters around Sri Lanka and the Philippines and have been in severe decline for the past 35 years in the waters of Nicaragua, Panama, and Guatemala.

Factors that have contributed to their decline include commercial and sports fishing (both directed and as bycatch), reductions in populations of prey species, pollution of their nearshore pupping grounds, and their biological vulnerability. International trade in sawfish parts is also a factor in their decline -- controlling trade will improve the probability of sawfish survival.

Sawfish: Rare Rays

Seven species of sawfishes occur in two genera with worldwide distribution in tropical and temperate waters. Their elongated rostra, or "saws," stretch about one-quarter of their total length, and have two rows of teeth running down the sides. Sawfishes use their saws to root out and impale their fish prey. Like sharks, sawfishes have cartilaginous skeletons. Although they look and swim like sharks, they are actually more closely related to the rays.

Sawfish live in shallow marine and freshwater habitats, usually within a mile of the shore in water less than 30 feet deep. They enter estuarine environments to give birth to about 15 to 20 young per year. The largest, the smalltooth, the most common sawfish in U.S. waters, have been recorded as long as 18 feet.

The Sawfish: Well Qualified for CITES Appendix I Listing

A CITES Appendix I listing is appropriate and necessary to reduce the threat of international trade in these severely depleted species. Sawfishes meet the biological criteria for listing on Appendix I: A number of species now occur in small, fragmented populations that are declining in area and size and continued declines are projected. Other species, also declining but not endangered, need to be listed because of their similarity of appearance in their products. In addition, all sawfish species are highly vulnerable to overexploitation because of their biology: like sharks, they are slow growing, late to mature, and produce few offspring.

Because there are limited biological data on distribution of sawfishes, there is an urgent need for additional monitoring and protection. There is no doubt that sawfishes are disappearing, and with their numbers diminishing daily, these populations clearly cannot support continued trade. Scientific concern over the biological status of sawfishes is unanimous and many shark experts around the world have endorsed their listing on CITES. In addition, IUCN, the World Conservation Union, has listed four species of sawfish as Endangered on their 1966 Red List of Threatened Animals.

The Sawfish: Trading in their Future

Sawfish parts have been traded for centuries, long before monitoring or regulation existed. Worldwide, the sawfish's tooth-studded saw is valued as a trophy and sold in tourist shops as a curio. Saws collected in Malaysia are sent to China for use in traditional medicine. Sawfish skins, fins, and meat from all over the world enter Asian markets for use in medicines and fin soup. The liver oil of sawfish is sold internationally for use in cosmetics, medicines, lubricants and soap.

Because of their low commercial importance relative to other marine fishes, quantitative data on sawfish trade are lacking. As the new listing criteria (Res. Conf. 9.24) make clear, it is not necessary that trade be the driving force behind the decline of a species proposed for listing on Appendix I. Sawfishes clearly fulfill the listing criteria because their products are in trade, the international demand still exists, and they will continue to be traded unless listed on Appendix I. Not being listed will contribute to the probability of their extinction.

Despite the scarcity of trade and biological data for these now uncommon species, it is clear that an Appendix I listing is in the best interests for the conservation of sawfishes.

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