Green Sawfish

The Green Sawfish is a large chondrichthyan, distinguished by an elongated, tooth-studded rostrum used to detect and disable prey in sediment or open water. It can exceed several metres in length and relies on electroreception via its rostrum to locate crustaceans and small fish buried in soft substrates. As a benthic predator, it plays a role in structuring prey communities in coastal and estuarine food webs.

Behaviourally, it is a slow-moving, bottom-associated species that spends much of its life in shallow waters.

This species occupies a broad but fragmented range across the Indo-West Pacific and western Indian Ocean, with records spanning countries from South Africa and Tanzania to Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and the Arabian Gulf states. It uses a mix of marine, freshwater, and mangrove habitats, particularly estuaries, bays, and river mouths, often as nursery grounds for juveniles.

Population decline stems from a combination of pressures: bycatch and targeted capture in fisheries operating across its range, habitat degradation from mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction along coastlines, disturbance and losses tied to shipping traffic, mangrove and coastal forest clearance for logging, and episodic impacts from tsunamis and earthquakes on shallow coastal habitats. Its rostrum makes it especially prone to entanglement in nets.

Conservation responses include international trade restrictions under CITES Appendix I, national fishing bans and protected area designations in parts of its range, and ongoing efforts to document remaining populations. Data on absolute numbers remain limited, though the species is considered functionally extinct in significant portions of its historical range.

Given continuing habitat loss and fishing pressure, the population trend remains decreasing, with recovery dependent on stronger enforcement and habitat protection.