IN January 2019 researchers from Sharks and Rays Australia called on Australians to report sightings of sawfish: in the wild; in old photos and on the trophy wall. Hundreds of Australians responded.
“The public has generated a completely new data set on the historic and current distributions of these rare and endangered species,” says Dr Barbara Wueringer, the Principal Scientist of Sharks And Rays Australia (SARA).
“Sawfish are remarkable hunters. They hang around in the mud, detect the electric fields of passing prey, and slice and dice them with their saw-like snouts ready for dinner.”
The team have received over 500 submissions from people around Australia who contributed their photographs, specimens and stories of sawfish, the most endangered of all sharks and rays globally. Submissions included verified sightings of live fish, photographs from family albums, and additionally 140 sawfish specimens donated to the research project.
Only four per cent of sightings and reports came from New South Wales, but they were significant. They included a report of a 2002 accidental capture and release of a green sawfish at Hawke’s Nest and a possible sighting near Newcastle in 2018. The last confirmed green sawfish had been at Tweed Heads in 1969.
Further confirmed sightings could lead to the protection of the species in NSW waters. Queensland had 42 per cent of sightings and reports. This includes sightings of narrow sawfish confirmed south of Cooktown. However, data from the Southern Gulf of Carpentaria is scarce. Western Australia had 40 per cent of submissions. Recent freshwater and dwarf sawfish reports were limited to northwest of King Sound. However, green sawfish appear to be more widely distributed, with many sightings of groups of juveniles reported as far south as Carnarvon. 14 per cent of sightings were from the Norther Territory, and a couple of lookalikes were spotted in Victoria.
Forty years ago, sawfish were regularly seen off Sydney and the east coast, and Perth and up the west coast. Today they’re rarely seen outside of the Gulf of Carpentaria, NT and the Kimberley.
“Your sightings, no matter how long ago they happened, will help us work out how many sawfish there used to be, how many remain, and how we can help them recover,” Wueringer said.
For more information: www.sharksandraysaustralia.com
