Prehistoric Sawfish Makes Progress Toward Federal Protection

National Marine Fisheries Service Issues Positive Petition Finding

DENVER - The National Marine Fisheries Service (Service) issued a positive finding on WildEarth Guardians’ petition to list the largetooth sawfish under the Endangered Species Act. The agency will now conduct a full status review to decide whether the species warrants listing under the Endangered Species Act.

The Service found that this sawfish has undergone severe range contractions and local extirpations throughout its range, has experienced severe population declines where it is still found, and faces multiple threats from fishing, loss of habitat, and inadequate legal protections. The half-ton, fascinating species is at least 100 million years old. It has vanished throughout most of its range in the Atlantic Ocean, along the coasts of parts of Europe and much of West Africa.

Because the sawfish petition finding is positive, the Service is now required to undertake a review of the status of the species. If, as a result of that status review, the sawfish is listed under the Endangered Species Act, it would be protected from “take” (including fishing) of individuals, and the Service would have to develop a recovery plan to map out the steps that must be taken to reverse its population declines. The Service would also have to identify critical habitat required by the sawfish so that it can be protected to aid the conservation and recovery of the species.

“Sawfish survived the age of dinosaurs and the asteroid strike that wiped the dinosaurs out, but they might not survive the age of industrial fishing. We are pleased that the Service has acted swiftly on our petition, and we will work for federal protection for this species on the brink,” said Nicole Rosmarino, Wildlife Program Director for WildEarth Guardians.

The largetooth sawfish (Pristis perotteti) is enormous, made even more impressive by its saw, technically a rostrum, a three or more foot projection above the sawfish’s mouth, lined with sharp saw-teeth. The largetooth sawfish can reach 21 feet long and weigh in at over 1,300 pounds. It does not mature until it is 10 years old, when females give birth to litters of live young, already 2 ? feet long. The young sawfish’s saw is covered with a sheath to protect their mother during the birthing process. Litters typically number 7-9 and are produced every other year. In the wild, sawfish might live 30 years.

Because it is long-lived and reproduces slowly, the largetooth sawfish is extremely vulnerable to over-fishing. The dramatic saw, which it uses to stir its prey, such as crustaceans and invertebrates, from sandy bottoms, or to stun small schooling fish such as mullet, is so easily entangled in nets that sawfish populations have been devastated by gill-netters and trawlers. Compounding this death as “bycatch” problem, the saw is traded as a curio item internationally, and its fins are showing up in the Asian shark-fin trade. The Service recognized these factors as threats in today’s finding.

Sawfish first evolved approximately 100 million years ago and have not changed must since then. 65 million years ago, an asteroid struck offshore from Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, and wiped out most life on earth. Ancestral sawfish, like sharks (to which they are related), survived the impact.

Largetooth sawfish were once fairly common in the waters of Texas and Louisiana and all along the Gulf and Caribbean coasts of Mexico, Central America, and northern South American. At times they were reported swimming hundreds of miles up major rivers, including the Rio Grande, and at least in Lake Nicaragua were a freshwater species. Sawfish were known to Mexico’s Aztecs, who used the saws in rituals. In 1979, archeologists unearthed several sawfish saws underneath the Aztec Great Temple in Mexico City. Half a century ago, largetooth sawfish were also well known to Texas shrimp fisherman and were frequently caught along the Texas coast from Brownsville to Port Arthur. One historical report describes a single fisherman, an E.F. Reid of Galveston, catching seven largetooth sawfish in one summer. These fish ranged in weight from 500 to 1,300 pounds, and in length from 14 feet to 17 feet 4 ? inches.

WildEarth Guardians protects and restores the wildlife, wild places and wild rivers of the American West. The group’s effort to obtain federal protection for the sawfish is part of its broader campaign to restore the Rio Grande from its headwaters to its mouth at the Gulf of Mexico.

To obtain the petition and petition finding, contact Nicole Rosmarino at nrosmarino@wildearthguardians.org or 505-699-7404.

You can also view the finding here.


 

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