Educational Materials and Resources

‘The King of the Fishes’ – an educational book about sawfish and ecosystem balance, for fishing communities in east Africa.
Available in English, French, Portuguese, Malagasy.         

Distinguishing sawfishes from saw sharks (A4 Infographic)
Available in English, French, Portuguese, Malagasy.

Sawfishes: The World's Most Endangered Marine Fish (A2 Poster)
Available in English, French, Portuguese.  

Articles in Popular Press

Leeney RH. 2016. Searching for River Monsters. The Marine Biologist – magazine of The Marine Biological Association of the UK. Issue Apr 2016, 14-18.

Anon. 2016. Les Poissons-Scies de Madagascar. Tana Planete: 69-71.

Leeney RH. 2017. The King of Fishes. Save Our Seas Magazine 7: 18-35.

Leeney RH. 2016. West Africa’s Sawfishes – a window to their lost world. Save Our Seas Magazine 5.

Leeney RH. 2016. Summary of sawfish work taking place in Mexico, Central and South America. IUCN SSG newsletter.

 Videos:

How to Conduct a Baseline Assessment for Sawfishes
The publications listed below provide details on the methods other researchers have developed and used to assess the presence and conservation status of sawfishes (and other rare animals), primarily using interviews. Please be aware that there is no one, single prescriptive approach or interview structure that will work for every study. The interview structure should be developed in collaboration with colleagues or collaborators from the area in which you intend to work, who have a good understanding of local culture, sensitivities and levels of education of your intended interviewees.
If you have not conducted interviews before, we recommend reading some standard social scientific texts to get an understanding of the skills required, possible pitfalls, and how to develop questions that are most likely to elicit the information you need.

An excellent example:
Gill et al. (2008) Methods of data collection in qualitative research: interviews and focus groups. British Dental Journal 204: 291-295

Methods for Conducting Sawfish Surveys: Further Readings

Leeney, R.H. 2017. Are sawfishes still present in Mozambique? A baseline ecological study. PeerJ 5:e2950; DOI: 10.7717/peerj.2950

Leeney, R.H. and Downing, N. 2016. Sawfishes in the Gambia and Senegal–Shifting baselines over 40 years. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 26(2): 265-278.

Leeney, R.H. 2016. Fishers’ ecological knowledge of sawfishes in Lake Piso, Liberia. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 26(2): 381-385.

Leeney, R.H. and Poncelet, P. 2015. Using fishers’ ecological knowledge to assess the status and cultural
importance of sawfish in Guinea-Bissau. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 25(3): 411-430.

Leeney, R.H., Dia, I.M. and Dia, M. 2015. Food, Pharmacy, Friend? Bycatch, Direct Take and Consumption of Dolphins in West Africa. Human Ecology 43(1):105-118.

Hossain, M.D.A., Thompson, B.S., Chowdhury, G.W., Mohsanin, S., Fahad, Z.H., Koldewey, H.J. and Islam, M.D.A. 2015. Sawfish exploitation and status in Bangladesh. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 25(6): 781-789.

For a comprehensive list of historical and recent sawfish publications, visit the Sawfish Conservation Society's website.