Regional Fast Facts: Australia

Species:

• Four of the world’s five sawfish species - Narrow, Dwarf, Green, and Largetooth – are found in northern regions of the country

Status: 

• All sawfishes have undergone significant, albeit largely unquantified, declines in Australia due to capture in fisheries and modification of habitat
• Despite this, northern Australia represents one of the last strongholds for sawfishes in the world
• Dwarf sawfish now only occurs in Australia; there have been no records from elsewhere in more than a century. It now has the smallest distribution of any sawfish species
• Green Sawfish is now extinct in New South Wales and southern Queensland
• Largetooth, Green, and Dwarf sawfishes are totally protected in Australia; Narrow Sawfish is not
• The Kimberley and Pilbara regions of Western Australia are globally significant for Green Sawfish

Biology:

• All sawfishes are marine species, but Largetooth and Dwarf sawfish also spend part of their lives in rivers; juvenile Largetooth spend 4-5 years in the freshwater reaches of tropical rivers before migrating to coastal and marine environment
• Rivers are an important nursery areas for Dwarf and particularly Largetooth Sawfish
• Female Largetooth Sawfish return to sites previously used for reproduction to give birth
• Despite its name, the Dwarf Sawfish reaches 3.2 m in length. While not tiny, it is the smallest sawfish
• Green Sawfish can live for more than 50 years. In contrast, the Narrow Sawfish only lives to 9 years

Threats:

• Despite protection, sawfish are still caught as incidentally as bycatch in commercial fisheries in northern Australia, particularly in gillnets
• Barriers in rivers (such as road crossings, barrages, and dams) can pose a restriction to the upstream migration of Largetooth Sawfish
• Some Australian fisheries have safe release guides, developed by the fishing industry
• Narrow Sawfish fins have been found amongst confiscated shark fin catches from foreign fishing vessels fishing illegally in northern Australia

Amazing facts:

• Amongst some Indigenous communities of northern Australia there are strong cultural connections to sawfishes
• Six public aquariums in Australia hold and display sawfishes that have been collected from the wild

Opportunities:

• The Australian Government has prepared a recovery plan for Largetooth, Dwarf, and Green Sawfishes
• As a party to the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS), Australia can help ensure the listing of sawfish to CMS Appendix I in November 2014, which would oblige Parties to strictly protect the species in national waters while encouraging regional cooperation in sawfish conservation