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Rare Sawfish Protected Under the Endangered Species Act
The five imperiled species of sawfish now have strong legal protections from fishing and habitat loss. Often tangled in nets or caught accidentally during commercial and recreational fishing, these unusual fish are kept and sold for their fins, teeth, and characteristic rostrum, or“saw” (a long, flattened snout lined with teeth on either side).
“It’s high time these incredible fish receive the best available protections from extinction,” said Taylor Jones, endangered species advocate for WildEarth Guardians. “Sawfishes’ value as a living part of the ecosystem is far greater than any value their parts might fetch in trade.”
WildEarth Guardians submitted a petition to list the sawfish species under the ESA in September of 2010 due to the significant threats to the species. These large fish are closely related to sharks and rays. Sawfish live close to shore, as they tend to move between marine environments and estuaries where salt and freshwater mix. They use their rostrum to locate,stun, and kill prey. Sawfish are long-lived and slow-growing, traits that make it difficult for their populations to adapt to new threats.
Sawfish have very high commercial value; their saws, teeth, and fins can fetch up to $1,000 U.S., and markets for sawfish are largely unregulated. Their saws also make them particularly vulnerable to entanglement in nets, and if caught as by catch, sawfish are most often kept and sold. In addition to fishing, habitat loss is a major concern. Residential and commercial development near shorelines threatens sawfish habitats, particularly important nursery areas for pups such as mangrove forests. Pollution threatens water quality, and dams impact the flow of freshwater into the deltas the sawfish call home.
Few countries have regulations in place to protect sawfish. Protection under the ESA is an effective safety net for imperiled species: more than 99 percent of plants and animals protected by the law exist today. The law is especially important as a defense against the current extinction crisis; species are disappearing at a rate much higher than the natural rate of extinction due to human activities. Scientists estimate that 227 species would have gone extinct if not for ESA protections. Listing species with global distribution can both protect the species domestically, and help focus U.S. resources toward enforcement of international regulation and recovery of the species. Marine species are in particular need of increased legal protections; an estimated 50-80 percent of all life on earth is found in the oceans,but more than half of marine species may be at risk of extinction by 2100without significant conservation efforts. Despite this grave situation, the U.S. has largely failed to protect marine species under the ESA; of the 2,198species protected under the Act, only 125 (~5 percent) are marine species.
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Clarification on Taxonomy. WildEarth Guardians submitted a petition to list six species of sawfish as “threatened” or “endangered” under the ESA on Sept. 2, 2010. Two of these species, Pristis pristis and P.microdon, along with the already-listed species P. perotteti, were consolidated into one taxonomic classification (P. pristis). Subsequently, P. pristis along with the four other species included in the petition (Anoxypristis cuspidate, P. clavata, P. zijsron, and all non listed population(s) of P. pectinata) were proposed for “endangered”status on July 4, 2013. These are the five species addressed in today’s final rule.
View WildEarth Guardians’ listing petition.