Pristis microdon

Taxonomy

Assessment Information

Geographic Range

Population

Habitat and Ecology

Threats

Conservation Actions

Taxonomy [top]

Kingdom	Phylum	Class	Order	Family
ANIMALIA	CHORDATA	CHONDRICHTHYES	RAJIFORMES	PRISTIDAE

Scientific Name:

Pristis microdon

Species Authority:

Latham, 1794

Common Name/s:

English	–	Freshwater Sawfish, Largetooth Sawfish, Leichhardt's Sawfish, Smalltooth Sawfish
French	–	Poisson-scie
Spanish	–	Pejepeine, Pez Sierra

Taxonomic Notes:

The genus Pristis is taxonomically chaotic with uncertainty regarding the true number of valid species. The practical difficulties associated with resolving these taxonomic issues are acute, since it is extremely difficult to obtain specimens or tissue samples from these increasingly rare species for taxonomic research. Family Pristidae contains one mono-specific genus (Anoxypristis) and one genus (Pristis) of four to six species, grouped by similar visual characteristics. The 'Pristis pristis complex'; (Pristis pristis, P. microdon and P. perotteti), has relatively broad-based, strongly tapered and massive saws, with fewer (under 22) large teeth. P. microdon may not be distinct from the largetooth sawfish P. perotteti, which occurs in the Americas and west Africa. Field research and collection of specimens from both groups for comparison will be needed to verify the uniqueness of these two species. Some of the members of these groups may be sub-species or geographically distinct populations rather than valid species, but because many populations have been extirpated their precise genetic identity may never be resolved (Compagno and Cook 1995a, 2005a,b).

Assessment Information [top]

Red List Category & Criteria:

Critically Endangered A2abcd+3cd+4bcd ver 3.1

Year Assessed:

2006

Assessor/s

Compagno, L.J.V., Cook, S.F. & Fowler, S.L.

Evaluator/s:

van der Elst, R., Everett, B. & participants of the Shark Specialist Group Subequatorial Africa workshop (Shark Red List Authority)

Justification:
A large eurohaline Indo-Pacific species of sawfish that has mostly been reported in freshwaters of Southeast Asia and Australia, also in southeastern African rivers, but probably always has been more common in coastal waters where it is less noticeable. It is characterised by extreme and continued vulnerability to fisheries (evidenced by serious declines in virtually all known populations), compounded by habitat loss and degradation over most of its range. Remaining populations are now small, fragmented and Critically Endangered globally.

History:

2000	–	Endangered (Hilton-Taylor 2000)
2000	–	Critically Endangered (Hilton-Taylor 2000)
1996	–	Endangered (Baillie and Groombridge 1996)

Geographic Range [top]

Range Description:	A euryhaline species (except in Australia where it has only been recorded in freshwater) of the Indo-Pacific region. It has been recorded from southern Africa to Southeast Asia and the Indo-Australian Archipelago including Australia and the Philippines (Fowler 1941, Wallace 1967, Misra 1969, Paxton et al. 1989, Compagno et al. 1989, Last and Stevens 1994, Compagno and Cook 1995a). Freshwater records of Pristis microdon include rivers of South Africa, in the Shire, Zambezi, Sabie, and Lundi Rivers of Mozambique and Zimbabwe; Ganges and Bramaputra Rivers of India; possibly from the Chaophraya at Nantaburi above Paknam in Thailand; Perak, and possibly the Trembeling and Linggi Rivers in mainland Malaysia; the Kinabatangan and other large rivers in Sabah, Borneo; Grand Lac in Cambodia (Kampuchea); at Lake Naujan, Mindoro Island in the Philippines; Indragiri River near Rengat, Sumatra and Bandjermassing, Borneo in Indonesia; the Fly river system, Sepik and Laloki Rivers, and Lake Murray in Papua-New Guinea; Gilbert, Mitchell, Daly, Victoria, Ord, Fitzroy, Lynd, Walsh, Palmer, and Alligator Rivers, and Teogangini Creek in Australia (Boulenger 1909, Annandale 1909, Fowler 1941, Whitley 1940 and 1945, Smith 1945, Boeseman 1956, Alfred 1962, Stead 1963, Jubb 1967, Munro 1967, Misra 1969, Grant 1972 and 1978, Roberts 1978, Taniuchi 1979, Kottelat 1985, Merrick and Schmida 1984, Taniuchi and Shimizu 1991, Taniuchi et al. 1991, Last and Stevens 1994, Compagno and Cook 1995a, Skelton 2001).
Countries:	Native: Australia; Bangladesh; Cambodia; India; Indonesia (Kalimantan, Sumatera); Malaysia (Sabah); Mozambique; Myanmar; Papua New Guinea; Philippines; South Africa; Sri Lanka; Thailand
FAO Marine Fishing Areas:	Native: Indian Ocean – western; Indian Ocean – eastern; Pacific – western central Presence uncertain: Pacific – southwest

Population [top]

Population:	Populations are becoming increasingly rare and fragmented and all those known are severely threatened by target and bycatch fisheries and deterioration of habitats. Many populations have been extirpated or nearly extirpated from large areas of their former range, with no or only very few observations reported in most range states since the 1960s, although they were reportedly common in many inshore waters at the end of the 19^th century and early 20^th century.
Population Trend:	Decreasing

Population:

Populations are becoming increasingly rare and fragmented and all those known are severely threatened by target and bycatch fisheries and deterioration of habitats. Many populations have been extirpated or nearly extirpated from large areas of their former range, with no or only very few observations reported in most range states since the 1960s, although they were reportedly common in many inshore waters at the end of the 19^th century and early 20^th century.

Population Trend:

Decreasing

Habitat and Ecology [top]

Habitat and Ecology:	A large (to 700 cm) euryhaline sawfish with 18 to 23 evenly-spaced rostral teeth starting near the rostral base and extending over the entire length of the saw on each side; the posterior margin of the slender rostral teeth is grooved. It has broad nostrils with large nasal flaps, dorsal fins are high and pointed with first dorsal well forward of the pelvic-fin origins and the caudal fin lower lobe is small but distinct (Last and Stevens 1994). This species, like the largetooth sawfish of the Americas, occurs far up rivers and in freshwater lakes throughout its range. However, it no longer occurs in a number of freshwater habitats where it was formerly recorded. The species is seen and very occasionally caught seasonally along with the bull shark Carcharhinus leucas, in rivers in Sabah, North Borneo, and, in lower stretches of the rivers, with the green sawfish Pristis zijsron (Compagno and Cook 2005b). The sawfishes are all ovoviviparous. The biology of this species is virtually unknown where it occurs, but, as with P. perotteti, it apparently breeds in fresh water. Size at maturity is unknown. Mature whole specimens are generally lacking in collections because of their size, but dried isolated rostra are generally well represented in collections although they often lack data (L. Compagno pers. obs).
Systems:	Freshwater; Marine

Habitat and Ecology:

A large (to 700 cm) euryhaline sawfish with 18 to 23 evenly-spaced rostral teeth starting near the rostral base and extending over the entire length of the saw on each side; the posterior margin of the slender rostral teeth is grooved. It has broad nostrils with large nasal flaps, dorsal fins are high and pointed with first dorsal well forward of the pelvic-fin origins and the caudal fin lower lobe is small but distinct (Last and Stevens 1994).

This species, like the largetooth sawfish of the Americas, occurs far up rivers and in freshwater lakes throughout its range. However, it no longer occurs in a number of freshwater habitats where it was formerly recorded. The species is seen and very occasionally caught seasonally along with the bull shark Carcharhinus leucas, in rivers in Sabah, North Borneo, and, in lower stretches of the rivers, with the green sawfish Pristis zijsron (Compagno and Cook 2005b).

The sawfishes are all ovoviviparous. The biology of this species is virtually unknown where it occurs, but, as with P. perotteti, it apparently breeds in fresh water. Size at maturity is unknown. Mature whole specimens are generally lacking in collections because of their size, but dried isolated rostra are generally well represented in collections although they often lack data (L. Compagno pers. obs).

Systems:

Freshwater; Marine

Threats [top]

Major Threat(s):	The principal threat to all sawfishes is fisheries, both targeted and bycatch, commercial and subsistence. Their morphology, particularly the long tooth-studded saw, makes them extraordinarily vulnerable to entanglement in any sort of net gear, including primitive fishing technology, and regardless of population size (which was probably always fairly small). When sawfish are taken in bycatch, they are often retained (particularly in areas where there is no legal protection) because of the very high value of their products (meat is high quality and fins and rostral saws extremely valuable in international trade). They are also targeted opportunistically for the same reasons. Very large specimens have also been the target of trophy angling, e.g., in the Kinabatangan River, Sabah (L. Compagno pers. obs). According to the FAO online database, FIGIS, sawfish landings were recorded between 1962 and 2001, with a peak of 1759 t in 1978 worldwide, but most of these were outside the main Indo-Pacific range of this primarily freshwater species and some annual figures appear to be extrapolations from previous years. Reported landings have since declined steeply. Most reports suggest that numbers taken by fisheries from a great many localities have fallen noticeably since the 1960s, if not earlier. There is increasing demand for live sawfish to put on display in public aquaria, with most specimens sourced from Australia. The mortality rates associated with securing live sawfishes for this use is unknown. Major habitat impacts include river engineering (particularly dams), siltation from logging and agricultural activity upstream, and pollution from industries and mining operations. P. microdon has disappeared from many freshwater habitats (i.e., Chaophraya River, Thailand, for example, where it has not been reported in several decades (L. Compagno pers. obs). It was apparently wiped out along with other fishes in the Fly River system of Papua-New Guinea by recurrent, massive cyanide spills from heap-leach mining operations (Tyson Roberts, Bangkok personal communication 1996). Increased agricultural and industrial use of water in catchments reduces flow, closes river mouths and alters salinity, exacerbating the effects of climate change. This is currently very evident at St Lucia estuary in South Africa, which was once the major site for Pristis. Last and Stevens (1994) report that the species is highly vulnerable to gillnet fishing and that Australian populations may be threatened in streams by bycatch in poaching operations for barramundi Lates calcarifer.

Major Threat(s):

The principal threat to all sawfishes is fisheries, both targeted and bycatch, commercial and subsistence. Their morphology, particularly the long tooth-studded saw, makes them extraordinarily vulnerable to entanglement in any sort of net gear, including primitive fishing technology, and regardless of population size (which was probably always fairly small). When sawfish are taken in bycatch, they are often retained (particularly in areas where there is no legal protection) because of the very high value of their products (meat is high quality and fins and rostral saws extremely valuable in international trade). They are also targeted opportunistically for the same reasons. Very large specimens have also been the target of trophy angling, e.g., in the Kinabatangan River, Sabah (L. Compagno pers. obs).

According to the FAO online database, FIGIS, sawfish landings were recorded between 1962 and 2001, with a peak of 1759 t in 1978 worldwide, but most of these were outside the main Indo-Pacific range of this primarily freshwater species and some annual figures appear to be extrapolations from previous years. Reported landings have since declined steeply. Most reports suggest that numbers taken by fisheries from a great many localities have fallen noticeably since the 1960s, if not earlier.

There is increasing demand for live sawfish to put on display in public aquaria, with most specimens sourced from Australia. The mortality rates associated with securing live sawfishes for this use is unknown.

Major habitat impacts include river engineering (particularly dams), siltation from logging and agricultural activity upstream, and pollution from industries and mining operations. P. microdon has disappeared from many freshwater habitats (i.e., Chaophraya River, Thailand, for example, where it has not been reported in several decades (L. Compagno pers. obs). It was apparently wiped out along with other fishes in the Fly River system of Papua-New Guinea by recurrent, massive cyanide spills from heap-leach mining operations (Tyson Roberts, Bangkok personal communication 1996). Increased agricultural and industrial use of water in catchments reduces flow, closes river mouths and alters salinity, exacerbating the effects of climate change. This is currently very evident at St Lucia estuary in South Africa, which was once the major site for Pristis. Last and Stevens (1994) report that the species is highly vulnerable to gillnet fishing and that Australian populations may be threatened in streams by bycatch in poaching operations for barramundi Lates calcarifer.

Conservation Actions [top]

Conservation Actions:	Indonesia enacted legislation to protect sawfishes (and five other freshwater fish species) in Lake Sentani, West Papua, following severe depletion of populations in a gill net fishery (Compagno and Cook 2005a). South Africa has outlawed the capture of all sawfish species for many years; first protection at KwaZulu-Natal provincial level was in 1978, national as critical in 1997. Australia’s Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC) lists Pristis microdon as a Protected species and Vulnerable in Queensland.India’s Ministry of Environment and Forests has protected all species of sawfishes under the Wildlife Protection Act (WPA) 1972 since 2001. In January 2006, eBay announced it would ban the sale of sawfish parts and products on their on-line auction site. This measure will require vigilant monitoring within eBay and with the help of outside experts.

Conservation Actions:

Indonesia enacted legislation to protect sawfishes (and five other freshwater fish species) in Lake Sentani, West Papua, following severe depletion of populations in a gill net fishery (Compagno and Cook 2005a).

South Africa has outlawed the capture of all sawfish species for many years; first protection at KwaZulu-Natal provincial level was in 1978, national as critical in 1997.

Australia’s Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC) lists Pristis microdon as a Protected species and Vulnerable in Queensland.India’s Ministry of Environment and Forests has protected all species of sawfishes under the Wildlife Protection Act (WPA) 1972 since 2001.

In January 2006, eBay announced it would ban the sale of sawfish parts and products on their on-line auction site. This measure will require vigilant monitoring within eBay and with the help of outside experts.

Citation:	Compagno, L.J.V., Cook, S.F. & Fowler, S.L. 2006. Pristis microdon. In: IUCN 2008. 2008 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 09 January 2009.
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