Saving the Sawfishes - Global Strategy!

Click for detail - whole infographic here!

Bravo IUCN!

All Sawfishes are threatened with extinction.

And whilst some countries like the USA do a good job at protecting them and trying to re-establish critical habitat, others require urgent action.

You can read it all here.

This is excellent, impressive work and a must read for fisheries managers, researchers and conservationists alike - and for smartass anglers, too!

Kudos!

Targeting Sawfish - WTF!

The caption reads BADASS - really? 

Smalltooth Sawfish are.

• Listed globally as Critically Endangered
• Listed under CITES 1 (which is not applicable here)
• Listed as endangered under ESA

And I cite.

The ESA and its implementing regulations set forth a series of general prohibitions that apply to all endangered wildlife.
The prohibitions of section 9 of the ESA, in part, make it illegal for any person subject to the jurisdiction of the United States to take (to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture or collect, or to attempt to engage in any such conduct), to import into, or export from, the United States, to ship in interstate or foreign commerce in the course of commercial activity, or to sell or offer for sale in interstate or foreign commerce any endangered wildlife. 

Repeated here, with handling recommendations.

So how can this shit be acceptable, and why are the media reporting it as some kind of a "feat".  Although the post release mortality is so far unknown, those prolonged fights exert tremendous stress on the animals, meaning that their fitness is certainly reduced. Plus, this is very much intentional targeting, meaning that considering the definition by ESA, this is most likely illegal.

Action anybody?

Sawfishes in Fiji? Alas not!

Wanted: ID pics from Fiji!
Guitarfish, Rhynchobatus laevis, (not dijiddensis as in the original caption) possibly the species seen here in Fiji - but maybe not! :)

Nice paper!
Sawfishes are among the most threatened Elasmobranchs and all seven species are listed as Critically Endangered by the IUCN. They generally inhabit shallow coastal waters of continental shelves and estuarine habitats and are not generally known from oceanic islands.

It was thus quite a coup when one turned up on a Fiji fish list.
Clinton Duffy, yes as in Grim the tourist, has followed up on the Fiji record and after meticulous research all the way to linguistics, he comes to the conclusion that the origin of the specimens is suspect and that there are no credible recent records of Sawfishes having been sighted or caught in the archipelago.
You can read a preview here and get the whole paper here.

Clinton is now looking at Shovelnose Rays, Genus Rhynchobatus.
They are rather frequently sighted in Fiji but nobody seems to have identified the exact species. Does any of our readers have any good ID pictures he would be willing to share with Clinton?
Any help would be much appreciated!

Vinaka!

Talking of Evil...

... this is sure hard to beat.

Apparently, some fishermen in the Australian Northern Territory have gone out on a rampage and snapped the back and then dumped dozens upon dozens of Sawfish (or Saw Sharks), critically endangered animals, to prevent them from getting entangled in their nets.



Kudos to Primary Industry Minister Kon Vatskalis for having enacted a 3-month fishing ban as a consequence. I sure hope that the other commercial fishermen will make it a point to personally go and thank the perpetrators for having lost their income!
Full story here.