Smalltooth Sawfish

About the Smalltooth Sawfish

Smalltooth Sawfish, also called wide sawfish, are found in shallow tropical waters in coastal and estuarine parts of the Atlantic in depths of eight to 122 m/400 ft. They are critically endangered, and are now non-existent in their previous habitat range off the coasts of: Honduras, Belize, Cuba, Sierra Leone and possibly Guinea-Bissau and Mauritania.   

Biology and Behaviour

Smalltooth sawfish frequent soft bottoms over mud or sand, but they can also be found over hard rocky bottoms or coral reefs in areas with mangroves or seagrass.

They can vary in colour from brownish-grey, grey, bluish-grey to blackish with an off-white underside. They have a relatively narrow rostrum with 20 to 32 teeth on each side. 

Their rostrum is made up of thousands of sensory organs that allow them to detect and monitor the movements of other organisms by measuring the electric fields other creatures emit. The sensory organs, also known as ampullary pores, are packed most densely on the dorsal side of its beak. This allows the sawfish to create an image of the three-dimensional area above it, even in waters of low-visibility. They use their snout to “view” their surroundings by resting low on the sea floor.

Similar to other sawfish, smalltooth sawfish feed on bottom-dwelling crustaceans and mollusks. They use their saw to dig and  uncover hidden food in mud or sand.

Although sawfish use their saw to mainly hunt for food, they also use their it as self-defence mechanism against predators by moving it from side-to-side powerfully. 

Reproduction and Lifespan

Smalltooth sawfish are ovoviviparous, meaning they make eggs inside the body, keep them inside until they hatch, and then give birth to live young, with a litter size between 15 to 20 pups born every other year. The pups are 61 cm/2 ft long at birth and can grow up to 5.54 m/18 ft 2 in long weighing up to 350 kg/771.6 lbs.

Conservation and Tourism

All sawfish are listed on the Appendix I of the Convention of International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES) which bans commercial international trade of sawfish and only of their parts.

The United States implemented protections for smalltooth sawfish. It’s illegal to engage with smalltooth sawfish in anyway that’ll harm or capture them. Critical Habitat, a conservation organization, helps to protect juvenile nursery areas in order for the sawfish to reach adulthood.

Nicaragua also imposed a permanent ban on sawfish fishing in Lake Nicaragua. In Brazil, smalltooth sawfishes are protected by the Ministry of Environment and in Mexico the take of all sawfish is banned. Sawfishes are protected in the Exclusive Economic Zone, an area where a country claims exclusive rights for fishing, drilling etc., in Guinea and Senegal and in Marine Protected Areas in Mauritania and Guinea-Bissau.

Smalltooth sawfish were once spotted off the coasts of 47 countries, but that number has been reduced to six.

There are a handful of public aquariums that keep smalltooth sawfishes in North America and one in Columbia.

Taken as bycatch (and was historically targeted) in commercial and small-scale fisheries, and often retained for its meat and fins. Historically, its fins were considered among the most highly valued in the shark fin trade, and this high value drove demand and increased exploitation of the species over the past decades. Habitat loss and the morphology of the rostrum, which makes them susceptible to capture in fishing gear, have also driven declines independently of trade. International trade of all sawfish species was prohibited in 2007 and 2013 with their listing on Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES), however, illegal trade continues (especially for their rostra, but in some areas also for their meat and fins). The species is also listed on Appendix 1 of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), which prohibits the taking of the species. Both the western and eastern Atlantic populations have undergone severe historic and ongoing steep population reductions due to overexploitation and habitat loss and degradation, with significant range contractions across their distribution. In the western Atlantic, the species is now extant in only four of its range states, with its ‘presence uncertain’ in 12 range states due to limited survey effort and few sightings, and it is ‘possibly extinct’ in three of its former range states. In the eastern Atlantic, of its former 18 range states, it is now extant in only five, has an uncertain presence in two, and is ‘possibly extinct’ in 11 states. Despite protection in some of its range states, threats are ongoing, and population decline is continuing. Due to limited abundance data, information on abundance trends was largely inferred from reports of capture records and local ecological knowledge, and this revealed populations have undergone high levels of decline over the past three generation lengths (59 years) in areas where it was historically extant, and is now either ‘possibly extinct’ or ‘presence uncertain’. Only in the west Atlantic extant range states of the United States, some areas in Mexico, and the Bahamas are populations stable or increasing. Overall, it is inferred that the Smalltooth Sawfish has undergone a >80% population reduction over the last three generation lengths (59 years) due to overexploitation, habitat degradation, and reductions in extent of occurrence, and it is assessed as Critically Endangered (CR A2cd).

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Smalltooth Sawfish Gallery