Adult female smalltooth sawfish Pristis pectinata tagged with an archival satellite tag off the Florida Keys. Photo: Dean Grubbs
Biology and ecology of sawfishes
Given the substantial declines experienced by all 5 species and their dramatically reduced ranges, sawfishes are among the most threatened fish in the world. Most of these declines likely resulted from bycatch due to the species’ elongated, toothed rostrum which makes them susceptible to entanglement in gill nets and other coastal fisheries gear. Since bycatch is often so poorly documented, the declines may have been worse than once thought in some regions, and the prospects for recovery even more dire. As a result, most species are poorly understood and all species are currently listed as Endangered or Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species and the Pristidae has been listed as the most threatened elasmobranch family by the IUCN Shark Specialist Group. In response to this situation, research and conservation efforts have expanded tremendously over the last decade and have provided new insights into the distribution, biology, and ecology of sawfishes worldwide.
This Theme Section explores the current status of the species and features information on a variety of topics such as telemetry, integrative multisensor tagging, feeding and trophic dynamics, physiology, sensory biology, reproductive biology, population genetics, conservation, and management. It includes papers presented as part of a symposium of the same title at the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, American Elasmobranch Society Annual Meeting, July 6–10, 2016, in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.
Articles belonging to this Theme Section were published upon completion in the respective volume of ESR. They were listed below as well as on the contents page of the respective volume of publication.
Date of completion: June 2019
Organizers: Dean Grubbs, Gregg R. Poulakis
Editors: Mike Bruford, Steven Cooke, Brendan Godley, Dean Grubbs (Guest Editor), Eduardo Martins, Gregg Poulakis (Guest Editor)
Poulakis GR, Grubbs RD
OVERVIEW: Biology and ecology of sawfishes: global status of research and future outlook
ESR 39:77-90 | Full text in pdf format 
Reis-Filho JA, Freitas RHA, Loiola M, Leite L, Soeiro G, Oliveira HHQ, Sampaio CLS, Nunes JACC, Leduc AOHC
Traditional fisher perceptions on the regional disappearance of the largetooth sawfish Pristis pristis from the central coast of Brazil
ESR 29:189-200 | Full text in pdf format
Simpfendorfer CA, Kyne PM, Noble TH, Goldsbury J, Basiita RK, Lindsay R, Shields A, Perry C, Jerry DR
Environmental DNA detects Critically Endangered largetooth sawfish in the wild
ESR 30:109-116 | Full text in pdf format
Jabado RW, Al Baharna RA, Al Ali SR, Al Suwaidi KO, Al Blooshi AY, Al Dhaheri SS
Is this the last stand of the Critically Endangered green sawfish Pristis zijsron in the Arabian Gulf?
ESR 32:265-275 | Full text in pdf format
White WT, Appleyard SA, Kyne PM, Mana RR
Sawfishes in Papua New Guinea: a preliminary investigation into their status and level of exploitation
ESR 32:277-291 | Full text in pdf format
Phillips NM, Fearing A, Morgan DL
Genetic bottlenecks in Pristis sawfishes in northern Australian waters
ESR 32:363-372 | Full text in pdf format
Poulakis GR, Urakawa H, Stevens PW, DeAngelo JA, Timmers AA, Grubbs RD, Fisk AT, Olin JA
Sympatric elasmobranchs and fecal samples provide insight into the trophic ecology of the smalltooth sawfish
ESR 32:491-506 | Full text in pdf format
Seitz JC, Hoover JJ
NOTE: Taxonomic resolution of sawfish rostra from two private collections
ESR 32:525-532 | Full text in pdf format
Moore ABM
REVIEW: Are guitarfishes the next sawfishes? Extinction risk and an urgent call for conservation action
ESR 34:75-88 | Full text in pdf format
Whitty JM, Keleher J, Ebner BC, Gleiss AC, Simpfendorfer CA, Morgan DL
Habitat use of a Critically Endangered elasmobranch, the largetooth sawfish Pristis pristis, in an intermittently flowing riverine nursery
ESR 34:211-227 | Full text in pdf format
Manir Feitosa L, Barbosa Martins AP, Silva Nunes JL
NOTE: Sawfish (Pristidae) records along the Eastern Amazon coast
ESR 34:229-234 | Full text in pdf format
Morgan DL, Ebner BC, Allen MG, Gleiss AC, Beatty SJ, Whitty JM
Habitat use and site fidelity of neonate and juvenile green sawfish Pristis zijsron in a nursery area in Western Australia
ESR 34:235-249 | Full text in pdf format
Wueringer BE
Sawfish captures in the Queensland Shark Control Program, 1962 to 2016
ESR 34:293-300 | Full text in pdf format
Huston CA, Stevens PW, Blaxton RM, Tolley SG, Scharer RM, Tornwall BM, Poulakis GR
Diel movements of juvenile smalltooth sawfish: implications for defining the size of a nursery hotspot
ESR 34:311-322 | Full text in pdf format
Feldheim KA, Fields AT, Chapman DD, Scharer RM, Poulakis GR
Insights into reproduction and behavior of the smalltooth sawfish Pristis pectinata
ESR 34:463-471 | Full text in pdf format
Scharer RM, Stevens PW, Shea CP, Poulakis GR
All nurseries are not created equal: large-scale habitat use patterns in two smalltooth sawfish nurseries
ESR 34:473-492 | Full text in pdf format
Bakenhaster MD, Bullard SA, Curran SS, Kritsky DC, Leone EH, Partridge LK, Ruiz CF, Scharer RM, Poulakis GR
Parasite component community of smalltooth sawfish off Florida: diversity, conservation concerns, and research applications
ESR 35:47-58 | Full text in pdf format
Leeney RH, Mana RR, Dulvy NK
Fishers’ ecological knowledge of sawfishes in the Sepik and Ramu rivers, northern Papua New Guinea
ESR 36:15-26 | Full text in pdf format
Elhassan IS
Occurrence of the green sawfish Pristis zijsron in the Sudanese Red Sea with observations on reproduction
ESR 36:41-47 | Full text in pdf format
Prohaska BK, Bethea DM, Poulakis GR, Scharer RM, Knotek R, Carlson JK, Grubbs RD
Physiological stress in the smalltooth sawfish: effects of ontogeny, capture method, and habitat quality
ESR 36:121-135 | Full text in pdf format
Bonfil R, Ricaño-Soriano M, Mendoza-Vargas OU, Méndez-Loeza I, Pérez-Jiménez JC, Bolaño-Martínez N, Palacios-Barreto P
Tapping into local ecological knowledge to assess the former importance and current status of sawfishes in Mexico
ESR 36:213-228 | Full text in pdf format
Green ME, D’Anastasi BR, Hobbs JPA, Feldheim K, McAuley R, Peverell S, Stapley J, Johnson G, Appleyard SA, White WT, Simpfendorfer CA, van Herwerden L
Mixed-marker approach suggests maternal philopatry and sex-biased behaviours of narrow sawfish Anoxypristis cuspidata
ESR 37:45-54 | Full text in pdf format
Hollensead LD, Grubbs RD, Carlson JK, Bethea DM
Assessing residency time and habitat use of juvenile smalltooth sawfish using acoustic monitoring in a nursery habitat
ESR 37:119-131 | Full text in pdf format
Cuevas JM, García M, Hozbor N, Faria VV, Paesch L
Tracing the occurrence of the Critically Endangered smalltooth sawfish Pristis
pectinata at its southernmost distribution in the Southwest Atlantic Ocean
ESR 38:1-9 | Full text in pdf format
Brame AB, Wiley TR, Carlson JK, Fordham SV, Grubbs RD, Osborne J, Scharer RM, Bethea DM, Poulakis GR
REVIEW: Biology, ecology, and status of the smalltooth sawfish Pristis pectinata in the USA
ESR 39:9-23 | Full text in pdf format