Scientists from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) have launched a global strategy to save the most threatened group of fish in the world – the sawfish. While sharks and rays are regularly featured in popular conservation campaign the sawfish are often the forgotten relations of the big fish.
The new plan is being released by the Shark Specialist Group of the IUCN and is being featured at the Sharks International conference in Durban. Two west African range states are also calling for sawfish to be covered by the Convention on Migratory Species at the next meeting of the convention in November.
“The sawfishes, revered for millennia by coastal cultures around the world, now face greater extinction risk than any other family of marine fish,” said strategy co-author, Dr. Nick Dulvy, who serves as IUCN SSG Co-Chair and Canada Research Chair at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. “With this comprehensive strategy, we aim to reignite sawfish reverence and spark conservation action in time to bring these iconic species back from the brink.”
Dr. Colin Simpfendorfer, IUCN SSG Co-Chair, Professor of Environmental Science at James Cook University in Queensland explained, “Although these species are perilously close to extinction in many regions, there are some fairly simple ways to help populations recover. For example, we know that sawfish can actually survive capture quite well if handled properly, and hence, basic education of commercial, subsistence, and recreational fishers is central to our conservation strategy.”
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