Common Sawfish

Elasmobranch

Identification & Biology

• IdentificationA huge ray-like fish with a long, flat, blade-shaped snout (rostrum) lined with tooth-like projections on both sides. The body is shark-shaped with a flattened underside. Olive-grey to brown on top, pale underneath.
• SizeHistorically up to 6.5 m total length. One of the largest fish in the world.
• Social HabitSolitary. Sweeps its saw through schools of fish to stun prey, or rakes it through bottom sediment to uncover buried invertebrates.
• HabitatShallow coastal waters, estuaries, river mouths, and occasionally freshwater. Prefers muddy and sandy bottoms in warm water.
• Depth0 to 10 m. A strictly shallow-water species that favours murky, sheltered environments.
• Feeds OnSmall schooling fish (mullet, herring), crustaceans, and bottom-dwelling invertebrates disturbed by the saw.
• DistributionFormerly widespread in the tropical and warm temperate Atlantic, Indian Ocean, and Mediterranean. Now functionally extinct in the Mediterranean Sea.
• DescriptionPristis pristis was once present in the coastal waters of the Mediterranean but has not been reliably recorded in the region for decades. It is listed as Critically Endangered by the IUCN and is considered one of the most threatened marine fish on Earth. Historical records from Malta and Sicily exist, but the species is now presumed absent from all Mediterranean waters. Included here as a historically documented species.