There are some weird creatures in the sea: the burning red whalefish, the fin-walking red handfish and the floating deep-sea buttocks known as the pigbutt worm. The largetooth sawfish is in good company with these ocean oddballs.
This strange ray has a long, shark-like body with an elongated rostrum (snout) equipped with between 14 and 24 ‘teeth’ sticking out along the sides (they’re not really teeth but modified scales). Having this chainsaw on its face is what inspired its common names: the sawfish or carpenter shark.
What is a sawfish?
Largetooth sawfish are a critically endangered species of ray that look like a shark and have an unmissable snout adorned with several teeth. There are five known species of sawfish with this being one of the largest.
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Although their hedge trimmer-bedecked face looks somewhat terrifying, sawfish have much more to fear of humans than we do of them. These highly endangered animals are in real trouble because of human development, pollution and overfishing.
What do they look like?
These strange fish look like the work of an imaginative child mashing various objects together in one drawing. Their flat bodies have the mouth and gills on the underside, meaning they are technically a type of ray. But their long frame and tall dorsal fins make them look more shark-like.
The only way to describe their face is in their name: it’s got a saw on it. These large fishes look like they’ve strapped a chainsaw or hedge trimmer to their nose, as if sporting a strange new fashion trend.
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How big are they?
They can grow up to 7 metres and weigh between 500 to 600 kg
Where do largetooth sawfish live?
Largetooth sawfish can be found in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. The species lives in the ocean, estuaries and freshwater habitats: juveniles spend time in rivers before moving out towards the ocean when they are around three to five years old.
Being reliant on these shallow coastal habitats – which are being encroached upon by humans – puts largetooth sawfishes at risk. Coastal development and water pollution can impact their nurseries with long-term implications for the health of populations.
What do they eat?
Fish, crustaceans and molluscs living in the seabed. They find them using their iconic saw.
How do they hunt?
The sawfish’s eponymous saw doesn’t just look striking. This unique rostrum is designed to help them hunt. This large ‘nose’ is covered with special receptors called ampullae of Lorenzini which can detect electrical signals in the water and help them find prey.
Their prominent snout gives them a larger surface area to fit in more of these pores – making their big nose very useful. This means they don’t need to see well to catch a bite to eat and so can hunt at night or in water with poor visibility.
Swishing their head this way and that enables them to stun their prey or even slice them into pieces. Yikes.
How do they reproduce?
These animals are viviparous, which means mothers give live birth rather than laying eggs. After mating, the female grows between one and 13 pups inside her body for around five months.
The babies are already nearly a metre long (76-90 cm) at birth and the toothed saw on their face is already fully developed. The idea of giving birth to a live animal with a hedge-trimmer growing from its face doesn’t sound particularly safe. Thankfully for mum, babies have flexible rostrums that are sheathed in a protective coating so the mother doesn’t get injured during the birth.
Are they dangerous to humans?
No. Although they can grow to huge sizes and basically have a weapon on their face, these sharks tend to be rather shy and are most likely to swim away if they saw a human. But if they are caught or feel trapped, they might try to defend themselves and could do some damage by wielding their ‘saw’ and swinging it from side to side. Not something you want to get in the way of.
Are they under threat?
Yes. Sadly, the picture for largetooth sawfish isn’t good and these animals are categorised as critically endangered by the IUCN Red List. Scientists believe that out of all the shark and ray species they are the most vulnerable to threats. Their habitat is being destroyed by human development, leaving them with nowhere to go, and their slow reproduction rates makes it harder to replenish population numbers.
Their iconic saw-like snout also puts them at higher risk of getting caught by fisheries, both intentionally and accidentally. Some people target them for this unique ‘prize’ but it can also be their downfall because its length and ragged teeth can get easily caught in nets, resulting in the fish becoming bycatch.
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