Very large rays with a long, flat snout lined with teeth like a saw. They live in warm coastal seas, estuaries and even rivers and lakes, and use the saw to find and strike fish. All five species are critically endangered, with strongholds left only in northern Australia and Florida.
Quick answers
What is it?Fish
Carnivore?Yes
Dangerous?Can be
Docile and generally harmless, but a captured sawfish defending itself can cause serious injuries with its saw.
Domesticated?No
Awake when?Night
Hibernates?No
Kept as a pet?No
Do people eat it?In places
Hunted for its fins, used in shark fin soup, and for its teeth and saw in traditional medicine.
At a glance
Found inOceans, Rivers, Australia, North America
HabitatCoast, Rivers & lakes
ColoursGrey, Brown
SizeHuge
LengthSome species reach about 7–7.6 m
LegsNone
Covered inSkin
Lives alone
Lives for30–50 years
Can swim
In the wild
- Where it lives
- Tropical and subtropical coasts, estuaries and rivers worldwide, but now gone from much of that range except northern Australia and Florida.
- What it eats
- Fish and invertebrates, found and caught with the saw.
- Conservation
- Critically Endangered (IUCN Red List)
Did you know
Its saw is packed with sensors that pick up the electric fields of its prey.
Females give birth to live young once a year or every second year.
It can sense prey about 40 cm away from the electric fields the prey gives off.
Often confused with
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