Happy #InternationalSawfishDay! Sawfishes are a family of rays and it has long, narrow, flattened rostrum. #Sawfish use their long rostrum like a metal detector to sense the electric field created by other creatures. Humans are potential prey for sawfish.

#Sawfish only start giving birth to small litters of live pups once they are about 15 years old. To protect the mother, the saw of a newborn sawfish is soft at birth. All their bones including the saw are #cartilaginous. The #pups have to fend for themselves right from the start.

Mother sawfishes come to freshwater (near shore, lake or rivers) to give birth and after giving the birth it moves. In the large-tooth sawfish the males appear to move more freely between the subpopulations, while mothers return to to the region where they were born to give birth

In #Bangladesh, some people particularly in the #Sundarban or south west region, still believe that eating the meat of #sawfish #cures #cancer and other #illnesses. Dried fins are shipped to others countries like china through Myanmar border where they are considered a delicacy.

This highly lucrative #trade makes it especially difficult to convince #fishers to #release #sawfish even though it is a punishable offence. These #iconic fish are #globally #critically #endangered and have vanished from many parts of the #ocean.

Such a long nose extension lined with sharp teeth is highly prone to getting #entangled in almost any kind of #fishing gear. Due to the habitat destruction in mangrove associated areas, climate change, and high entanglement rate are the main threat for these charismatic species.