page_title: Sawfish
section_title: Decline and conservation
hierarchical_section_title: Sawfish / Relationship with humans / Decline and conservation
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: Negatief. Man op het strand met een gevangen zaagvis, Nederlands-Indië
context_page_description: Sawfishes, also known as carpenter sharks, are a family of rays characterized by a long, narrow, flattened rostrum, or nose extension, lined with sharp transverse teeth, arranged in a way that resembles a saw. They are among the largest fish with some species reaching lengths of about 7–7.6 m. They are found worldwide in tropical and subtropical regions in coastal marine and brackish estuarine waters, as well as freshwater rivers and lakes.
  They should not be confused with sawsharks or the extinct sclerorhynchids which have a similar appearance, or swordfish which have a similar name but a very different appearance.
  Sawfishes are relatively slow breeders and the females give birth to live young. They feed on fish and invertebrates that are detected and captured with the use of their saw. They are generally harmless to humans, but can inflict serious injuries with the saw when captured and defending themselves.
  Sawfish have been known and hunted for thousands of years, and play an important mythological and spiritual role in many societies around the world.
context_section_description: Sawfish were once common, locally even abundant, but they have declined drastically and are now possibly the most threatened group of marine fish.
caption: A narrow sawfish caught by a local fisherman almost 100 years ago in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia)
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