Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2015L01763:reg:1:p1
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2015L01763
Segment Type: reg
Provision Reference: reg 1 (pt 1/2)
Character Range: 4652–7754

1                  Summary
This document constitutes the Australian National Recovery Plan for the largetooth sawfish (formerly known as the freshwater sawfish), green sawfish, dwarf sawfish, speartooth shark and the northern river shark (Sawfish and River Sharks Multispecies Recovery Plan). This recovery plan considers the conservation requirements of these species across their range, identifies the actions to be taken to ensure their long-term viability in nature and the parties that will undertake those actions. The document outlines: the basic biology and ecology of these species; details the known threats; presents the key conservation objectives; and includes performance criteria to measure the achievement of these objectives.
The three sawfish species are listed as vulnerable under the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act). Northern river sharks are listed as endangered and speartooth sharks as critically endangered. All five species also receive protection through state-based legislation. This is the first national recovery plan for these species and this recovery plan will be reviewed after a five-year period.
These species have been grouped together in a single recovery plan because of similarity in habitat use, distribution and threats to recovery. All of these species predominantly inhabit the rivers, estuaries and inshore marine habitats of northern Australia (Figure 1). The largetooth sawfish is known to occur in four distinct regional populations globally. The green sawfish and dwarf sawfish were once known to occur across the Indo-west Pacific region but the dwarf sawfish is now possibly limited to Australia. The two river shark species are only found in Australia and Papua New Guinea.
There is little information on current population sizes or long-term rates of population change for any of the five species included in this recovery plan. However, the information that is available suggests that they have experienced substantial population declines within a few generations and some populations are considered to be extirpated from former parts of their range. Remaining populations are often isolated, raising concerns about their viability. For those species recorded outside Australia, the populations found within Australian waters are thought to represent substantial proportions of the remaining global population.
The principal threats to these sawfish and river shark species come from: commercial fishing activities; recreational fishing; Indigenous fishing; illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing; and habitat degradation and modification. Other potential threats to the species include the collection of animals for display in public aquaria and marine debris.
This recovery plan sets out the research and management actions necessary to stop the decline of, and support the recovery of, these five species in Australian waters. The overarching objective of this recovery plan is to assist the recovery of these species in the wild throughout their range in Australian waters by increasing