Sawfish, 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.

[8] Once common, sawfish have experienced a drastic decline in recent decades, and the only remaining strongholds are in Northern Australia and Florida, United States.

[11][12] They are protected in Australia, the United States and several other countries, meaning that sawfish caught by accident have to be released and violations can be punished with hefty fines.

[13][14] The scientific names of the sawfish family Pristidae and its type genus Pristis are derived from the Ancient Greek: πρίστης, romanized: prístēs, lit.

[27] Peyeria from the Cenomanian age (Late Cretaceous) was once considered as the oldest known pristid,[3] though it may represent a rhinid rather than a sawfish,[28] or probably a junior synonym of the sclerorhynchoid Onchopristis.

[48] The position of the gill openings separates them from the superficially similar yet generally much smaller (up to c. 1.5 m or 5 ft long) sawsharks, in which the slits are on the side of the neck.

[43] Their small intestines contain an internal partition shaped like a corkscrew, called a spiral valve, which increases the surface area available for food absorption.

[2] There are old reports (last in the late 1950s or shortly after) from the Mediterranean and these have typically been regarded as vagrants,[2] but a review of records strongly suggests that this sea had a breeding population.

[59] They were widespread in the western and central Indo-Pacific, ranging from South Africa to the Red Sea and Persian Gulf, east and north to Korea and southern Japan, through Southeast Asia to Papua New Guinea and Australia.

[21] In contrast, the smalltooth, green and dwarf sawfish typically avoid pure freshwater, but may occasionally move far up rivers, especially during periods when there is an increased salinity.

[56][60] The green and smalltooth sawfish also occur in colder waters, in the latter down to 16–18 °C (61–64 °F), as illustrated by their (original) distributions that ranged further north and south of the strictly warm-water species.

[64] In at least the smalltooth sawfish the young show a degree of site fidelity, generally staying in the same fairly small area in the first part of their lives.

In the largetooth sawfish the males appear to move more freely between the subpopulations, while mothers return to the region where they were born to give birth to their own young.

[83] Prey fish are typically swallowed whole and not cut into small pieces with the saw,[38] although on occasion one may be split in half during capture by the slashing motion.

[40] Old stories often describe sawfish as highly dangerous to humans, sinking ships and cutting people in half, but today these are considered myths and not factual.

[4] Sawfish have been found among archaeological remains in several parts of the world, including the Persian Gulf region, the Pacific coast of Panama, coastal Brazil and elsewhere.

[8][93] Among European sailors, sawfish were often feared as animals that could sink ships by piercing/sawing the hull with their saw (claims now known to be entirely untrue),[65] but there are also stories of them saving people.

The German World War II Kampfabzeichen der Kleinkampfverbände (Battle Badge of Small Combat Units) depicted a sawfish.

[101] Sawfish were once common, with habitat found along the coastline of 90 countries,[102] locally even abundant,[4][7] but they have declined drastically and are now among the most threatened groups of marine fish.

In approximate order of impact, the four most serious threats today are use in shark fin soup, as traditional medicine, rostral teeth for cockfighting spurs and the saw as a novelty item.

[4] Sawfish fishing goes back several thousand years,[7] but until relatively recently it typically involved traditional low-intensity methods such as simple hook-and-line or spearing.

[104] The exception is the dwarf sawfish which was relatively widespread in the Indo-Pacific, but by the early 1900s it had already disappeared from most of its range, only surviving for certain in Australia (there is a single recent possible record from the Arabian region).

[106] Sawfish can also be difficult or dangerous to release from nets, meaning that some fishers will kill them even before bringing them aboard the boat,[61] or cut off the saw to keep it/release the fish.

[114] Science Advances identifies Cuba, Tanzania, Colombia, Madagascar, Panama, Brazil, Mexico and Sri Lanka as the nations where urgent action could make a big contribution to saving the species.

[114] The only remaining stronghold of the four species in the Indo-Pacific region (narrow, dwarf, largetooth and green sawfish) is in Northern Australia, but they have also experienced a decline there.

[21] This strictly involved the largetooth sawfish where the Australian population remains relatively robust, and only living individuals "to appropriate and acceptable aquaria for primarily conservation purposes".

In December 2018, the largest recorded mass fish death in the river occurred when more than 40 sawfish died, mainly because of heat and a severe lack of rainfall during a poor wet season.

[2][120] The only relatively large remaining population of the largetooth sawfish in the Atlantic region is at the Amazon estuary in Brazil, but there are smaller in Central America and West Africa, and this species is also found in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

[41] In 2020, a Florida fisherman used a power saw to remove a smalltooth sawfish's rostrum and then released the maimed fish; he received a fine, community service and probation.

[11][12][128] The only exception was the relatively robust Australian population of the largetooth sawfish that was listed on CITES Appendix II, which allowed trade to public aquariums only.