Bad News: Sawfish Going Extinct
The vast sandy channels and grassy flats of Brazil’s Amazon estuary may be the last, best hope for the beleaguered largetooth sawfish (Pristis pristis) in the Atlantic Ocean. The swimmer, known for its long, tooth-edged snout that looks like some alien saw blade, is one of the world’s most threatened marine creatures, a victim of overfishing and habitat loss.
The shark relative is found around the world in tropical and semitropical seas, but in recent years conservationists have become gravely concerned about Atlantic stocks. The fish may now be extinct in some parts of its Atlantic range, including waters off the southern United States, northern South America, and southern West Africa, researchers report in Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems…
(read more: Science News/AAAS)
photo by Universal Images Groups/Superstock
Noooo! I swam with one of these, and it got so close I thought I’d lose a leg but they are amazing (if mildly terrifying)