In September 2017, a Marine Biodiversity Hub team worked to rescue a large group of Largetooth Sawfish trapped in a drying floodplain waterhole and relocate the animals to the main channel of the river. The small waterhole where the rangers located the sawfish was completely dry soon after the rescue.

Australia’s northern rivers are a last remaining stronghold for the threatened Largetooth Sawfish (Pristis pristis), but even in this relatively pristine part of the world sawfish populations are severely depleted.

The project is led by NESP Marine Biodiversity Hub scientist Dr Peter Kyne of Charles Darwin University’s Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods. In partnership with Christy Davies of the North Australian Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance Ltd (NAILSMA) and the Malak Malak Traditional Owners and Ranger Group, the project works on conservation and management initiatives in the Daly River region of Australia’s Northern Territory (amongst other locations).

• Read about the 2016 rescue
• Project A1 - Northern Australian hotspots for the recovery of threatened euryhaline species
• Download resources from the sawfish and river shark research undertaken during the National Environmental Research Program (NERP)