A sawfish found dead in Port Hedland with its rostrum, or “saw”, cut off has sparked anger in the community.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A video posted to social media showed the fish on the beach, missing its signature saw.<\/p>\n
Sawfish are critically endangered and are considered “totally protected” under the Fish Resources Management Act, with fines of up to $5,000 for taking the fish or any part of it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Past cases have seen people convicted and fined for possessing only a rostrum from a sawfish.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Sawfish are also known as carpenter sharks. (Supplied: David Morgan)<\/p>\n
‘Exposes their brain’<\/p>\n
Murdoch University’s Centre for Sustainable Aquatic Ecosystems Associate Professor David Morgan said removing the rostrum of the sawfish was likely a death sentence.<\/p>\n
“Removing the rostrum is just downright cruel,” Dr Morgan said.<\/p>\n
“Basically, by cutting the saw off, it exposes their brain to sea water or fresh water, depending on which species it is.<\/p>\n
“It’s an old hunter mentality, you know, like the rhino’s horn and the elephant tusks and the tiger rug.”<\/p>\n
David Morgan says removing the saw is like old trophy hunter mentality. (Supplied: Penelope Dantas Suarez)<\/p>\n
Dr Morgan said although Western Australia’s north west had some of the most robust sawfish populations in the world, global populations had declined.<\/p>\n
“North-west WA, and in particular the Pilbara, is extremely important for a couple of species, like the green sawfish, which is the largest of all sawfish,” he said.<\/p>\n
“We need to understand that these fish don’t even become reproductively mature until they’re over three-and-a-half metres long \u2026 it’s almost double the typical size of the adult human to even reach maturity.<\/p>\n
“When they’re near shore, they’re generally immature, and then they move offshore into deeper waters.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The sawfish was found at Cemetery Beach in Port Hedland. (Supplied: Facebook\/Louise Pavlinovich)<\/p>\n
Calls for education on protected species<\/p>\n
Environmental group Care for Hedland operations manager, Kelly Howlett, said she hoped it was a mistake.<\/p>\n
“They are protected species and it is really important that even when they have [died], that they are still protected,” Ms Howlett said.<\/p>\n
“The take of body parts and trophy and souvenir collecting is not permitted.<\/p>\n
“We can use it as an education tool to help remind everyone that whether they’re alive or dead, that they are still protected and the same rules apply in terms of it being an offence for people to take body parts.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Kelly Howlett says the critically endangered fish is a protected species. (Supplied: North West Festival)<\/p>\n
Ms Howlett emphasised the importance of reporting protected species to authorities.<\/p>\n
“If you see something, let someone know so that we can record that data,” she said.<\/p>\n
The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development declined to be interviewed, but said the incident was being investigated.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Anyone with information is urged to contact FishWatch on 1800 815 507 or report to Crime Stoppers online.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A sawfish found dead in Port Hedland with its rostrum, or “saw”, cut off has sparked anger in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[14591,14756,107366,107364,107365,107363,107362,107361,90,56,54,55,17285,4407],"class_list":{"0":"post-259221","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-animal-cruelty","9":"tag-endangered-species","10":"tag-fishing-trophy","11":"tag-port-hedland-beach","12":"tag-recreational-fishing","13":"tag-rostrum","14":"tag-sawfish-black-market","15":"tag-sawfish-kill","16":"tag-science","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom","19":"tag-unitedkingdom","20":"tag-wa-news","21":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}