Sawsharks have a long and flat saw-like rostrum studded with teeth. They are small slender sharks with flattened heads and a pair or barbels beneath the rostrum. They are found only on continental and insular shelves of the northwest and southeast Atlantic, west Indian and west Pacific Ocean, in shallow water in temperate regions, deeper in the tropics. These sharks are ovoviviparous (aplacental viviparous) with litters averaging 7 to 17 pups. Sawsharks are often confused with sawfishes which are batoids (rays).

WHAT TO LOOK FOR

A slender shark with a very long, narrow, tapering rostrum (preoral length about 31-32% of the shark’s total length) with barbels halfway between the mouth and rostral tip, and a concave, pre-barbel edge.

COLOR

Uniform, un-patterned light grey above and whitish below. It has darker brownish stripes along its rostrum midline and edges. Its pectoral fins are light-edged and the dorsal fins of juveniles have a dark anterior edge.

SIZE

To 2.7 ft [81 cm] or more.

HABITAT

On or near the bottom of continental and insular slopes, between 1437 to 3123.4 ft [438 to 952 m] deep.

DISTRIBUTION

Northwest Atlantic between Florida, Cuba and the Bahamas.

TEETH

The shark has 23 large, lateral sawteeth, 13 before and 10 behind the barbels. Juveniles usually have one smaller tooth between its large lateral teeth.

BEHAVIOR

Unknown.

STATUS
Likely bycatch of deepwater fisheries. In response to urging by the United Nations General Assembly, Mexico was one of only a few shark-catching nations that adopted a “National Action Plan for Shark Conservation,” and assessed the Bahamas sawshark as being endangered or threatened and in need of protection.