The IUCN/SSC Shark Specialist Group
Shark News 8: December 1996
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The Cultural and Economic Importance of Sawfishes (Family Pristidae)
Matthew McDavitt
Throughout their range, sawfishes have been important to mankind both as potent symbols and valued commercial resources. These unique elasmobranchs have attracted significant attention due primarily to their large size (up to 7 meters in length), distinctive appearance, and their exceedingly shallow marine and freshwater habitats, placing them in close proximity to human settlements.
Cultural history
The imposing sawfishes have inspired an extensive mythology among tribal societies, particularly in Central America, West Africa, Papua New Guinea, and Australia. Many of the sawfishes depicted by native cultures represent sacred totemic ancestors, the supernatural beings credited with shaping the landscape and establishing social order. By re-enacting the primal creative acts of these sawfish progenitors, societies draw upon their omnipresent energy to bring renewal and prosperity to their community.
Saw of a small Pristis microdon from the Kinabatangan River, Sabah. These were traditionally nailed over doors to keep ghosts out of houses, or wrapped in cloth and hung over cradles to stop babies crying. Photo: Sarah Fowler.
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Admired for their predatory prowess, sawfishes are considered by some tribes to be sentient spirits who control fish fecundity. Sawfish spirits of the Sepik river in Papua New Guinea, for instance, punish those who break fishing taboos by unleashing destructive rain storms.
Perceived as 'sharks with swords', sawfishes are often associated with warfare. The rostra of these animals have been fashioned into weapons in the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, and even New Zealand, where interestingly, sawfishes are not found. To the Akan people of West Africa, the sawfish symbolised the indisputable authority of the king and the prosperity of the kingdom. Today, this ancient symbol appears on the common currency of the seven West African Monetary Union nations. The sawfish has also been an emblem of Western warfare. During WWII, 26 German U-boats, one American submarine, and Germany's naval commandos were all adorned with sawfish insignia.
Sawfishes have appeared prominently in the iconography of several major world religions. In Thai Buddhist temples, sawfishes adorn cosmological and narrative paintings. Similarly, sawfishes appear in figurative Islamic art from Indonesia. In Medieval Europe, the sawfish was one of the few marine animals consistently found in the Christian Bestiary.
Drawing of a sawfish from the famous Chinese pharmacopeia Pen Ts'ao Kang Mu, first published in 1596. (Redrawn by author.)
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The Aztecs believed that the world itself had been formed from a titanic sawfish called Cipactli who, paralysed by the Gods, required regular feedings of human blood to grant her strength to nourish crops from her body. In certain heart extraction sacrifices, the victim's neck was crushed with the snout of a sawfish, symbolic of Cipactli biting into her food.
Utilisation and trade
In addition to their symbolic and mythological inspiration, humans have found many practical uses for these remarkable creatures. The skins of sawfishes have been harvested for leather on a small scale throughout their range. A recent book detailing the American cowboy boot industry lists sawfish leather as one of the exotic skins available to the adventurous consumer (Beard 1992). Liver oil, too, is occasionally exploited, as evidenced by tribal depictions of sawfishes where the two primary liver lobes are often delineated. The sawfishes' individual rostral teeth, pulled from the saw, have been fashioned into woodworking tools in prehistoric Florida and carved into clothing pins in India. Significant harvest of sawfishes for meat has occurred in Lake Nicaragua, where unregulated exploitation virtually eliminated sawfishes from the region (Thorson 1982), and Asia, where sawfishes are still consumed.
World-wide, the sawfishes' tooth-studded saw is valued as a trophy or curio. Until recently, imported rostra of the Indo-Pacific sawfish Anoxypristis cuspidata were readily available in America from biological supply companies and sea-shell shops. The steady disappearance of these rostra from American markets may reflect the world-wide decline in sawfish populations due to over-exploitation and habitat destruction.
A significant threat to sawfish populations appears to be the Asian market for sawfish parts as healing foods and medicines. In the 400 year old Pen Ts'ao Kang Mu, the celebrated encyclopaedia of Chinese herbal medicine still referenced today, sawfish skin and meat are extolled to cure heart problems, infections, internal parasitic infestation, weakness, and thin blood (Li Shih-ch'en 1596, Read 1939). Dried fins, prepared into a soup admired for its strengthening properties, are readily collected for the lucrative Chinese shark fin market. The presence of sawfish rostra in modern Chinese apothecary shops indicates medicinal use as well.
Living sawfishes also have commercial value. At least five major travel guides on Australia describe the 'exotic' freshwater sawfishes of the Fitzroy river to entice tourists to visit Geikie Gorge National Park. As exhibits, live sawfishes are highly prized by large public aquaria world-wide due to their impressive size, extraordinary appearance, and general hardiness in captivity.
In the past several decades, marked declines in sawfish populations have been noted world-wide (Cook and Oetinger 1996). While human exploitation of sawfishes has been a major factor contributing to these declines, the cultural and economic value of these elasmobranchs may also provide an incentive for conserving these unique batoids.
Selected bibliography
Cook, S.F., and Oetinger, M. 1996. Proposal in support of listing sawfishes (F. Pristidae) at the 10th regular conference of the parties to CITES. Submitted to FWS 29 April 1996.
Beard, T. 1992. The Cowboy Boot Book. 152 pp.
Li Shih-ch'en. 1596. Pen Ts'ao Kang Mu. [Chinese; several modern reprints consulted].
McDavitt, M.T. 1996. The cultural significance of the sawfishes (Pristidae): a brief survey. Paper presented at the American Elasmobranch Society 12th Annual Meeting: 13-19 June, New Orleans.
Read, Bernard. 1939. Chinese materia medica; fish drugs. 136 pp.
Thorson, T.B. 1982. The impact of commercial exploitation on sawfish and shark populations in Lake Nicaragua. Fisheries 7(2): 2-10.
Matthew McDavitt
4831 East Summit Circle #165,
Knoxville, TN 37919, USA
email: cipactli@utkux.utcc.utk.edu
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