In Australia, effective management of threatened sawfishes is a difficult task, in part due to remaining habitat being extremely remote and expensive to reach. Since the federal recovery plan was put in place in 2015, field investigation in Queensland has been limited to few river systems, not allowing for a full-scale species distribution assessment.
In 2017, Sharks And Rays Australia launched a public sightings campaign targeted at recreational fishers to fill knowledge gaps in population abundance and spatial ecology. Data from encounters from between 1990 and 2022 were analysed, representing equal temporal distribution before and after federal protection. Records from the Atlas of Living Australia were additionally incorporated to construct the highest resolution Queensland sawfish maps to date.
Drivers influencing occurrence, body size, and release state were identified through generalised linear models, while spatial analyses uncovered regions of highest risk. Shifts in range and species composition indicate greater ecological resilience of A. cuspidata in comparison to Pristis sp. Body size and year of capture were negatively correlated for all Pristidae, however, even over a relatively short time span of 30 years. This highlights the continued challenges for this family even with protection measures in place.