Green sawfish
Pristis zijsron
Illustration: Bloom by Day
PROTECTED — look, don't shoot
A ray built like a shark with a long toothed saw on the front, greenish-brown above and white below, usually seen flat on silt in shallow turbid water. Critically endangered and no-take: if you see one, the useful thing to do is report it.
how to recognise it
- a long narrow saw on the snout with 24 to 28 pairs of teeth, unevenly spaced, starting near the base of the saw
- gill openings on the UNDERSIDE, like a ray
- the dorsal fin starts slightly behind where the pelvic fins start
- the lower lobe of the tail is very short
- greenish-brown above, white below
don’t confuse with
- Eastern shovelnose ray — the shovelnose ray has a smooth pointed snout with NO teeth along its edges — a sawfish's saw is unmistakable once you look for the teeth
Field marks read from Fishes of Australia, 2026-10-15. Our wording, their facts. Max size 730 cm TL.
facts
- habitat
- estuary
- size
- ~300 cm, to 730 cm
Max size from Fishes of Australia (730 cm TL); the typical size is Bluebird’s, not from a cited source
- records near here
- 1 at 1 of 6 spots
A count of occurrence records near these spots, not abundance. Records are where someone looked.
when it has been recorded
JFMAMJJASOND
A gap means no record in the sample, not absence.
the rule
QLD — No take
source
· verified 2026-10-10
NSW — No take
source
· verified 2026-10-01
no closed season recorded for this species — that is not the same as open; check the official page
Rules checked 2026-10-13 against qld.gov.au
Rules change. Check before you dive.
Occurrence data: Atlas of Living Australia (ala.org.au), CC-BY 4.0.
Diver transect counts: Reef Life Survey (reeflifesurvey.com), CC-BY 4.0, supplied via ALA.
Target and protected species: Queensland tidal-water size and possession limits (qld.gov.au) and NSW saltwater bag and size limits plus threatened species lists (dpird.nsw.gov.au).
Habitat and size: Bluebird, approximate, from general knowledge. Not cited. FishBase is CC BY-NC and this app is commercial, so it is not used.
Description written for Bloom. RECORDS ARE WHERE SOMEONE LOOKED, NOT WHERE THE FISH ARE. A record count is a count of records near here and nothing else -- it is not abundance, and a species with few records is not rare. Absence of records is not absence of fish.
Diver transect counts: Reef Life Survey (reeflifesurvey.com), CC-BY 4.0, supplied via ALA.
Target and protected species: Queensland tidal-water size and possession limits (qld.gov.au) and NSW saltwater bag and size limits plus threatened species lists (dpird.nsw.gov.au).
Habitat and size: Bluebird, approximate, from general knowledge. Not cited. FishBase is CC BY-NC and this app is commercial, so it is not used.
Description written for Bloom. RECORDS ARE WHERE SOMEONE LOOKED, NOT WHERE THE FISH ARE. A record count is a count of records near here and nothing else -- it is not abundance, and a species with few records is not rare. Absence of records is not absence of fish.