Pristis zijsron | UAE National Red List of Marine Species: Reef-building corals, cartilaginous fishes and select bony fishes
Publication
Asessment status in full
Critically Endangered
Assessment status abreviation
CR
Assessment status criteria
A2bcd
Assessment rationale/justification
The Green Sawfish occurs throughout UAE inshore and offshore waters, and was historically relatively abundant there. Capture of this species has been banned in the UAE since 2008, but accidental captures, especially in gill net fisheries, still occur. According to fisher interviews conducted in the UAE, sightings of this species declined by 72% over at least the past 17 years and that it was historically more abundant around 20 years ago. The species is now very rarely sighted, with the last sighting occurring in Abu Dhabi in 2016. It exhibits slow life history characteristics, including low fecundity and a low annual rate of population increase. Considering this, the species has a low capacity to recover from even moderate levels of exploitation. It is especially susceptible to exploitation (target and bycatch) in many largely unregulated gill net and demersal trawl fisheries that operate within its range outside and surrounding UAE waters. Some management measures are now in place in the Arabian Sea region, although domestic fisheries are likely to continue. Individuals in the UAE are a component of a larger, interconnected and migratory population that occurs broadly in the north-western Indian Ocean. It is inferred that declines reported in the Arabian Sea region are representative of its status in the UAE. Based on fisher interviews, recorded levels of exploitation and decline in habitat quality, it is suspected to have declined by at least 80% over the past three generation lengths, or about 45 years. It is listed as Critically Endangered A2bcd. Based on the continuation of gill net fisheries and nearshore habitat degradation, the species remains under threat, though the ban of its capture in the UAE may have mitigated threats to some degree. Further research is needed on population trends and life history.
Assessment year
2019
Assessors/contributors/reviewers listed
UAE National Red List Workshop
Affliation of assessor(s)/contributors/reviewers listed on assessment
Government
IGO
Assessor affiliation specific
Government|IGO
Criteria system specifics
IUCN v3.1
Criteria system used
IUCN
Criteria Citation
IUCN. 2012. IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria: Version 3.1, Second edition. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK. iv + 32pp pp. And IUCN. 2012. Guidelines for Application of IUCN Red List Criteria at Regional and National Levels: Version 4.0. Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK: IUCN. iii + 41pp.
Endemic to region
Not assigned
Endemism Notes
Is an endemic?: Not_assigned
Threats listed in assessment
In the UAE, this species has been impacted by high levels of largely unmanaged and unreported mortality in target and bycatch fisheries. Fishers reported overfishing as the major cause for the observed decline in this species (Jabado et al. 2017). Though fishing for this species in the UAE has been banned since 2008, the species remains greatly threatened by accidental capture. Other threats include habitat loss (particularly loss of mangrove forest, intertidal areas, and coastal development), pollution, and climate change. Marine habitats in the Gulf, including the UAE, are experiencing high levels of disturbance due to major impacts from development activities (including dredging and reclamation), desalination plants, industrial activities, habitat destruction through the removal of shallow productive areas and major shipping lanes (Sheppard et al. 2010). Suspected historical nurseries sites used by this species have been lost to coastal development (Al Hameli pers. comm. 2019). Across its range, continuing threats from mostly unregulated and unmanaged fisheries as well as habitat loss and degradation are resulting in the continual declines of remnant populations (Dulvy et al. 2016).
Conservation Measures
Conservation measures:
Conservation measures notes:
Required conservation measures: