1,500 Public Sawfish Sightings Mapped Across Northern Australia, Including Bays Where the Fish Were Thought Gone

Sharks And Rays Australia, led by principal scientist Dr Barbara Wueringer, asks the public to report sawfish sightings, and also non-sightings, which help estimate where the fish still live. By October 2024 it had about 1,500 public sighting reports from Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory, with recent reports from Mackay and Moreton Bay on Queensland's east coast. The group runs National Sawfish Sighting Week each year and field expeditions up to Cape York, where sawfish densities are thought to be highest. All sawfish species were reassessed as Critically Endangered in December 2023, and the group is still publishing and fundraising in 2026.