By Muhammad Luqman
Fishermen have caught a 15 feet long giant female Saw Fish in the Pakistan’s coastal district of Thatta and sold it in Ibrahim Hyderi neighbourhood of Karachi, according to Worldwife Fund for Nature (WWF) on Tuesday.
The large-tooth sawfish is considered a critically endangered species.
WWF officials say that a shrimp trawler, Al Zahid Ali, caught the gigantic sawfish — locally known as Liara, in its net near Turchan and Khajar creeks.
“Due to the large size and heavy weight of the animal, fishermen used a crane to heave it on board,” WWF officials said.
The sawfish, weighing approximately 1,320kg, was offloaded at Ibrahim Hyderi and auctioned to fetch a a big amount of money.
Sawfish are one of the rarest group of marine animals whose population is globally threatened with extinction due to over-fishing. Three species of sawfish, namely the Knife-tooth (Anoxypristis cuspidatus), the Large-tooth (Pristis pristis) and the Large-comb (Pristis zijsron) have been sighted in Pakistani waters.
There was an abundance of sawfish in Pakistan prior to the 1980s, but because of the vulnerability of this specie, specially the presence of a large rostra (saw) in front of their head, its population has since rapidly collapsed in Pakistan, according to a WWF studay.
