{"id":34549,"date":"2018-10-31T11:52:16","date_gmt":"2018-10-31T06:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=34549"},"modified":"2018-10-31T11:52:16","modified_gmt":"2018-10-31T06:22:16","slug":"sawfish-more-threatened-than-tigers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/sawfish-more-threatened-than-tigers\/","title":{"rendered":"Sawfish more threatened than tigers:"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.co.in\/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=web&amp;cd=1&amp;cad=rja&amp;uact=8&amp;ved=0ahUKEwjTvoj2qPnWAhUMtY8KHRKXAZAQqOcBCCUwAA&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thehindu.com%2Fnews%2Fnational%2Fkerala%2Fsawfish-more-threatened-than-tigers-say-scientists%2Farticle19877561.ece&amp;usg=AOvVaw080skWehUrvsoVvg81NzjV\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sawfish more threatened than tigers<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Context:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Today, the sawfish is seen to have a population of less than 10 times in over a decade and they appear to be more threatened than tigers and elephants.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>What are Sawfishes?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sawfishes, also known as carpenter sharks.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The sawfish&#8217;s <\/span><b>most distinctive feature is the saw-like rostrum<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, covered with electro-sensitive pores that allow the sawfish to detect slight movements of prey hiding in the muddy sea floor. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are only five species of the sawfish ever identified \u2014 dwarf sawfish, knifetooth sawfish, smalltooth sawfish, largetooth sawfish and green sawfish.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These fishes are found in parts of the Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico, Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea and Indo-Pacific. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Why are Sawfishes important?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sawfishes are important members of tropical and subtropical estuarine communities.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Like other top predators, sawfishes perform a valuable function in culling out sick or injured prey species such as schooling fishes, crustaceans, and cephalopods.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In addition, sawfishes have for centuries been important to humankind both as valuable food and medicinal resources, and as religious and cultural symbols.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Sawfishes in the context of India:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The sawfish is included in <\/span><b>Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is enacted to save them from exploitation.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>Wildlife Act was passed in 1972<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to protect the wildlife and their habitats.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The habitat destruction due to agriculture, industries, urbanisation and other human activities had led to the erosion of the country\u2019s wildlife.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Under the Act, comprehensive listing of endangered wildlife species was done for the first time and prohibition of hunting of the endangered species was mentioned.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But in spite of these legal protections, all species of sawfishes are listed as critically endangered or endangered, and risk extinction, as their populations have declined to less than 10%.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Why is it threatened?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Primarily, the sawfish reduced drastically due to <\/span><b>overfishing and habitat loss<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Depressed population size, continued restricted range, and incidental captures<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> add on to its threats. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Natural threats to sawfishes are poorly known, but include <\/span><b>predation by sharks and other large predators, and mortality attributable to red tide<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>What are the necessary measures to be taken?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is a need of a concrete research work and protection offered to these endangered species.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The government machinery, including the fisheries department and coastal police, should find out how these fishes are caught and if any illegal practice is followed, then it should take appropriate action because it is an endangered species.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Circulars are to provided to fishermen&#8217;s cooperatives to release such species if caught by accident<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sawfish more threatened than tigers: Context: Today, the sawfish is seen to have a population of less than 10 times in over a decade and they appear to be more threatened than tigers and elephants. What are Sawfishes? Sawfishes, also known as carpenter sharks. The sawfish&#8217;s most distinctive feature is the saw-like rostrum, covered with&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/sawfish-more-threatened-than-tigers\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Sawfish more threatened than tigers:<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-test-1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704922027},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34549\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}