Sawshark
The Bahamas sawsharks ("Pristiophorus schroeder") have very little information on them. Studies are being done daily to learn more about the deep sea dweller. They are located near Cuba, Florida, and the Bahamas (hence their name) where they dwell in the depths of 400–1000 m. As far as their appearance they can be identified by their snouts with teeth which appear as a saw, as well as their length, they are averaged at 80 cm in length.
Saw sharks and sawfish are cartilaginous fish possessing large saws. These are the only two fish that have a long blade-like snout. Although they are similar in appearances, saw sharks are distinct from sawfish. Sawfish are not sharks, but a type of ray. The gill slits of the sawfishes are positioned on the underside like a ray, but the gill slits of the saw shark are positioned on the side like a shark. Sawfish can have a much larger size, lack barbels, and have evenly sized teeth rather than alternating teeth of the saw shark. Clear difference is that a sawfish has no barbels and a saw shark has a prominent pair halfway along the saw. The saw shark uses these like other bottom fish, as a kind of antennae, feeling the way along the ocean bottom until it finds some prey of interest. Both the saw shark and the sawfish utilize the electroreceptors on the saw, ampullae of Lorenzini, to detect the electric field given off by buried prey.
Largetooth sawfish
All sawfish species were added to CITES Appendix I in 2007, thereby restricting international trade. As the first marine fish, there was an attempt of having it listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 2003 by the United States National Marine Fisheries Service, but it was declined. However, it was listed as "P. perotteti" under the ESA in 2011. Following taxonomic changes, the ESA listing was updated to "P. pristis" in December 2014. Sawfish are protected in Australia and the United States where a number of conservation projects have been initiated, but the largetooth sawfish has probably already been extirpated from the latter country (last confirmed record in 1961 from Nueces, Texas). Additionally it receives a level of protection in Bangladesh, Brazil, Guinea, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Senegal and South Africa, but illegal fishing continues, enforcement of fishing laws is often lacking and it has already disappeared from some of these countries.