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.
Sawfish
The status of the two species of the Atlantic region, the smalltooth and largetooth sawfish, is comparable to the Indo-Pacific. For example, sawfish have been entirely extirpated from most of the Atlantic coast of Africa (only survives for certain in Guinea-Bissau and Sierra Leone), as well as South Africa. The only relatively large remaining population of the largetooth sawfish in the Atlantic region is at the Amazon estuary in Brazil, but there are smaller in Central America and West Africa, and this species is also found in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. The smalltooth sawfish is only found in the Atlantic region and it is possibly the most threatened of all the species, as it had the smallest original range (range ) and has experienced the greatest contraction (disappeared from c. 81% of its original range). It only survives for certain in six countries, and it is possible that the only remaining viable population is in the United States. In the United States the smalltooth sawfish once occurred from Texas to New York, but its numbers have declined by at least 95% and today it is essentially restricted to Florida. However, the Florida population retains a high genetic diversity, has now stabilised and appears to be slowly increasing. A Recovery Plan for the smalltooth sawfish has been in effect since 2002. It has been strictly protected in the United States since 2003 when it was added to the Endangered Species Act as the first marine fish. This makes it is "illegal to harm, harass, hook, or net sawfish in any way, except with a permit or in a permitted fishery". The fine is up to US$10,000 for the first violation alone. If accidentally caught, the sawfish has to be released as carefully as possible and a basic how-to guide has been published. In 2003 an attempt of adding the largetooth sawfish to the Endangered Species Act was denied, in part because this species does not occur in the United States anymore (last confirmed US record in 1961). However, it was added in 2011, and all the remaining sawfish species were added in 2014, restricting trade in them and their parts in the United States.