Sawfish
The dwarf and largetooth sawfish are strictly warm-water species that generally live in waters that are and respectively. The green and smalltooth sawfish also occur in colder waters, in the latter down to , as illustrated by their (original) distributions that ranged further north and south of the strictly warm-water species. Sawfish are bottom-dwellers, but in captivity it has been noted that at least the largetooth and green sawfish readily take food from the water surface. Sawfish are mostly found in places with soft bottoms such as mud or sand, but may also occur over hard rocky bottoms or at coral reefs. They are often found in areas with seagrass or mangrove.
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.