aquaholly
Registered
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Chordata
- Class: Chondrichthyes
- Order: Pristiformes
- Family: Pristidae
- Genus: Pristis
- Species: pristis
Friday the 14, I took two students out to a newly discovered shore diving location, The Yellow Brick Road. During our underwater naturalist dive we came across a MASSIVE aquatic animal that even I, the instructor, was unable to identify. At first glace I decided the animal was a stingray, upon approaching I witnessed it lifting up off of the sand only to see a needle tipped nose with teeth coming out of the sides before it lashed to the side and swam away quickly.
Upon returning back to the shop I quickly began my research to discover this animal was an endangered sawfish considered to be a trophy fish to fisherman. Because of their high rate of endangerment these fish are illegal to catch in the United States. Sawfish are actually modified rays with a shark-like body and gill slits on their abdominal side.
The long toothed saw-fish fish are extremely rare to see especially while diving because of their keen sense to pick up heartbeats in the water. The long snouts with extruding teeth are used to sense, stun and kill prey. When catching dinner, the fish will slice it's prey in pieces (hints the name sawfish) before consuming. These fish feed mostly on the bottom however are mostly sighted on the surface in the wild. This fish was a pleasure to encounter and I can only hope to come across another.
Help conserve our reefs by donating to Project Aware
Cheers and see you Monday for the weekend update
