'Extinct' sawfish washes ashore

The fish was found on the Eastern Cape coast and it's the first confirmed sighting since 1999.

- By Estelle Ellis

The carcass of a 3m-long largetooth sawfish, long thought to be extinct along the South African coast, was discovered at the Birha River mouth between Port Alfred and East London in the Eastern Cape last week.

"Man, we are very excited. The last record of this fish was from 26 years ago," said Geremy Cliff, division head at the KwaZulu-Natal Sharks Board. "The ocean is very big and they can hide away from us in many places. It is really good to know that they might still be out there somewhere."

Kevin Cole, a natural scientist at the East London Museum, said he was first contacted by a resident who had found and photographed the carcass on the beach at the Birha River mouth. "It is a big one," he said.

"On Friday, 19 September, I received a message from Mike Vincent at Birha village that he had photographed a sawfish. Recognising that the species was rare, I immediately set off to investigate.