Critically Endangered
Second of the green series.
These look more like weird sharks, but they are rays. The "teeth" on their saw are actually scales. They can live about 50 years long. The Green sawfish is the biggest of the sawfish. Their "nose" can be over 5 feet long and in total they are up to 24 feet long at most, but usually not that big. The females give birth to live young, which don't reach maturity until between 7 and 12 years, when they are 12 feet long at least. Unfortunately they are hunted for shark fin soup. They are also hunted for their rostrum (the saw), which is taken so the "teeth" can be used for spurs in cock fighting. One tooth in fact can be worth over $200.00. The worst part is they will sometimes be caught, have their saw or fins taken, and then dumped back in the water. They use the saw to hunt and the fins to swim, losing either will kill them.
I don't swim in water with sharks. I may not get bitten by mosquitoes, but fish love me. We had goldfish, and they would come up to me and nibble my fingers. A koi pond I went to, they were the same. That's fine, they are sweet and gentle and don't bother me at all. When I'm swimming in lakes though, fish try and be friendly there too. I was attacked by a whole school of tiny fish more than once. I had a huge trout get my whole big toe in its mouth. That one actually hurt a bit. I figure that if fish are so interested in saying hi, I really shouldn't risk that the biggest fish with many sharp teeth might want to get to know me.
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