East London resident Mike Vincent made a discovery that sent shockwaves through South Africa’s marine conservation community when he found the remains of what experts believe is a large-tooth sawfish washed up on a beach south of the Birah River Mouth. This marks the first known sawfish sighting in South African waters since 1999, when the last recorded individual was released alive from KwaZulu-Natal shark nets, making Vincent’s find a potentially game-changing moment for marine conservation. Sawfish, despite their misleading appearance, are actually rays rather than sharks, easily recognizable by their long, flattened snouts edged with tooth-like structures called rostrums, and they’re considered the most endangered elasmobranchs globally.
East London Museum’s Kevin Cole immediately recognized the significance of the find and rushed to collect samples for further study. Knowing that both species known to occur in South Africa, the green sawfish and the large-tooth sawfish, had been presumed locally extinct due to habitat loss and destructive fishing methods like gillnetting. While one sawfish doesn’t signal a full species recovery, conservation experts say it represents something precious: possibility. The discovery has reignited calls for restoring critical estuarine habitats and protecting marine heritage, proving that sometimes the most important conservation victories come from unexpected beach walks. This remarkable sighting reminds us that nature can surprise us even when we think all hope is lost, and that our oceans may still hold secrets we thought were gone forever.
