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Cultural Importance and Decline of Sawfish (Pristidae) Populations In Cultural importance and decline of sawfish (Pristidae) populations in West Africa by Marine ROBILLARD (1) & Bernard SÉRET (2) A B S T R A C T. - For a few decades, the decline of sawfish populations has been observed in all parts of their distribution range. Sawfishes are particularly sensitive to exploitation and habitat destruction because of their large size and their coastal and riverine habitats. In West Africa, sawfishes were relatively common in the past, but nowadays, they are rarely caught or observed. A group of West African countries, under the leadership of the Commission sous-régionale des Pêches, was willing to submit an application for the listing of the sawfishes in CITES appendix 1. This caused the necessity to assess the present status of the species and populations of sawfishes occurring in West Africa, and to collect data on the cul- tural importance of the sawfishes for some ethnic groups. In this scope, a field study was carried out from March to June 2005, in Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia Guinea Bissau, and Guinea Conakry. This study confirms the strong contraction of the distribution range of sawfishes in West Africa: they are mainly limited to the Bissagos Archipelago (Guinea Bissau), where cultural practices related to sawfish symbolism are still in use. A description of the rostrums observed during this survey is provided. RÉSUMÉ. - Importance culturelle et état des populations de poissons-scies (Pristidae) en Afrique de l’Ouest. Depuis quelques décennies, le déclin des populations de poissons-scies est observé dans l’ensemble de leurs aires de répartition. Les poissons-scies sont particulièrement sensibles à l’exploitation du fait de leur grande taille, et à la destruc- tion de leurs habitats dans les zones côtières et estuariennes qu’ils affectionnent particulièrement. En Afrique de l’Ouest, les poissons-scies étaient relativement communs dans le passé, mais aujourd’hui, ils sont rarement capturés ou observés. Un groupe de pays ouest-africains, mené par la Commission sous-régionale des Pêches, souhaitait soumettre une demande d’inscription des poissons-scies en annexe 1 de la CITES. Cela exigeait de déterminer le statut des espèces de poissons- scies présentes en Afrique de l’Ouest, et de collecter les données sur leur importance culturelle dans les différentes ethnies. C’est dans ce cadre qu’une étude de terrain a été réalisée entre mars et juin 2005 en Mauritanie, au Sénégal, en Gambie, en Guinée-Bissau et en Guinée Conakry. Cette étude a confirmé la forte réduction de la distribution géographique des pois- sons-scies en Afrique de l’Ouest : ils sont principalement limités à l’archipel des Bijagos (Guinée-Bissau), dans lequel les pratiques culturelles relatives au symbolisme des poissons-scies sont toujours usage. Une description des rostres observés au cours de cette étude est donnée. Key words. - Sawfishes - Pristidae - West Africa. Following the recommendations of the FAO related to proposal for the inclusion of the whole family of sawfishes the conservation and management of shark populations (Pristidae) on Annex I of CITES, was launched in early 2004 (FAO, 1999), the West African countries of the regional fish- so that the proposal could be presented at the 13th conference ery organisation “Commission sous-régionale des Pêches” of the parties to be held in Bangkok in October 2004. For (CSRP) based in Dakar (Senegal) has established a shark that purpose, the CSRP entrusted the second author (BS) and action programme for the conservation of the elasmobranch his conservationist colleague Sarah Fowler to prepare the fishes in West Africa (PSRA-Requins). This programme was proposal document (PRCM, 2004). Although the document launched in 2002 in the frame of the Regional Conservation was ready on time, it was not transmitted to the CITES sec- Programme for the Coastal and Marine zone of West A f r i c a retariat due to lobbying by some Asian country representa- (PRCM). In order to implement the PSRA, national sub-pro- tives at high political levels in some CSRP countries. grammes (PAN-requins) have been adopted in every country Despite this failure, the PSRA sawfish project has been of the CSRP: Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, ongoing with the goal to inventory the cultural importance Cape Verde, Guinea Conakry and Sierra Leone. and the state of the populations of sawfishes in the countries In the implementation of these programmes, it appeared of the CSRP. The first author (MR) along with another stu- that the sawfishes should have high priority in the conserva- dent of the Geneva University (Candice Yvon) were selected tion measures since they have been less and less caught or to carry out a field study aiming to collect these data and observed in West Africa. As a result, a project to submit a information. The results of this study were included in a (1) Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, “Département Homme, Nature et Sociétés”, 4 rue Cuvier, 75231 Paris CEDEX 05, FRANCE. (2) Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Département Systématique et Évolution, UMS 602 “Taxonomie et Collections”, 55 rue Buffon, 75231 Paris CEDEX 05, FRANCE [[email protected]] Cybium 2006, 30(4) suppl.: 23-30. West African sawfishes ROBILLARD & SÉRET memoir of master degree defended by the first author (Robil- tatives following the methods defined by Blanchet and lard, 2005). The major findings are herein presented. Gottman (1992). In general, these persons were the chiefs of the villages, the managers of the fishing harbours, the fis h e r- men involved in fisheries targeting sharks and the oldest METHODS fishermen. Also different stakeholders in shark processing and marketing were interviewed. Survey The interviews lasted between 30 minutes and 2 hours The survey was carried out from March to June 2004 in depending on the availability of the persons. They were five out of the 7 countries of the CRSP: Mauritania, Senegal, structured based on a questionnaire, but in the context of nat- Gambia, Guinea Bissau and Republic of Guinea. (Fig. 1) . ural conversation. Also, drawings were used to guide the dis- The main landing places were visited in these countries, cussions. When French or English were not understood, the national representative translated into local languages. Data on rostrums During the survey, rostrums were observed in public and private collections. They were measured, photographed and tissue samples were taken for genetic analysis (aimed to Vicente Faria). The species were identified according to Séret (in press). The measurements taken on the rostrums are illustrated on figure 2 and are after Vicente Faria (pers. com.). Figure 2. - Measurements taken on rostrums of sawfishes. [Mesures prises sur les rostres de poissons-scies.] RESULTS Description of the rostrums A total of 28 saws were observed (Tab. I) in the five countries visited, belonging to two species: the smalltooth sawfish Pristis pectinata Latham, 1794 and the larg e t o o t h sawfish Pristis micro d o n Latham, 1794. The saws were all dried and some were in a bad state of preservation with some Table I. - Number of dried rostrums observed in public and private Figure 1. - Map of West Africa where the survey was carried out. collections in the five West African countries visited during the sur- [Carte de l’Afrique de l’Ouest où l’étude a été menée.] v e y. [ N o m b re de ro s t res secs observés dans les collections publiques et privées dans les cinq pays ouest-africains visités au cours de l’étude.] along with some fishing villages and processing areas. In every country, the national representative of the PSRA p r o- vided assistance and logistical support, and their national reports (PAN) were used to select the landing sites to be vis- ited (Doumbouya, 204; Ndiaye, 2004; Saine, 2004). Interviews Most of the persons interviewed during the survey had been identified with the help of the national PSRA r e p r e s e n- 24 Cybium 2006, 30(4) suppl. ROBILLARD & SÉRET West African sawfishes Figure 3. - Sawfish rostrums obser- ved in Musée de la mer (IFA N , Gorée, Senegal) in December 2004 (Photo BS). [ R o s t res de poissons- scies observés au Musée de la mer ( I FAN, Gorée, Sénégal) en décem - bre 2004 (Photo BS).] rostral teeth lacking. Those kept in the Musée de la mer in Gorée (Institut fondamental d’Afrique noire - IFAN) were mainly collected by Jean Cadenat in the 1950s, and today they are in very bad condition (Fig. 3). They were invento- ried in December 2004 by the second author (BS). Only 5 of the 9 saws were found in May 2005 when the first author (MR) visited IFAN. The capture data and main characteris- tics of the saws (number of rostral teeth and main measure- ments) are given in table II A, B, C. Figure 4. - Rostrum of the sawfish Pristis micro d o n caught in Guinea Bissau in 2004 (Photo MB). [ R o s t re de poisson-scie P r i s t i s microdon capturé en Guinée Bissau en 2004 (Photo MB).] West African populations According to the fishermen interviewed in the five coun- (Guinea Conakry). They started to disappear about 30 years tries visited, sawfishes were common in the past, i.e. a few ago, from northern Senegal southwards. decades ago. Catches were regular with one or two individu- The last records of sawfishes in West Africa are listed in als per net, but sometimes up to 10 individuals could be table III. The last recorded capture was in 2004 in Guinea caught in a net. The catches were better in certain areas: at Bissau, where a large specimen of P. microdon was caught in Tidra (Mauritania), in Casamance (southern Senegal), in the the canal of Baloma, then landed in Elinkine, southern Sene- Bissago archipelago (Guinea Bissau), and in Kamsar gal (Fig.
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