Blog

We are hiring!

SARA-r job ad – Research Assistant and Administration Support Officer (Hybrid) Summary: SARA-r is recruiting one research and engagement support...

Dissection of a sawfish

Dissection of a sawfish

Dissecting for a deeper understanding My SARA internship experience Madison Baker (The University of Adelaide) As part of my science internship with...

East Coast sawfish

East Coast sawfish

Wow, there it is! For many people what we were looking at was probably meaningless but for me it meant the world. We were in Rinyirru (Lakefield)...

8 sawfish

8 sawfish

Earlier in 2023 we received a donation of eight juvenile narrow sawfish Anoxypristis cuspidata that had died as part of an accident. The animals are...

Interns and volunteers wanted

Sharks And Rays Australia (SARA) is seeking to fill the following positions: One social media intern, to look after our facebook page. You will...

A saw returned

A saw returned

A saw returned In March 2022 Barbara received a message from a friend. He had found an old sawfish saw in a local op shop in Cairns, and wanted her...

Spotters t-shirts

What are sawfish spotters? Have you noticed some very cool looking people recently, wearing the SARA Sawfish Spotter's t-shirts? We are very proud...

The art of Rod Lucas

The art of Rod Lucas

In March 2022, i (Barbara) visited Karumba for a Queensland Fisheries meeting. During a break at the meeting, Rod Lucas popped in! I had never...

SawSearch project update

SawSearch project update

By Annmarie Fearing, University of Mississippi ‘SawSearch’ is a collective research effort led by Dr. Nicole Phillips and Annmarie Fearing from the...

Social media interns wanted

Social media interns wanted

Sharks And Rays Australia (SARA) is seeking up to three social media interns to support our team in science communication. You will help us...

A long awaited delivery

A long awaited delivery

by Nikki Biskis   Our cases are settling into their new homes quite nicely. With over 20 completely built and in various stages of delivery, we...

Building cases

Building cases

Our Display Cases are underway by Nikki Biskis After almost two years in the making, SARA’s sawfish display cases are officially being assembled. It...

Wrapping up 2020

Wrapping up 2020

Wrapping up 2020 We have heard it all too often, but what a year 2020 has been! Normally I get to spend about 3 months a year in the field, working...

Sharks4Kids podcast

Sharks4Kids webinar with Dr Wueringer in June 2020, Dr Jillian Morrison brake from Sharks4Kids invited Dr Wueringer to join a Sharks4Kids webinar....

Croaker podcast

Croaker Podcast in June 2020, James Donaldson from the Northern Gulf Natural Resource Management Group invited Dr Wueringer to join him for an...

An important meeting

An important meeting

by Barbara Wueringer In December 2019 I had the opportunity and pleasure to meet Dr Sally Box, Australia's Threatened Species Commissioner. We...

Unexpected mail

Unexpected mail

by Nikki Biskis In September 2018, SARA received what is probably the cutest scientific interview of all time. Billy, Charlie, Dylan and Jayden of...

Go Fund Me

Go Fund Me

Since 2015, Sharks And Rays Australia is working with sawfish in Queensland. They are globally critically endangered. We spend about 3 months in the...

Questionnaire

Have you received a questionnaire? In January 2019, SARA teamed up with the Gulf Fisherman Association Inc. to send out questionnaires to fishers...

The species we work with

Thanks to Garry Ogston, Gemma Bauld and Grace McNicholas and Morna McGuire for writing the summaries!Freshwater (or largetooth) sawfish Pristis...

Sawfish or sawshark?

Sawfish or sawshark?

By Paddy Burke (Sharks4Kids ambassador & PhD student at Macquarie University, @Patrick_Burke) The ocean is filled with so many...

Wrapping up 2018

Wrapping up 2018

SARA was founded with the goal to contribute to elasmobranch science in Queensland and Australia, while also working with people from all walks of...

Playing the food web game

Playing the food web game

In early November 2018, Sharks4Kids and Sharks And Rays Australia embarked on a joint mission to visit schools around Far North...

Sawfish at the Cairns Museum

Sawfish at the Cairns Museum

In August 2018, Sharks And Rays Australia and the Cairns Museum jointly organized a sawfish afternoon at the museum, for National Science Week. Kier...

When art meets conservation

When art meets conservation

When I heard that Pangea Seed Foundation was considering to use Cairns as the canvas for their first Australian Sea Walls event, I was really...

Saws

Saws

This blog post was originally published as a project update for the Save Our Seas Foundation. You can access the original post here. Sometimes...

SeaWalls 2018 Welcome

SeaWalls 2018 Welcome

SARA welcomes the Sea Walls artists to Cairns! Here, at Sharks And Rays Australia we are super excited to have you wonderful people...

Outreach, outreach, outreach

Outreach, outreach, outreach

By Barbara Wueringer Even if your research is extremely meaningful, there is a high chance that most people outside of your field have...

Release a sawfish video

Release a sawfish video

Our friends over at NESP (Northern Environmental Science Program) and Charles Darwin University have created an awesome video on how to release...

Sawfish, stingrays and SARA

Sawfish, stingrays and SARA

By Rebecca Bateman-John (insta: @rebeccabj_captured) When I first applied to volunteer with Sharks and Rays Australia (SARA) on a...

2016 in review

2016 in review

I am sitting in my office in Cairns. When I look out of the window I can see dark clouds hanging in the sky, bringing with them the beginning of the...

The other side of fieldwork

The other side of fieldwork

Access the original blog post written for the Save Our Seas Foundation here By Barbara Wueringer One of the goals of my project was to find out if...

Media involving SARA and our research!

February 2022: Cosmos Magazine. Old photos provide key details in bid to save sawfish. Link

February 2022: Good news Fraser Coast. Historic photo found at Hervey Bay Museum. Link

June 2022: Cape York NRM. LandsCAPE magazine. Sawfish monitoring raises new concerns. Link

September 2022: Cape York Weekly. Cape’s citizen scientists can help sawfish search. Edition 101, sept 13, 2022. P. 12. Link

October 2022: Cape York Weekly. East coast sawfish find brings joy to researchers. Edition 105 October 11, 2022. P. 2. Link

November 2021: Sawfish research team visit Kowanyama. Kowanyama Project News Issue 6. By Vivian Sinnamon.

October 2021: ABC News Far North. Indigenous rangers, scientists call for change of status for endangered sawfish. Link

October 2021: ABC Queensland Saturday breakfast radio. Rare sawfish find links cultural past with conservation future. Link

September 2021: Radio interview BEW. How to conduct research in croc infested waters. ABC Far North Radio. Mornings with Phil Stanley. Link 

August 2021: ABC Wide Bay. People power needed to help bring endangered sawfish back from brink of extinction. Link

August 2021: 7 News Toowoomba. Evening News video. Link

August 2021: Press release by USC. Study seeks photos, sightings to save iconic sawfish. Link

February 2020: Press release by Science in Public. You saw sawfish! Link

October 2019: ABC National. Sawfish used to be plentiful around Australia’s coastline, but their numbers have dropped off a cliff. https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2019-10-17/sawfish-disappearing-queensland-river/11601108

October 2019: The Guardian Australia. Sawfish numbers in global stronghold are dropping, prompting calls for fishing protection. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/17/sawfish-numbers-in-global-stronghold-fall-prompting-calls-for-fishing-protection?

January 2019: ABC Perth, Pictures of sawfish – dead or alive – needed from citizen scientists to help understand decline. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-09/sawfish-trophy-fishing-probed-by-citizen-science-survey/10698468?

January 2019: SBS online. Experts warn Australian sawfish close to dying out. https://www.sbs.com.au/news/experts-warn-australian-sawfish-close-to-dying-out

January 2019: The West, Australian sawfish close to extinction. https://thewest.com.au/news/fishing/australian-sawfish-close-to-extinction-ng-b881068436z

January 2019: SARA & Science in Public press release. Access the press release here.

Win TV FNQ local news January 08, 2019

ABC News on the 24 hr News channel, January 09, 2019

November 2018: ABC News on a fatal shark bite incident in Cid Harbour, Whitsundays, Qld. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-07/queensland-tourism-operator-concern-cid-harbour-shark-attacks/10470960

October 2018: Australian geographic voices experts opinions on shark attacks https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/wildlife/2018/10/experts-weigh-in-on-the-whitsundays-shark-encounters/

September 2017: Dr Wueringer is interviewed for an article on the rescue of 40 sawfish pups in the NT

http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/news/2017/09/rangers-save-40-endangered-sawfish-pups-from-dry-waterhole

July 2017: Gallery in Australian Geographic displaying a saw-less sawfish we caught in the same month.

http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/wildlife/2017/08/the-endangered-sawfish/

August 2014: Article in Australian geographic on the hunting abilities of sawfish https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/news/2014/08/sawfish-uses-snout-to-find-and-stun-prey/

June 2011: Article in National Geographic on the hunting abilities of sawfish. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/06/110616-sawfish-snout-sixth-sense-animals-environment-science/