Blog
My Six-Month Internship: Year Five
by Nikki Biskis Sometimes I think back to that day in Melbourne where I called Barbara at Sharks And Rays Australia to ask what she had. We had an...
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 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
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
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
Sharks And Rays Australia (SARA) is seeking up to three social media interns to support our team in science communication. You will help us...
Job: Non-executive Director (voluntary)
Summary: SARA-r is recruiting board directors to grow our new entity. The directors will lead our strategic vision, consistent with our core values...
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
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...
Media involving our team
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. Link
October 2019: The Guardian Australia. Sawfish numbers in global stronghold are dropping, prompting calls for fishing protection. Link
January 2019: ABC Perth, Pictures of sawfish – dead or alive – needed from citizen scientists to help understand decline. Link
January 2019: SBS online. Experts warn Australian sawfish close to dying out. Link
January 2019: The West, Australian sawfish close to extinction. Link
January 2019: SARA & Science in Public press release. Link.
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. Link
October 2018: Australian geographic voices experts opinions on shark attacks Link
September 2017: Australian Geographic. Dr Wueringer is interviewed for an article on the rescue of 40 sawfish pups in the NT. Link
July 2017: Australian Geographic. The endangered sawfish. Gallery displaying a saw-less sawfish we caught in the same month. Link
Publications
Scientific Publications:
2024
- Inglebrecht J, Morgan DL, O’Lear K, Wueringer BE. 2023. Close-kin population genetic assessment of Criticlly-Endangered green sawfish Pristis zijsron in Western Australia. Accepted for publication May 2024.
- Biskis, VN, Wueringer, BE, Holmes, BJ, & Townsend, KA. Using rostral morphometrics to access size class information from historical sawfish specimens. Submitted in November 2023.
2023
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Haque AB, Charles R, D’Anastasi B, Dulvy NK, Faria V, Fordham S, Grant MI, Harry AV, Jabado RW, Lear KO, Morgan DL, Tanna A, Wakhida Y, Wueringer, BE. 2023. Anoxypristis cuspidata. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2023: e.T39389A58304073. Link
- Wueringer BE, Biskis N, Pinkus G. 2023. Impacts of trophy collection and commercial fisheries on sawfishes in Queensland, Australia. Endangered Species Research. Link
2022
- Abrantes K, Barnett A, Soetaert M, Kune PM, Laird A, Squire L, Seymour J, Wueringer BE, Sleeman J, Hueveneers C. 2021. Potential of electric fields to reduce bycatch of highly threatened sawfishes. Endang Species Res. 46: 121-135. Link
- Espinoza M, Bonfil-Sanders R, Carlson J, Charvet P, Chevis M, Dulvy NK, Everett B, Faria V, Ferretti F, Fordham S, Grant MI, Haque AB, Harry AV, Jabado RW, Jones, GCA, Kelez S, Lear KO, Morgan DL, Phillips NM, Wueringer BE. 2022. Pristis pristis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2022: e.T18584848A58336780. Link
- Fetterplace LC, Delgado Esteban JJ, Pini-Fitzsimmons J, Gaskell J, Wueringer BE. 2022. Evidence of sound production in wild stingrays. Ecology 103(11): e3812. Link
- Grant MI, Charles R, Fordham S, Harry AV, Lear KO, Morgan DL, Phillips NM, Simeon B, Wakhida Y, Wueringer BE. 2022. Pristis clavata. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2022: e.T39390A68641215. Link
- Harry AV, Everett B, Faria V, Fordham S, Grant MI, Haque AB, Ho H, Jabado RW, Jones GCA, Lear KO, Morgan DL, Phillips NM, Spaet JLY, Tanna A, Wueringer BE. 2022. Pristis zijsron. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2022: e.T39393A58304631. Link
- Holmes BJ, Williams SM, Barnett A, Townsend KA, Wueringer BE, Daley RK, Dudgeon CL, Amstrong A, Henderson C, Finucci B, Huveneers C, Butcher PA, Crook K, Jicks J, Rigby CL, Izzo C, Treolar MA, Gutteridge AN, Taylor SM. 2022. Sharks, Rays and chimaeras. In: Smith B, Waudby H, Alberthsen C, Hampton J (eds). Wildlife Research in Australia: Practical and Applied Methods. CSIRO Publishing. 543-560.
- Wueringer BE, Henderson C, Holmes BJ. 2022. Chondrichthyans – Guitarfish, wedgefish and sawfish. In: Smith B, Waudby H, Alberthsen C, Hampton J (eds). Wildlife Research in Australia: Practical and Applied Methods CSIRO Publishing. 546-547.
2015 – 2021
- Nevatte RJ, Williamson JE, Wueringer BE, Gillings MR. 2021. Contrasting patterns of population structure in commercially fishes sawsharks from southern Australian waters. Rev Fish Biol Fisheries https://doi.org/10.1007/s11160-021-09640-4
- Wueringer BE, Winther-Janson M, Raoult V, Guttridge TL. 2020. Anatomy of the mechanosensory lateral line canal system and electrosensory ampullae of Lorenzini in two species of sawshark (fam. Pristiophoridae). J Fish Biol 98:168-177
- Hudgins JL, Bell, M, Wueringer BE. 2019. Extension of the historic range of freshwater sawfish Pristis pristis on the east coast of Australia. Pacific Conservation Biology. https://doi.org/10.1071/PC19001 ResearchGate
- Wueringer BE. 2017. Sawfish catches in the Queensland Shark Control Program, 1964 to 2016. Endangered Species Research, DOI:10.3354/esr00853 open access
- Bradney D, Evans S, Davidson A, Wueringer BE, Morgan DL, Clausen P. 2017. Sawfishes stealth revealed using computational fluid dynamics. Journal of Fish Biology, DOI:10.1111/jfb.13255 link
- Nevatte RJ, Williamson JE, Vella NGF, Raoult V, Wueringer BE. 2017. Morphometry and microanatomy of the barbels of the common sawshark Pristiophorus cirratus (Pristiophoridae): implications for pristiophorid behaviour. Journal of Fish Biology, DOI:10.1111/jfb.13275 ResearchGate
- Nevatte RJ, Wueringer BE, Jacob DE, Park JM, Williamson JE. 2017. First insights into the function of the sawshark rostrum through examination of rostral tooth microwear. Journal of Fish Biology, DOI: 10.1111/jfb.13467 ResearchGate
- O’Shea O, Wueringer BE, Winchester M Brooks EJ. 2017. Comparative feeding ecology of the yellow ray Urobatis jamaicensis (Urotrygonidae) from The Bahamas. Journal of Fish Biology, DOI: 10.1111/jfb.13488 ResearchGate
- O’Leary BC, Winther-Janson M, Bainbridge JM, Aitken J, Hawkins JP, Roberts CM. 2016. Effective coverage targets for ocean protection. Conservation Letters, DOI: 10.1111/conl.12247 open access
- Morgan DL, Wueringer BE, Allen MG, Ebner BC, Whitty JM, Gleis AC, Beatty SJ. 2016. Only a sawfish needs its saw: what is the fate of amputee sawfish? Fisheries, 41 (2): 71-73 publisher, ResearchGate
pre 2015
- Winther-Janson M, Wueringer BE, Seymour J. 2012. Electroreception in epaulette sharks, Hemiscyllium ocellatum. PLoS ONE. 7(11): e49857. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0049857 open access
- Wueringer BE. 2012. Electroreception in elasmobranchs – sawfish as a case study. Brain, Behaviour and Evolution 80:97-107. DOI: 10.1159/000339873 ResearchGate
- Wueringer BE, Kajiura SM, Squire L Jr, Tibbetts IR, Collin SP. 2011. Electric field detection in sawfish and shovelnose rays. PLoS ONE. 7(7): e41605. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0041605. open access
- Wueringer BE, Squire L Jr, Kajiura, SM, Hart NS,Collin SPC. 2011. The function of the sawfish’s saw. Current Biology 22(5) R150-R151. publisher, ResearchGate
- Wueringer BE, Peverell SC, Seymour J, Squire L Jr, Kajiura, SM, Collin SPC. 2011. Sensory systems in sawfishes – Part 1: The ampullae of Lorenzini. Brain, Behavior and Evolution. 78(2): 139-149. pdf
- Wueringer BE, Peverell SC, Seymour J, Squire L Jr, Collin SP. 2011. Sensory systems in sawfishes – Part 2: The lateral line. Brain, Behavior and Evolution. 78(2): 150-161. open access
- Marzullo TM, Wueringer BE, Squire, L Jnr, Collin SP. 2011. Description of the mechanoreceptive lateral line and the electroreceptive ampullary system in the freshwater whipray Himantura dalyensis. Marine & Freshwater Research 62: 771-779 ResearchGate
- Wueringer BE, Squire L Jr, Collin SP. 2009. The biology of extinct and extant sawfish (Batoidea: Sclerorhynchidae and Pristidae). Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries 19:445-464. ResearchGate
- Wueringer BE, Tibbetts IR, Whitehead DL. 2009. Ultrastructure of the ampullae of Lorenzini of the eastern shovelnose ray, Aptychotrema rostrata. Zoomorphology 128: 45-52. ResearchGate
- Wueringer BE, Tibbetts IR. 2008. Comparison of the ampullary and lateral line systems of two species of shovelnose ray. Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries 18(1): 47-64. ResearchGate
Publications for a general readership:
- Biskis VN, Wueringer BE. 2022. Citizen Scientists saving sawfish. Newsletter of the Australian Society for Fish Biologists. Vol 50: (1). 12-15.
- Wueringer BE, Biskis N. 2020. To tag a sawfish. CRIKEY! Magazine.
- Wueringer BE, McNicholas G. 2018. Searching for sawfish. CRIKEY! Magazine Spring:44-47.
- Wueringer BE. 2012. Demystifying a sea monster. Australasian Science Sept 2012: 29-31. link to publisher
- Phillips N, Wueringer BE. 2015. Sawfish – Ancient predators in need of modern conservation tools. Wildlife Australia, Autumn 2015 ResearchGate
Publications in preparation:
- Biskis VN, Townsend K, McDavitt M, Wueringer BE. Sawfish spotters fill data gaps critical for sawfish protections in Queensland, Australia.
- Wueringer BE, Kempster R, Collin SP. Sensory adaptations of juvenile spear tooth sharks Glyphis glyphis.
- Wueringer BE, Coimbra JP, Collin SP. Sensory systems in sawfishes: Part III Retinal specialisations in the freshwater sawfish Pristis pristis in comparison with a shark ray Rhina ancylostoma.
- Wueringer BE, Collin SP. Social interactions and dominance hierarchies in the freshwater sawfish Pristis pristis.