THATTA: A 15-feet long. 1,320 Kg giant female large-tooth sawfish was caught and sold by fishermen near Thatta on Saturday, reported the World Wildlife Federation (WWF) on Monday.
According to the organisation’s press release on the matter, the particular fish which is locally known as Liara is from a critically endangered species was caught by fisherman Al Zahid Ali near Turchan and Khajar creeks while he was out on his trawler to catch shrimp.
“Due to the large size and heavy weight of the animal, fishermen used a crane to heave it on board,” stated the press release.
The sawfish was then offloaded at Ibrahim Hyderi and auctioned on May 26.
Sawfish all over the globe are under a severe threat of extinction as a result of overfishing. So far, three types of the rarest group of marine animals have been sighted in Pakistan. These include he Knife-tooth (Anoxypristis cuspidatus), the Large-tooth (Pristis pristis) and the Large-comb (Pristis zijsron).