Caught in the same net

Meet the four

Sawfish

All 5 species endangered

Yes, it is a ray, a flat cousin of sharks! Its saw is a long nose edged with teeth: brilliant for hunting fish. A sawfish reaches full size at about 8 to 10 years old, and its last big strongholds are northern Australia and Florida.

Photo: Flavio Ferrari, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Hawksbill sea turtle

Critically endangered

Named for its beak, shaped like a hawk's. For hundreds of years its patterned shell was made into jewellery and combs. A hawksbill starts having babies only at 20 to 30 years old, older than a lot of teachers have been teaching!

Photo: Pseudopanax, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Scalloped hammerhead

Critically endangered

Its wide head is packed with super senses for finding prey. Hammerheads swim together in huge schools, which is amazing to see, and it means one boat in the wrong place can catch a whole group at once.

Photo: Kris-Mikael Krister, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Vaquita

Only about 10 left

The world's smallest porpoise, and its rarest sea mammal. It lives in just one place on the whole planet, the very top of Mexico's Gulf of California, and a mother has one baby every one or two years, so every single one matters.

Photo: Paula Olson, NOAA, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The four problems they all share

Tap or hover a card to turn it over.

Fishing nets

Turn me over

Fishing nets

Saws, shells, hammer shaped heads, even little porpoises: all of them tangle in fishing nets really easily. Most of the time the boats were after something else entirely. They just got stuck. Scientists call this bycatch. Turtles and vaquitas breathe air, so a net that holds them under is the biggest danger of all.

Hunted for parts

Turn me over

Hunted for parts

People pay a lot of money for fins, saws and patterned shells. Selling these parts between countries is against the law now, yet it still happens in secret. Hammerhead fins are among the most expensive in the shark fin trade, and "tortoiseshell" was really hawksbill shell.

Losing their homes

Turn me over

Losing their homes

They grow up in shallow water near the coast: mangrove forests, coral reefs and quiet beaches. People keep building over exactly these places. Baby sawfish hide among mangrove roots, hawksbills lay eggs on quiet beaches, and young hammerheads grow up in sheltered bays.

Slow to grow up

Turn me over

Slow to grow up

They take many years to become adults and raise only a few babies. When many are lost, it takes a very, very long time for their numbers to recover. A sawfish needs 8 to 10 years, a hawksbill 20 to 30, and a vaquita mother has one baby every one or two years.

Same problems, different bodies

The good news

We know exactly what the problems are, and protecting these animals works. Where nets are banned and nursery homes are kept safe, in places like northern Australia, Florida and guarded turtle beaches, the animals hang on. The vaquita is the starkest warning: with only about 10 left, its future depends on getting every last illegal net out of its small corner of the sea. Saving them is a choice we already know how to make.

Danger levels come from the IUCN Red List. This page is based on Mia's school research project, Caught in the Same Net.

Photo credits

Issue photos via Wikimedia Commons: turtle in ghost net by NOAA (public domain); shark fins drying by Cloneofsnake (CC BY-SA 2.0); mangroves of Maheshkhali by Ayman Nakib Badhan (CC BY-SA 4.0); hawksbill hatchlings by Marine Conservation Society Seychelles (CC BY 4.0).