Abstract

In the Caribbean Sea of Colombia the last record of Pristis genus was in 1989, for this reason is considered that the status of this genus is disturbing. Currently the project “Evaluation of the status of sawfishes (Pristiformes: Pristidae) in the Caribbean Sea of Colombia” aim to assess the status of traditional knowledge and perception from artisanal fishing communities, about the species of the Pristis genus. At the time we collected 50 interviews in the region of Santa Marta (Magdalena, Colombia) about the existence, habitats, the fisheries and the utilization of their rostrum, skin, and flesh of the sawfishes. The preliminary results show that 74.47% of experimented fisherman captured or were present in a capture. In this region the Pristis spp was known with different names, the most common was “sword-fish” (80.43%) followed by sawfish (13.43%). The occurrence was between October to December. The 60.87% of fisherman recognized the presence of P. pristis, and the 15.22% P. pectinata. On the other hand, the common fishing gear was net gill (54.05%) and line gear (32.43%). The fallowing is making the interviews in others areas of the Caribbean Sea of Colombia and be able to identify and define areas with the presence of live individuals of the Pristis species and promote their conservation through activities with the communities of fishermen. This project are sponsored by The Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund and accomplished with Grupo de Investigación Evaluación y Ecología Pesquera – GIEEP from Universidad del Magdalena.

PDF Preview