Indigenous Ranger-led monitoring of threatened sawfish in the Victoria River, Northern Territory

This project will work with Indigenous rangers and Traditional Owners in the Victoria River, Northern Territory, to improve understanding of largetooth sawfish populations. Using close-kin mark-recapture (CKMR), an advanced genetic technique that estimates adult abundance from tissue samples, this project will help establish abundance estimates for this iconic group of species to guide management actions. The project will also strengthen Indigenous Ranger-led monitoring and build capacity for long-term sawfish conservation on Country.

Approach

This project will build on existing collaborative work with the Timber Creek Indigenous Rangers, Victoria River, that enables the collection of largetooth sawfish tissue samples to directly assist in developing baseline status and trends for sawfish species on Country and could serve as a model for other regions in Australia.

Data collected in the Victoria River will be used to improve understanding of seasonal variability in recruitment, survival, growth and animal health in one of Australia’s most important nursery areas for largetooth sawfish. The project will also quantify individual variability in length/mass and fat content to better understand variability in recruitment and survival of juvenile sawfish.

The project will train and equip Indigenous rangers to record sawfish captures, body measurements, and survival and release data.

Expected outcomes

• Improved knowledge of sawfish populations in the Northern Territory to support regional planning and conservation.
• New data to support the management and recovery of threatened sawfish in northern Australia.
• Improved understanding of the pressures affecting sawfish populations, including factors influencing recruitment, growth and survival.
• Increased capacity for Traditional Owners and Indigenous ranger groups to undertake long-term sawfish monitoring on Country.
• A collaborative monitoring approach that could be applied to sawfish conservation in other regions of northern Australia.

Project location