Seeking Sawfish in Bangladesh: An Interview with Alifa Bintha Haque

   For this SCS blog we are featuring Alifa Bintha Haque, a researcher studying sawfish conservation in Bangladesh. Alifa’s research is impressively funded by SOSF, a National Geographic Photo Ark fellowship, and  ZSL EDGE fellowship and her work focuses on collaborating with fishermen on the coast of Bangladesh to understand where sawfish used to be found and where they are still found today. This work is important to identify critical habitat for sawfish in Bangladesh. Alifa and her team have created a network of local fishermen who they can work with now and in the future to help conserve sawfish in Bangladesh.

A sawfish caught in the artisanal fisheries and landed in a shark processing centre in Cox’s Bazar December, 2016. Upon getting a call from a trader I visited the site to take morphological data on the rostrum and DNA samples.

PC: Aparna Riti Biswas

What is it about sawfish that intrigued you and why have you chosen to focus on them for your project titled "Honing in on Habitats" with Save Our Seas Foundation?

   In 2016, I was working in the area of shark product trade. I was visiting fields and finding amazing information about sharks and rays. I was surprised that despite being a student of Zoology in Bangladesh, I never encountered this knowledge about these amazing species. The diversity was breath-taking and extremely under-researched. While interviewing with shark traders, one particular trader with whom I work in collaboration now, showed me a rostrum of a largetooth sawfish. It was as tall as I am. The teeth were still fresh and sharp like a knife. I was surprised because all my reading till then suggested that sawfish do not land in Bangladesh anymore. While it was abundant in the 1990s, now it is as rare as an almost extinct species. However, while I started questioning the traders and fishers I regularly work with, I came across an entirely different story. I came to know that at least a few sawfish are still landed every year in coastal Bangladesh. They don’t land in the formal landing sites hence, most of the time the landing and trade are not reported. That year, I visited eight landing sites throughout the coasts of Bangladesh from Sundarbans in the west to St. Martin’s Island in the east. It wasn’t a project, I just wanted to collect sawfish stories of the fishers and news about recent landings. To my utter surprise, the number was quite large. While it is quite expensive to run a coast-wide project, I thought of collecting sawfish reports on real-time landing with a cell phone-generated network of fishers and traders. What followed was a two-year trust-building exercise. This happened because I believed in inclusive conservation measures and not blaming the fishers or traders. We were collecting information on the landings (catch location, landing location, the net used to catch, photos, measurements, DNA samples, traders, buyers, price, use and its final destination). While I was getting landing information on a nearly regular basis, it got me thinking about what I would do with only reporting the depletion of populations of such a majestic animal which was also important from an evolutionary perspective. I wanted to research a way that can start conservation actions pioneered by the fishers and facilitated by the researchers and policymakers. This is how I came up with the project you mentioned. My goal was to identify the critical habitats for sawfish in Bangladesh using fisher’s ecological knowledge and initiate a live release program only after assessing the barriers of a marginalized and poor fisher and mitigating those barriers. “Honing on Habitats” is the project where we initiated identifying the critical habitats for sawfish in Bangladesh for facilitating habitat level protection of these species.

Three sawfish was landed in a shark processing centres in Cox’s Bazar, 2017. While conducting a regular field visit and interview surveys, a trader informed us about the landings.

PC: Aparna Riti Biswas

What has been your most memorable sawfish encounter, whether it has been with a rostrum or a live sawfish?

   I have a few memories. While working with traders the experiences were almost always pleasant. They were understanding and wanted to understand what we were trying to do. There was one trader who did not want to be interviewed. I knew he was a key informant in that area having more than 40 years of experience in trading sharks as well as sawfish. I used to go to his office as a courtesy visit every time I went to the field to build a relationship. I knew that working with traders was my job. I knew that at a point in time I wanted to be able to motivate them not to trade on protected species. One day, he called me. For the first time, he asked me why I am conducting my research. He said that I had a good job at the university, yet I was running around in these areas smelling of fish in conditions very difficult for women. My personal experience was very different. I loved what I was doing. I explained to him the importance of sawfish and its protection for the habitat and country’s sake. After hearing me out, he went to his office and came back with a rostrum and presented it to me saying if it helped my research he would be happy. 

   One of the fishers once told me a story of his experience in catching a pregnant sawfish in the recent past. He said once they hauled it out of the water it gave birth to 4-5 pups which were still alive. They caught them all. But when he told me the story the sadness in his eyes and voice compelled me to believe they are compassionate as well. Just they haven’t been sensitised in this way before.

   Another incident took place when we were not very sure whether a network of fishers would give us real-time catch information. One fisher in the Sundarbans called us to let us know that they caught a juvenile sawfish entangled in the mangrove roots in the low tides. While he couldn’t release it, he thought that letting us know would help us. We located the trader and had a meeting. This was my first time seeing a juvenile largetooth sawfish. It was surreal. I know we still have a long way to go, but these little experiences reflect that we might be on the right track. 

While we were conducting day long workshops with fishers to identify critical habitats and possible strategies for live release, this fisherman was particularly helpful. He had an experience of fishing in coastal eaters for more than 30 years but haven’t seen a single sawfish in over 5 years.   

PC: Tazin Mahmud Ashik

Can you tell us about how you came about the green sawfish sample that was found to be the first confirmed record of this species in Bangladeshi waters and what it was like confirming that species ID? 

      Readers can check out the paper here: https://www.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jfb.13874

   As I have mentioned earlier, we were collecting sawfish landing information from a network of fishers and traders. One such report led us to Cox’s Bazar. However, there was no information available to confirm the report (no rostrum or photos). Only the traders and processing centre workers were talking about a recent landing. As we couldn’t find any actual proof to corroborate the information we went on conducting regular fieldwork (collecting morphometric data on shark and ray species and random collection of DNA from already cut meat and skin as identification was impossible). Upon analyzing these data, one sample proved to be the green sawfish. This report was way out from green sawfish’s designated former range by IUCN. We called other researchers to ask if a green sawfish was ever reported in this area. However, nobody reported it before and one researcher said that the previous checklist was made arbitrarily and hence, this is the first confirmed record. 

What has been the most difficult obstacle about working with fishermen in your area?

   It just took quite a long time and effort to build trust and rapport with the fishers and traders. Now that they call me with any news; it wasn’t like this before. There is a superstition that the fishers believe in this area. They think that it's an omen if a woman boards their boats and that they won’t get any fish. These people are very simple and so is their way of life. I never tried to board their boats hence, out of respect. One day while I was surveying in one of the boats in the sea, one of the fishers asked me to come on board on their own boat, saying that it was okay because they trusted me as one of them. This was emotional and something I cherish. I really didn’t find it difficult to work with fishers. It was a little difficult to work with some boat owners though. However, I always believed and saw that it all depends on how you approach them and if you respect them enough to understand their predicaments before explaining your research and conservation goals. If they understand that your goals are devised to be achieved in an inclusive manner incorporating their perspectives, then the road becomes much easier. 

In the middle of a great conservation while conducting a workshop in Chattogram, while the fishers are sharing their experiences, identifying the areas of importance within the maps and some made promises to work with us in the future.

PC: Oliver Deppert and Save Our Seas Foundation

What has been the most encouraging/surprising thing about working with fishermen in your area?

   The hospitality and respect that I received were surprising. They come up with food and invited me on many occasions. They called me sharing their happy and sad news and stories. Every story was different but extremely humbling. The most surprising thing for me as a young graduate student back when I started working was getting to see their 'wisdom'. They might speak a simple language, unadorned with scientific terms, but they speak of an important understanding about the species and the waters; about the threats and uncertainties and most importantly about sustainable solutions. It just that, nobody tried to listen to what they have to say.
  

Running an FGD with fishers in Cox’s Bazar before designing the workshops. These helped us understanding what approaches we should take for in-depth researches and helped us building trust as well.  

PC: Aparna Riti Biswas

Do you have any project updates that you would like to share or an exciting finding that you have come across recently? 

   This season we have collected information/data thought 300 coast-wide interviews with fishers and 8 workshops with an array of stakeholders to map the critical habitats for sawfish in Bangladeshi waters to narrow down areas for expeditions. We also used this method to assess the barriers of fishers to decide to release a sawfish live if caught in their nets. This did not only reveal the challenges of fishers for 'live' release but also mapped the possible solutions to mitigate barriers to be able to facilitate them in doing so. We are still analyzing the data. 

Sampling all other elasmobranchs in the landing site in Cox’s Bazar. This is a sharpnose guitarfish a close relative of the sawfish, landed abundantly in Bangladesh. We are working with these species as well to promote proactive measure before the population is irreversibly depleted.

PC: Ashique Chowdhury

For all the aspiring scientists around the world, what advice would you give them when they are facing hard times or difficulties, whether it be with their projects or finding a job in the field?

   I have learnt to be in the process and be accepting of making a hundred mistakes. I am still learning. While I don’t believe I am equipped to give someone any advice. Situations are different so are the aspirations of individuals. I can just share what I did. It’s important to find out what one can do relentlessly even after quite a few failures. Maybe it’s called finding the passion and being at it until you realize you can actually do it. 

   Building on what has already be done and collaborating with researchers and practitioners in that area can be a great start. 

   I believe, training oneself with certain skill sets is important too. There are many young scientists with many skill sets. What one has to do is try to be one of the best in one such skill and use it. As we all know, we still need a lot more people coming in from different sectors merging their research and practise with skills and passion. 

A sawfish rostrum presented to us by one of the traders in Chattogram for research purposes. They are processing and exporting shark products since at least 1970s. The trader was so interested in the work, he asked for a book so that he can identify different species. Upon his request we presented him an Encyclopaedia in fishes of Bangladesh.

PC: Oliver Deppert and Save Our Seas Foundation