Evidence of long-distance movement of green sawfish (Pristis zijsron) in Western Australia

Context In this study, single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were used to investigate kinship for the green sawfish (Pristis zijsron). Aims To examine the relatedness of P. zijsron across an expansive coastline in Western Australia. Methods Sampling was conducted between the Fitzroy River estuary and Bay of Rest in the eastern Indian Ocean (north-western Australia) between 2003 and 2022. SNPs were generated from tissues collected from 137 live and 1 recently deceased P. zijsron. Key results Overall, 62 individual P. zijsron were assigned to 25 litters of full siblings, with litter sizes ranging from 2 to 5 pups, and 76 P. zijsron individuals were assigned to 96 half sibling pairwise relationships. Four pairs of half siblings were captured more than 500 km and born at least 6 years apart, including one pair of neonates captured ~870 km and 8 years apart, in the Ashburton River estuary (Pilbara) and Cable Beach (Broome). Furthermore, a pair of full-sibling pups (i.e. young of the year) caught at Cape Keraudren (Pilbara) in 2008 were half siblings of a pup caught in the Ashburton River in 2014. Conclusions This study provides evidence of long-distance, likely parental, movement of P. zijsron. Implications Dispersal of P. zijsron over large spatial scales indicates that populations could be replenished from elsewhere should they experience a decline, thereby reducing the risk of localised extinction for this species.