• Mongabay’s new film “Why cockfighting is threatening Peru’s last sawfish” investigates how the critically endangered largetooth sawfish has become a victim of Peru’s legal cockfighting industry.
• Although the species has nearly disappeared from Peru’s Pacific waters, its rostral “teeth” continue to circulate in informal markets, prized for use as cockfighting spurs.
• A single sawfish can yield dozens of spurs, each worth up to $250, creating powerful economic incentives for artisanal fishers facing financial hardship.
• Through interviews with fishers, scientists and cockfighting industry leaders, the film explores whether cultural change within the sport can outpace the illegal trade before the species disappears entirely.

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MANCORA, Peru — The largetooth sawfish is a critically endangered fish distinguished by its long, blade-like snout edged with tooth-like projections. In the waters off Peru, it’s become an unlikely casualty of one of the country’s most entrenched traditions: cockfighting.

The elongated “teeth” that give sawfish (Pristis pristis) their name aren’t actual teeth, but hardened, modified scales embedded along the rostrum. For decades, some cockfighters have carved these structures into sharp spurs that they attach to a rooster’s legs before a fight.

(Left) A crowd gathered on the beach in the town of Caleta La Cruz in Tumbes province, northern Peru, in 2014, after fishers landed a largetooth sawfish they captured accidentally. (Right) A sawfish rostral “tooth.” Images courtesy of (left) Emilio Borjas Garcia/Planeta Oceano and (right) Patricia Charvet.

A new film by Mongabay, Why cockfighting is threatening Peru’s last sawfish, examines how — even as sawfish have nearly disappeared from Peruvian waters — their rostral teeth continue to circulate through informal markets, repurposed into weapons for the ring.

Cockfighting in Peru is legal and is formally recognized as cultural heritage. An estimated 1,700 arenas operate nationwide, with between 300,000 and 500,000 breeders involved. Blade fights and spur fights are common. Historically, prized spurs were crafted from natural materials, including hawksbill turtle shells and sawfish rostral teeth.

By the 1970s, sawfish spurs were especially sought after for their durability and capacity to inflict severe injury. They commanded premium prices among competitors.

Spurs for cockfighting fashioned from sawfish teeth. Images courtesy of Mercado Libre (left) and Rigoberto Rosas-Luis (right), republished from his book “Diversity of fishes in Ecuador”/Ecuadorian Ichthyologist Network.

Today, Peru prohibits the capture and commercialization of sawfish, and international agreements ban commercial trade in the species. Many cockfighting leagues now promote plastic or fiberglass spurs, which cost as little as $2. Yet enforcement remains uneven, and illegal sawfish spurs still appear in online listings and informal markets.

For a species so depleted, even limited demand can have disproportionate consequences.

The film follows an artisanal fisher who accidentally landed a massive sawfish — the first he had ever seen outside textbooks. But when costly boat engine repairs loomed, he faced an impossible choice: keep the rostrum as a relic or sell it to cover repair costs.

Fisherman Martin Maceda. Image courtesy of Cristina Hara.

A single rostrum can yield dozens of spurs. On the black market, one spur can sell for up to $250 — the equivalent of several months’ income for a small-scale fisher.

Scientists warn that sawfish populations along South America’s Pacific coast are so diminished that baseline data are scarce. In Peru, no one knows how many remain.

Alejandra Mendoza Pfennig, president of the Peruvian marine conservation nonprofit ecOceánica, helped convince artisanal fishers to free an accidentally caught largetooth sawfish back in 2015. Image courtesy of Cristina Hara.

Researchers are using environmental DNA (eDNA) surveys to detect sawfish presence along Peru’s coast and, where populations persist, training fishers to document, measure and release any individuals encountered at sea. At the same time, some cockfighting industry leaders are campaigning to phase out animal-based spurs entirely.

The future of Peru’s sawfish may depend not only on legal protections, but on whether cultural evolution can outpace the illegal trade in one of the ocean’s most distinctive and imperiled species.

Banner image: A judge watches a cockfight in Peru. Image by Peter Baldes via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0).

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