The shark-like rays of the family Rhinidae (wedgefishes) are one of the most threatened group of marine fishes globally. The poorly-known Clown Wedgefish Rhynchobatus cooki has historically only been recorded from fish markets in Singapore and Jakarta, Indonesia. Its natural geographic range has until now gone undocumented. Intentional searches of social media posts describing wedgefish catches in Indonesia and Malaysia revealed the first wild records of this Critically Endangered species. A total of six catch records from small-scale fisheries were located from Lingga and Singkep Islands in Indonesia (1 from 2015, 4 from 2019, 1 from 2020). It remains unknown if the species is a micro-endemic to this small area of the Malay Archipelago, or if it is wider ranging. These results demonstrate the utility of social media searches to identify biogeographic records of cryptic and data-poor species.

Wedgefishes and giant guitarfishes have overtaken sawfishes as the most imperilled marine fish families globally, with all but one of the 16 species facing an extremely high risk of extinction through a combination of traits: limited biological productivity; presence in shallow waters overlapping with some of the most intense and increasing coastal fisheries in the world; and overexploitation in target and by-catch fisheries, driven by the need for animal protein and food security in coastal communities and the trade in meat and high-value fins. Two species with very restricted ranges, the clown wedgefish (Rhynchobatus cooki) of the Malay Archipelago and the false shark ray (Rhynchorhina mauritaniensis) of Mauritania, may be very close to extinction. Only the eyebrow wedgefish (Rhynchobatus palpebratus) is not assessed as Critically Endangered, with it occurring primarily in Australia where fishing pressure is low and some management measures are in place. Australia represents a ‘lifeboat’ for the three wedgefish and one giant guitarfish species occurring there. To conserve populations and permit recovery, a suite of measures will be required that will need to include species protection, spatial management, by-catch mitigation, and harvest and international trade management, all of which will be dependent on effective enforcement.