Predators maintain critical roles in their ecosystems and by understanding their visual systems we can better understand their niche and how they deliver ecosystem services. The southern sawshark (Pristiophorus nudipinnis) is a small mesopredator found around south-eastern Australian waters. We used retinal wholemounts to analyse their anatomical visual acuity and RNA opsin expression to gain insights into their ecological role in their ecosystems. Southern sawsharks had a nonuniform distribution of ganglion cells across the retina that suggests they may possess a ventral band across the retina. The faint band had a mean ganglion cell density of 1,100 (± 152.8) cells mm-2 but this pattern was not definitive. This ventral band may indicate a higher reliance on the dorsal visual field. Anatomical estimates of visual acuity at approximately 3.02 cycles deg-1 indicates that southern sawsharks have relatively low spatial resolving power and may rely more on other senses to find prey. Southern sawsharks possess a RH1 rod pigment tuned to between 488 and 499 nm and a LWS class cone pigment tuned to between 492 and 514 nm. These short-wave shifted RH1 and LWS visual pigments may be an adaptation for more open water habitats and nocturnal feeding. These data indicate that sawsharks visual systems may support specialisations into their suspected benthopelagic foraging ecology.