CEDAR KEY, Fla. — Following years of decline, a 13-foot female sawfish was captured off the coast of Cedar Key, giving researchers high hopes for a comeback for the species.
It's been 20 years since the last smalltooth sawfish became the first native marine fish listed in the Endangered Species Act, Florida Museum shared in a new report. It came after decades of decline in the sawfish population due to habitat loss, over-harvesting and mortality as fisheries bycatch.
"The sawfish was caught, tagged and released June 6 during an annual shark field course co-taught by Dean Grubbs, the associate director of research at Florida State University’s Coastal and Marine Laboratory and a member of the U.S. Smalltooth Sawfish Recovery Implementation Team; and by Gavin Naylor, director of the Florida Museum of Natural History’s shark research program," Florida Museum reported.
Naylor said this is the farthest north that a sawfish has been tagged by the sawfish recovery team in the last 30 to 40 years.
Smalltooth sawfish declined by more than 90 percent in the 20th century. The day the sawfish was caught, Florida Museum said Naylor and Grubbs were reeling in their line expecting a juvenile shark. It came as a surprise when a sawfish was at the other end of the line.
"I was pretty sure this was a sawfish, but I remained stone-faced because I didn’t want to disappoint the students if I was wrong," Grubbs said. "I saw the tail before the rostrum, so I lost my calm at that point and screamed 'Sawfish! It’s a sawfish!'"
The marine animal characterized by its long, jagged snout is a member of the rays family even though they're also known as carpenter sharks. At one point, they were common in the Gulf and Atlantic Coasts, Florida Museum said.
"They were historically most abundant near Florida but occasionally ranged from Texas to as far north as North Carolina," researchers said.
To learn more about sawfish, click here.
