Endangered Smalltooth Sawfish Tagged Off Coast Florida Hints Possible Comeback in First Sighting After 20 Years

An endangered smalltooth sawfish was recently detected off the coast of Florida after 20 years, suggesting that the species may be on the verge of a recovery.

Endangered Smalltooth Sawfish

For the first time in 20 years, a native marine fish species off the coast of Florida was just tagged. It was the first time the species had ever been declared endangered under the Endangered Species Act.

On June 6 during an annual shark field course, an adult female smalltooth sawfish with a length of 13 feet was caught, tagged, and released.

This, in the opinion of the Florida Museum of Natural History, may point to a slow pace of recovery of the species.

Gavin Naylor, the director of the Florida Museum of Natural History's shark research program, and Dean Grubbs, Florida State University's Coastal and Marine Laboratory associate director of research, caught the sawfish.

According to Naylor, this is the farthest northerly location the sawfish recovery team has tagged an individual in the previous 30 to 40 years.

Following decades of dwindling populations due to habitat degradation, overfishing, and death as bycatch in fisheries, smalltooth sawfish was originally designated as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act in 2003, according to the Florida Museum.

Smalltooth sawfish populations rapidly decreased in the latter half of the 20th century, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration via the Lede, primarily as a result of habitat loss from coastal development and getting unintentionally caught in commercial fishing operations, in part because of their saw-like snouts that are easily entangled in nets.

Naylor and Grubbs had no reason to think they would encounter anything other than a young shark when they initially felt a strong tug on their rope.

Given that nurse sharks and sawfish inhabit many of the same environments, Grubbs claimed that he initially believed they had hooked a sawfish when the line jerked sharply and suddenly.

Reported and Tagged

Grubbs was very certain that it was a sawfish, but he maintained his composure since he didn't want to let the kids down if he turned out to be mistaken.

He noticed the tail before the rostrum, at which time he lost his calm and yelled that it was indeed a sawfish.

Grubbs, along with his graduate students, cautiously confined the fish once they had caught it, while another staff member drove a skiff back to shore to grab a tagging device.

The tag is part of a larger initiative by federal and state authorities, colleges, and non-governmental organizations to track sawfish populations and will allow the team to trace the animal's travels for the next ten years.

On the sawfish's fins and sides, the scientists discovered scars from mating.

Although there are few, if any, recordings of sawfish mating behaviors, the Florida Museum notes that closely related species like rays and sharks demonstrate wooing behavior that involves the males biting the female partners' fins before mating.

Female smalltooth sawfish give birth to a modest litter of seven to fourteen young, which require many years to achieve reproductive age.

Smalltooth sawfish have a long life cycle. Sawtooth populations' slow comeback has been hampered by their slow growth, although mating scars are evidence that their numbers are still increasing, Pensacola News Journal reported.