Endangered Sawfish Rescued from Tidal Pond

On August 9, 2025, a team of scientists and volunteers achieved a rare conservation success: the safe rescue of an endangered smalltooth sawfish that had been stranded for nearly a year in a tidal pond near Bishop Harbor. 

The 7.4-foot female sawfish was first reported by an angler who had learned about the species through a fishing tournament outreach program. His decision to call in the sighting sparked a multi-agency response that ultimately saved the animal’s life. Experts from Havenworth Coastal Conservation (HCC), the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), and NOAA Fisheries carefully captured, tagged, and released the sawfish into the open waters of Tampa Bay. 

“This sawfish likely entered the pond during flooding from Hurricane Helene last September, when Bishop Harbor Road was underwater,” said Tonya Wiley, President of HCC and leader of the U.S. Sawfish Recovery Team. “That would mean it had been trapped since fall 2024. Being stuck in the pond meant it couldn’t migrate to warmer waters in winter or connect with the rest of the population to reproduce. Its survival was at serious risk.” 

Smalltooth sawfish once swam abundantly from Texas to North Carolina, but today their population is restricted almost entirely to Florida. Habitat destruction, accidental capture in fishing gear, and targeted killings decimated their numbers, leading to their protection under the U.S. Endangered Species Act in 2003. 

Even with those safeguards, threats persist. In particular, shrimp trawl bycatch and the ongoing “spinning fish” phenomenon - a neurological illness causing fish to spiral uncontrollably until death - have placed sawfish in crisis. Since the winter of 2023, more than 60 sawfish mortalities have been confirmed in South Florida, with hundreds of reports of abnormal behavior. 

To learn about the latest update on the “spinning fish” phenomenon,see the Coastal Breeze News story from March 21st titled “Florida Keys Spinning Fish Update.” 

“This year was not as bad as last year,” Wiley noted, “but we still had multiple mortalities of large juveniles and adults. If this continues every winter, we’re very worried about their ability to fend off extinction.” 

NOAA Fisheries recovery coordinator Adam Brame echoed the urgency. “Given the already depleted state of the population… efforts like this relocation are critical to maximizing the survival of each and every sawfish.” 

The rescued juvenile was fitted with an acoustic transmitter, which will provide valuable long-term tracking data. While researchers have previously tagged newborn sawfish in Tampa Bay, this is the first large juvenile in the region equipped with such a device. 

All activities were performed under the authority and guidelines of NMFS ESA permit #21857 and FWC Special Activities License #1918 issued to Havenworth Coastal Conservation. 

“Tracking will help us understand how long juveniles remain in the bay, what habitats they prefer, and when - or if - they migrate out and return,” Wiley explained. “If we see patterns, we can better target future surveys and improve conservation planning.” 

The team also collected blood and DNA samples. Blood analysis will help build a baseline for healthy sawfish; data that has been sorely lacking as scientists try to distinguish between healthy individuals and those affected by the spinning disease.  

“Blood tests are a basic component of routine care that can help indicate developing health issues. For sawfish, therewas no baseline data available and even the types of white blood cells had not been described, making it difficult to know whatwas normal and what values represented a stressed or diseased fish,” said Dr. Jen Wyffels with Ripley’s Aquariums, who is thelead investigator for sawfish blood analysis. 

DNA will reveal whether this juvenile is related to three newborns Wiley documented in Tampa Bay in 2023. If it is, the data will shed light on growth rates and family structure within the local population; if not, it indicatesadditional reproductive adults are present in the area, a hopeful sign for recovery. 

Public awareness is steadily improving, Wiley added. At community presentations, she now sees more residents who know that sawfish still exist in Florida, that they are endangered, and that they urgently need help. 

The rescue highlights the growing role of public engagement in sawfish conservation. This is the seventh smalltooth sawfish that HCC has tagged in the Tampa Bay region. Multiple reports of sawfish sightings at Redington Beach resulted in HCC responding to capture, tag, and release two newborn sawfish in April and May 2021. Thanks to several reports from the public, HCC scientists responded to the area around Rattlesnake Key in lower Tampa Bay and successfully caught, tagged, and released three sawfish in 2023. 

The angler who reported the stranded sawfish on August 9, 2025, had first encountered the species through a fishing tournament where HCC distributed educational materials. Remembering that encounter, he knew exactly how to report the sighting. “He’s the reason the sawfish is swimming free now,” Wiley said. “He remembered what he learned at that event and knew to report it.” 

“All of these threats - habitat loss, shrimp trawls, and now the spinning fish phenomenon - have put sawfish in a precarious state,” Wiley reflected. “That’s why rescues like this matter so much. Each survival increases the odds that this ancient species, with its distinctive rostrum and prehistoric lineage, will remain part of Florida’s waters. At this point, saving even one sawfish can make all the difference.”