What is a sawfish?
Sawfish are shark-like rays named for their saw-shaped snouts (rostra), which are used primarily for feeding. Like other rays, their mouths and gills are located on the underside of their bodies, and their skeletons are made of flexible cartilage, not bone.
There are five species of sawfishes worldwide, and they now face greater extinction risk than any other family of marine fish. Only the smalltooth sawfish is currently found in U.S. waters.
Handling & Release guidelinesThe decline of sawfish in the U.S.
Smalltooth sawfish were once found in coastal waters from Texas to North Carolina. However, fishing mortality and habitat loss led to dramatic reductions in both their numbers and range. Now they are regularly found only in southwest Florida, including Everglades National Park.
NOAA Fisheries listed the smalltooth sawfish as “Endangered” under the Endangered Species Act in 2003.
Report a sawfish