‘Prehistoric’ sharks struggle to make comeback near Florida

For 16 years, Jim Gelsleichter and his students explored the waters of southeast Georgia and northeast Florida to learn more about sharks, rays and other related species in the area.

In all those years, one fish was still missing, the endangered smalltooth sawfish. But this summer, when a storm approached their boat on the St. Marys at the end of the day, the student heard a tug on the line and quickly realized that there was something big on the other side.

Gelsleichter, professor and executive director of the coastal and marine biology program at the University of North Florida, jumped in to help by taking the bucket they use to attract and capture the larger species.

“It was the hardest thing I’ve ever pulled from a drum line,” he said. “When I pulled it, I kept thinking: ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if it was a sawfish.'”

In fact, there appeared a sawfish about half the length of his 21-foot skiff, with its long, toothy snout, wrapped around the line. Gelsleichter and the students were “thrilled” to find the rare animal.

The sawfish, a type of ray related to sharks, is immediately recognizable by its snout, which is also called a rostrum or saw. Often referred to as “prehistoric,” paleontologists say sawfish evolved from earlier species. It is a type of elasmobranch, a group that includes rays, skates and sharks, which have no bones or bones, only cartilage, and eat fish, shrimp and crabs.

The discovery of sawfish on the Florida/Georgia border and the news of sawfish caught on the east coast of Florida earlier this month are good signs in what has been a year of bad news for prey animals. Gelsleichter also sees it as an opportunity to raise awareness about these rare species and the fight for their recovery.

Once it was found on the coast from Texas to New York, its population decreased significantly in the last half of the last century and the view of America was reduced to Florida. When they reached a length of 16 meters, sawfish were caught in nets when they were caught and were considered fishing trophies.

Outside the US, smalltooth sawfish are also found in the Bahamas and reports suggest they may also be found in other parts of Central America, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Saw fish recovery

Florida adopted protection in 1992 and the United States sawfish population became the first state marine fish to be listed under the Endangered Species Act in 2003. At the time, the fish was found only in pockets of Southwest Florida, said Dean Grubbs, research director. and research professor at Florida State University’s Coastal and Marine Laboratory.

Grubbs is a member of the Sawfish Recovery Team, which is put together by NOAA’s office of protected resources to develop fish recovery plans. It includes other experts and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. “There are a lot of people involved,” he said.

After two decades of effort, the sawfish were showing signs of recovery:

These are all good signs of population recovery, Gelsleichter said.

“The protections that we had put in place seemed to be going back (to the decline),” he said. “We are starting to see animals as often as before.”

Boring disease occurs in sawfish

Then a deadly disease emerged last fall, a disease that causes unusual behavior in marine species, including spinning in the water. The first dead sawfish was reported in January. Since then, Grubbs said, at least 54 sawfish have been confirmed dead from the poisoning, mostly in the middle and lower Florida Keys. Experts believe the number could be higher.

In April in the Florida Keys, the team rescued a sawfish for the first time, a sick 11-foot fish, and took it to a care facility run by the Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium, with high hopes that it would will recover, but after a while. 20 days of rehabilitation care, the sawfish died.

Government officials are working with other groups to investigate the cause of the illness and death, which has been reported in more than 80 other fish species, as well as several types of crabs.

The disease should not be confused with “storm sickness,” an invasive disease that affects freshwater fish with a virus that damages the nervous system, said Kelly Richmond with the Florida wildlife commission. “Our research has not found any evidence of viruses or other infectious agents that could be responsible for the various behavioral patterns and recent deaths.” The same goes for sawfish, as well as bony fish, he said.

Research is ongoing into the possible role of harmful algal blooms and related toxins, Richmond said. Researchers have taken biopsies, blood samples and water samples, but so far have not come up with definitive answers.

Florida lawmakers are setting aside money to study sawfish disease, and Grubbs hopes some of the money will go toward supporting sawfish disease research.

“This large mortality event would be a major setback for us in terms of recovery,” he said. “It will take time before we know exactly how big the disruption was.”

People asked the public to report sightings of sawfish

It is very important for fishermen and boaters and anyone on the water to report all sightings or catches of sawfish, which can be seen anywhere in the Southeast, scientists say. The report should include the estimated size, location, date, time and depth of the water.

How to report sightings:

Anglers who catch one must handle it properly, keep it in the water at all times and quickly release it.

In 2019, a Jacksonville commercial fisherman pleaded guilty to using a chainsaw to cut the rostrum off a live 12-foot fish off the coast of Northeast Florida. He was sentenced to two years of probation, a $2,000 fine and 80 hours of community service.

A field research team offers a rare opportunity

Gelsleichter teaches a field research class where students conduct research by boat looking for sharks and rays. He and his students study shark breeding and fish pollutants that disrupt reproductive biology.

As soon as they pulled the wood fish they caught near the boat, it was time to get to work, as soon as possible. Because he is included in the permit that allows him to work with sawfish, they took small biopsies for genetic research, measured the little man and shot a quick video. They also attached a NOAA tag and did a rostral tooth count.

This was only the second time in Gelsleichter’s decades-long career that he was able to catch a sawfish. “I can’t even describe it,” he said. “For these undergraduates to get a chance to see something like this is my favorite part of it.”

Dinah Voyles Pulver covers climate change, wildlife and the environment for USA TODAY. Reach him at dpulver@gannett.com or @dinahvp.

This article appeared in USA TODAY: Rare sawfish are trying to make a comeback in Florida, Georgia