The world’s largest sawfish ever recorded washed up dead on a Florida beach, says wildlife officials.
According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), two deceased endangered smalltooth sawfish were found washed up on shore in the Florida Keys last week.
One was an immature female that measured 12-feet, 4-inches long, and weighed an estimated 400-500-pounds, says the FWC, and the other was a record-breaking 16-foot long, mature female (pictured) that weighed an estimated 1,000-pounds.
It’s currently unknown how the sawfish died, but biologists with the agency say both carcasses were found far enough away (one near Cudjoe Key and the other near Marvin Key) that they believe the deaths were likely unrelated.
Scientists know very little about sawfish since they were added to the U.S. federal endangered species list in 2003, which is why the FWC says both sawfish specimens will provide valuable information about the species.
“The vertebrae will be used to determine the ages of both sawfish, the DNA will be sequenced to compare to other sawfish that have been studied throughout Florida, and the length at maturity for females will be fine-tuned based on these data,” said the FWC in a Facebook post.
If you see a sawfish, the FWC wants to know about it. Report a sighting by contacting the agency:
- Phone: 844-4SAWFISH
- Email: sawfish@myfwc.com
- Submit a report through the FWC Reporter app.
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This article appears in Apr 8-14, 2021.