CUDJOE KEY, Fla. – It was a critical rescue for a critically endangered animal.
On Saturday, FWC agents were joined by staff from MOTE Marine Lab to evaluate a distressed smalltooth sawfish swimming in circles in Cudjoe Bay. The teams quickly arrived to aid the animal after witnesses called into the FWC hotline.
“The decision was made, to go ahead and attempt the rescue…and it was done,” explained Michael Crosby, MOTE President and CEO.
The monumental decision meant that the 11-foot male sawfish became the first to be rescued just less than a week after an unprecedented operation was launched by these agencies in partnership with NOAA.
“There have been multiple responses,” Crosby said. “But this is the first time that an animal was rescued.”
The effort was dangerous, but dire.
“You’re trying to protect everyone from that rostrum as you have a distressed animal,” Crosby explained. “So it takes a lot of hands coming at the first from different directions in order to stabilize the fish.”
Once stabilized, it was carefully transported by boat to the MOTE Research Center in Summerland Key. That’s where trained veterinarians immediately began care, staying with the animal in the tank for 24 hours.
“We were giving it fluids, lipids, trying to strengthen the animal as best as possible to stabilize it,” he added.
Once veterinarians and FWC biologists deemed that it was responding well, the decision was made to move the sawfish to a bigger MOTE facility in Sarasota. Video provided to Local 10 News from Thursday shows the animal being loaded into a tank on a special trailer provided by Ripley’s Aquarium for transport.
“It’s like you take it from an intensive care unit to a critical care unit,” detailed Crosby. “In this new facility, this animal is swimming, it is appearing in relatively reasonably stable condition.”
“For me this is a cautionary happy story,” he added.
This first successful rescue and rehabilitation is a glimmer of hope amid a sea of uncertainty for the sawfish. It’s part of an all-hands effort that began after dozens of critically endangered species began washing dead, mostly in the Lower Keys.
That’s in addition to the more than 150 other eyewitness reports of sawfish seen swimming erratically and distressed, from Key West to the Boynton Beach Inlet.
“Obviously, this is step one in a much larger issue,” underscored Adam Brame, NOAA Sawfish Recovery Coordinator. “We don’t know what is affecting these fish… but this is certainly a nice step in the right direction.”
“And we’re super excited about the progress to date,” he added.
As of Wednesday, 38 total sawfish have been reported dead according to FWC. This as more than 70 other species of fish have also been documented behaving bizarrely.
What’s causing these animals to spin and thrash? Well, scientists are still pretty stumped.
“It doesn’t seem to be letting up,” said Dean Grubbs, sawfish expert and Associate Director of Research at FSU. “And we still don’t know what the cause is.”
Meanwhile, this sawfish might just get a second chance.
“We’re ready, willing, and able to support it in its rehabilitation process for as long as it takes until we can get this animal back into the wild,” said Crosby. “That’s our goal”
HOW YOU CAN HELP
Report sightings of healthy, sick, injured or dead sawfish to FWC’s Sawfish Hotline. Include date, time and location of the encounter, estimated length, water depth and any other relevant details.
- 1-844-4SAWFISH (1-844-472-9347)
Report sightings of abnormal fish behavior, fish disease, or fish kills to FWC’s Fish Kill Hotline.
- Submit a fish kill report
- Call 800-636-0511