“Scientists will spend the next three months looking for what may be a phantom with fins,” begins the Tampa Tribune article on a new study and search for information on sawfish off the coast of North America.
The quest is on for sightings of both the largetooth (Pristis microdon) and the smalltooth sawfish (Pristis pectinata). Smalltooth seem to still be around, but people are not so sure of the largetooth.
At one time, the largetooth inhabited shallow coastal waters along the Gulf Coast but the last was seen in Florida in 1941 and in Texas in 1943, Norton said. It has been even longer since one was spotted off Louisiana.
The fish are still believed to be in waters from South America to Mexico and some may make it to waters off the Texas coast.
A sawtooth fish swims at the Florida Aquarium. The cousin of the largetooth sawfish, the smalltooth, still can be found, the last largetooth was seen during World War II, said Shelley Norton, program manager with the Fisheries Service.
The University of Florida is seeking the public’s help in tracking the rare smalltooth sawfish. What information should you report?
• Your name, phone number and e-mail address
• Date, time and location of the encounter
• Number, size and behavior of the sawfish
• Your activity at the time, such as fishing, boating or diving
• Information on any tags, scars or other distinguishing marks
For information about sawfish and the recovery program, go to here (also, see form here).
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