Last month, members of the Grubbs lab traveled to the Florida Keys, in collaboration with members of the Bimini Biological Field Station, for routine smalltooth sawfish (Pristis pectinata) sampling. The crew was able to successfully capture and tag 11 large juvenile and adult sawfish with 10-year tags for acoustic tracking (a new record for their winter trips!). This means that for the next decade, when these animals swim past stationary acoustic receivers, the date and time of their presence will be recorded, allowing us to learn about their long-term movement behavior and habitat use. Dr. Dean Grubbs and Ph.D. candidate Ashley Dawdy are using this data to explore and define important habitats for large sawfish, so stay tuned to hear about what they learn from this exciting data! 

If you encounter a sawfish in the wild, please report it to the sawfish encounter hotline at 1-844-4SAWFISH. These reports help inform their active research.

All research was conducted under ESA permit 22078 and SAL 1345.