Our goal is to conduct outreach, research, and monitoring to assess the effects of an unprecedented mortality event on the remaining smalltooth sawfish population, which occurs almost entirely…

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration awarded $441,965 to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's Fish and Wildlife Research Institute on January 1, 2026, under the Cooperative Research Program (CFDA 11.472) to support smalltooth sawfish recovery research and monitoring in Florida state waters through December 31, 2028.

The award funds operation of the Sawfish Hotline and its database, which serves as the primary outreach mechanism and data source for the Smalltooth Sawfish Recovery Plan. The recipient will conduct fishery-independent juvenile sampling in the Charlotte Harbor Estuary Unit of small juvenile critical habitat and the Southern Indian River Lagoon, a historically occupied nursery where preliminary evidence suggests re-establishment may be occurring. The award also funds long-term acoustic tagging using 10+ year lifespan tags and associated receivers to monitor movements in existing and historically occupied nursery habitats, and large-scale movement monitoring of older life stages statewide using two acoustic data-sharing networks. These activities support implementation of at least 29 action items (8 Priority 1, 11 Priority 2, 10 Priority 3) identified in the Smalltooth Sawfish Recovery Plan and address ongoing management needs expressed by the National Marine Fisheries Service, Army Corps of Engineers, Florida Department of Environmental Protection, and stakeholder groups including the Coastal and Heartland National Estuary Partnership, Conservancy of Southwest Florida, and City of Cape Coral. Work is performed in Tallahassee, Florida and throughout Florida's coastal and estuarine waters, including the Southwest, Southeast, East Central, Northeast, and Tequesta regions.

Our goal is to conduct outreach, research, and monitoring to assess the effects of an unprecedented mortality event on the remaining smalltooth sawfish population, which occurs almost entirely within florida state waters, while addressing ongoing management needs expressed by multiple agencies (e.g., national marine fisheries service, army corp of engineers, florida department of environmental protection) and stakeholder groups (e.g., coastal and heartland national estuary partnership, conservancy of southwest florida, city of cape coral). This project will contribute to implementation of at least 29 action items (8 priority 1, 11 priority 2, 10 priority 3) outlined in the smalltooth sawfish recovery plan. Specifically, we are requesting funds to (1) maintain the sawfish hotline and its associated database, which is a major outreach mechanism and primary data source for the recovery plan, (2) conduct fishery-independent sampling in the charlotte harbor estuary unit of small juvenile critical habitat, the southern indian river lagoon which is a historically occupied nursery where preliminary evidence has shown RE-establishment may be occurring, and other regions as necessary, (3) use long-term acoustic tags (10+ years) and receivers to monitor movements in existing and historically occupied nursery habitats, and (4) monitor the large-scale movements of older life stages state-wide using 2 acoustic data-sharing networks. The questions we seek to answer about movement are broad and long-term because the species can live at least 30 years. Use of 10+-year life acoustic tags will allow US to document movements as juveniles shift habitats within nurseries, when larger size classes transition out of nurseries, and track connectivity of coastal habitat use range-wide. Collectively, these data are vital for recovery planning, assessing relative abundance, and will improve our understanding of the sawfish life cycle, including establishment of migration corridors related to identifying adult critical habitat, including mating grounds.