Why are sawfish on the Endangered Species List?
The population of smalltooth sawfish off the shores of Florida and the United States has severely declined over the last century. There were two major reasons for this: 1) sawfish were often caught as bycatch in commercial and recreational fisheries, and; 2) sawfish have limited reproductive potential which limits population recovery. They were easily, and often unintentionally, captured because their saws would become entangled in fishing nets. Sawfish were often landed in recreational fisheries because their saw was a popular trophy item.
