Remarkably, this was the second sawfish sighting in South Bimini in just a few days. In December last year, the director of the Shark Lab, Tristan Guttridge, published a paper about smalltooth sawfishes in The Bahamas. Two of these sawfishes were tagged at Bimini and three at Andros, and researchers tracked their movements. The study showed that The Bahamas has important habitat for sawfishes and that Andros is likley to be a nursery area. Since 2002, only 61 sawfish encounters have been recorded at these locations.

Despite their conservation status, sawfishes are not protected species in The Bahamas, where Bimini’s marine habitat has been under threat from contsruction and development for two decades. Guttridge and his team hope that by sharing videos like this they are proving the significance of Bimini as a critical habitat for endangered species like sawfishes and they urge the government of The Bahamas to establish the North Bimini Marine Reserve.