How do you see your research fitting into the future of sawfishes?

Part of what we still have to find out is what habitat sawfishes need, so that we can do some spatial planning that will protect recovering sawfish populations outside Everglades National Park. In many of the regions where sawfishes historically occurred, there has been enormous development that has altered the habitat available for these animals. We don’t even know if sawfishes could use many of these areas any more. However, in Florida, where much of the coast is also really modified, we do still see sawfishes. The Caloosahatchee River, for instance, has sea walls on either side of its channel and a dam that regulates its flow. There is fishing pressure and the whole system seems too developed to host sawfishes – but we do find them there regularly. What we don’t know is how successful these populations are in terms of growth or survival. That’s part of the interesting question about Tampa Bay: one side is relatively undeveloped and one shoreline is totally modified, but we get reports of sawfishes from both sides. So this might help us refine our understanding of exactly what habitat they need. We have a reasonable handle on what habitat is needed for juvenile sawfishes: shallow sandbars where they can stay while the tide comes in and goes out. Once a sawfish is larger than two metres (6.5 feet), it ventures out into deeper estuarine and open-water areas. The insights from this project can feed into a growing understanding of what remaining critical habitat areas should be identified and prioritised for protection, to safeguard some habitat for sawfish populations as they expand northwards.

Communication and collaboration must be key when working on the conservation of species that are of concern, and especially those that might be increasing their range. What has been your experience of this?

There are many of us now focusing on this kind of sawfish research and we aim to keep our methods standardised so that we can compare our data, regardless of where we’re working. We meet once a year in person to coordinate procedures for how we conduct our research. The Sawfish Recovery Team was formed in 2003 and wrote a recovery plan for the species, so we use these annual meetings to review our progress and ensure that our technologies and methods are standardised. We talk remotely throughout the year, and all our research is permitted through the National Marine Fisheries Service, which is the agency that put together the recovery team. Our team works together to plan for future research and divide the workload among ourselves. At our meeting last year, we identified the possibility that we might start seeing more sawfishes in Tampa Bay. I’m hopeful that this concerted research effort, combined with a huge push to engage the public, will have us see some more success in the conservation and recovery of the smalltooth sawfish in the USA.