A large sawtooth with small teeth that is perhaps the longest that researchers have ever measured recently washed ashore in the Florida Keys.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission announced last week that a 16-foot-tall woman weighing between 800 and 1,000 pounds had washed up on a beach at Cudjoe Key.
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It was one of two large sawdust washed up dead in the Florida Keys last week, with the second found at Marvin Key, weighing more than 12 feet and weighing between 400 and 500 pounds.
“The 16-foot sawfish … is the longest that scientists have measured since research on the species began,” the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said in a Facebook post Post.
“There was no clear cause of death for any sawfish; valuable life history information is and will still be collected from both carcasses, ”reads the report. “Sawfish biologists are learning as much as possible from samples they have collected.”
The sawfish was found in her reproductive tract with ‘eggs as big as soft balls’. Live Science report.
The species lives in tropical seas and estuaries of the Atlantic Ocean and occurs in shallow coastal waters, although it does occur in the lower reaches of freshwater river systems.
The small-toothed sawfish was the first marine fish to receive protection as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act in 2003. Their population declined due to coastal development and accidentally caught in fishing nets, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
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