Despite numerous attempts, the answer to what’s causing sawfish to die and act generally weird is still a mystery. Photo: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
Something strange is happening to sawfish in Florida, and no one has any idea why.
For a little under a year, since 2023, Florida’s sawfish population have been drunkenly spinning around in the water and dying at alarming rates. And according to reports, since May of 2024, 50 sawfish have mysteriously died.
The sawfish is a strange-looking creature. They are in the ray family, and have a long, flat nose lined with sharp teeth in a way that looks just like a saw. They can grow to surprisingly large sizes, up to 20 feet in length. They generally like to spend their time in warmer waters and can be found anywhere tropical or sub-tropical in coastal marine and brackish estuarine waters, as well as freshwater rivers and lakes. They’re not doing so hot, numbers-wise, and are on the list of endangered species. While they aren’t considered dangerous to humans, they are able to inflict pretty damaging injuries if they’re caught and feel the need to defend themselves.
But back to what’s happening in Florida. Since the fall of 2023, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) has seen a serious uptick in reports of smalltooth sawfish exhibiting “abnormal fish behavior.” That means, in short, that they are thrashing around, swimming in circles, and generally acting confused. The FWC launched an investigation to attempt and solve the mystery. Researchers tested the waters they live in and took tissue samples from the dead ones, but the hunt for answers has yielded none.
“All tested chemicals in the water were either not detected or were below any biological thresholds, with most being below minimum detection limits,” wrote IFL Science, “while the fish necropsy data so far has not shown any apparent signs of a communicable pathogen or a bacterial infection.”
According to reports, the FWC doesn’t think that the water the sawfish are in is causing the strange behavior and deaths, either. The dissolved oxygen levels, salinity, pH, or temperature are all in normal-ish ranges, and although the primary suspect was, for a time, a toxic red tide, the tests have proven that not to be the case.
For the time being, what’s making the sawfish sick and die will remain a mystery, but authorities continue to investigate.
