Rarely encountered creature caught off Florida beach was in need of help, photos show

An angler fishing from a Florida beach reeled in an endangered fish nearly twice his size and discovered it was in desperate need of help.

Mac Johnson posted photos of the rare encounter Jan. 2 on Instagram, telling WPBF the smalltooth sawfish was caught off Hutchinson Island and measured 13 feet, 5 inches. The island is about a 120-mile drive north from Miami.

“Upon closer inspection, we discovered the sawfish had commercial fishing lines wrapped around its rostrum, causing significant injury,” Johnson wrote on Instagram.

“We were able to carefully and efficiently remove all hooks and leaders from the fish, ensuring minimal harm.”

The sawfish rostrum is a notorious “hedge trimmer-like saw” that protrudes like a snout from its face, and a photo shared by Johnson showed fishing lines had begun to slice through it.

After removing the hooks and lines, Johnson pulled the fish by the tail into the ocean and released it in the surf, video shows.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission says Johnson properly reported the incident via a hotline (844-4SAWFISH) set up to document increasingly rare sawfish encounters in Florida waters.

Florida guidelines call for smalltooth sawfish to be released unharmed as quickly as possible, after nets and fishing lines have been safely removed.

The state also warns against standing or sitting next to the rostrum, which has up to 29 teeth on each side, experts say.

“Sawfish populations worldwide are in danger of extinction and the population of smalltooth sawfish in the United States has severely declined over the last century,” the FWC reports.

“They have been protected under the United States Endangered Species Act since 2003, but more information is needed to effectively manage the species’ recovery.”

Smalltooth sawfish can reach 17 feet and are considered more like stingrays than sharks “because they have gill slits under their bodies rather than on the sides of their bodies,” the FWC says.

This story was originally published January 7, 2025 at 10:27 AM with the headline "Rarely encountered creature caught off Florida beach was in need of help, photos show."