A sawfish rescued from Florida Keys die-off and brought to Mote Marine has died

After three weeks of treatment, the first-ever endangered sawfish to be rescued from a die-off in the Florida Keys died at a Sarasota rehabilitation facility Thursday, according to the animal’s caretakers.

The sawfish, a prehistoric-looking endangered species with a chainsaw-like snout, was pulled from waters off Cudjoe Key on April 5 after it was spinning in circles and showing signs of distress.

Biologists drove it on a roughly seven-hour journey to Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium about a week later, where it remained until it died this week.

“The team worked tirelessly to improve the animal’s condition in hopes it could eventually be released back into its natural environment,” the aquarium wrote in a statement Friday. “Under guidance by (state and federal wildlife officials), the decision was made to humanely euthanize the sawfish when the animal’s condition deteriorated.”

Since January, 45 endangered sawfish have died and at least 50 other species have been affected by the “abnormal fish behavior event” that has left fish ramming into docks, swimming in circles and acting erratically, according to the latest Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission data.

State and federal biologists are currently investigating harmful algal blooms as the potential culprit after toxins were found in fish tissue samples, “but more work is needed to determine if this is the cause of the unusual behavior,” state wildlife spokesperson Jonathan Veach wrote in a statement.

The 11-foot male sawfish was the first to be rescued in an unprecedented and desperate federal attempt launched in early April to save the species from the mysterious die-off. This death will not mean the end of rescue attempts: Federal and state wildlife biologists said Friday they will continue to pull off rescues when possible. Each rescue gives scientists a learning opportunity, they said.

State wildlife veterinarians plan to do an animal autopsy on the sawfish to try and unlock more clues about the die-off, including a potential killer that’s leaving score of species including sharks, rays and crabs in distress.

“It’s heartbreaking that the sawfish in rehabilitative care at Mote did not survive,” said Tonya Wiley, team leader of the Smalltooth Sawfish Recovery Team and director of Palmetto-based Havenworth Coastal Conservation. “But we will learn as much as we can from this sawfish and our process to refine our future rescue and care efforts.”

The most recent update about the animal’s health came earlier this week, when the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the sawfish was no longer showing neurological symptoms and was “showing typical behaviors of swimming and resting.” The animal still wasn’t feeding on its own, though, and had to be fed through a tube.

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The animal was in a holding tank in the Florida Keys for roughly a week before its journey to Sarasota. Biologists had been giving the sawfish vitamins three times a week and it was receiving round-the-clock care in Sarasota, according to federal wildlife officials.

Michael Crosby, president and CEO of Mote, wrote in a statement that although the death was heartbreaking, it wasn’t surprising.

“These efforts aren’t always successful in fully rehabilitating compromised stranded animals,” Crosby said. “Sadly, even with our best efforts, the animal was ultimately too compromised to recover.”