EVERGLADES CITY, Fla. – Body camera video obtained by Local 10 News shows the October arrest of two Miami Gardens men for allegedly catching a protected smalltooth sawfish in Everglades City with an illegal gillnet.
The sawfish is a rare and critically-endangered species which looks like a shark and has a long saw-like rostrum. They have been protected in Florida since the 1990s and were placed on the federal Endangered Species List in 2003.
The men also caught undersized fish in Everglades City, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
“From across the bay here [the officers] could see the subjects striking - throwing the net, a gillnet - or an entanglement net - into the water,” said FWC Officer Jason Rafter.
Using a gillnet is illegal in state waters. According to the FWC, the nets are “wholly or partially of monofilament material other than a cast net or a landing dip net. They are typically vertical sections of net that are stretched out on a rope suspended by a float and typically work by ‘gilling’ the fish and entangling them within the mesh.”
Dr. Neil Hammerschlag with the University of Miami said the sawfish used to be relatively abundant in Florida 100 years ago, but the population has plummeted.
“They were hunted, historically, for trophies. They get to be really large, and they have a saw, which became a collector’s item,” Hammerschlag said.
He said the use of gillnets has hurt the population.
“If you think about what a sawfish looks like, it’s got this huge rostrum, that’s going to catch on and get entangled in those nets, and they’ll wrap around them and they can’t swim, and it can potentially and obviously lead to death,” Hammerschlag said. “And this is really problematic when you’re talking about a critically endangered species.”
Giraldo Amador and Pablo Conde face charges including possessing fish over the legal limit, using an illegal net in state waters, and taking an endangered species. They have a court date set for late March.
Local 10 News went to their listed addresses, but people at the homes declined to speak.
Hammerschlag said protections for the sawfish are in place for a reason.
“One of the big things that has helped sawfish is the ban on commercial gilnet fishing - particularly in Everglades National Park,” he said. “If you protect them properly, you will see a rebound. That’s the whole idea.”
“Every one member of the species counts if we’re going to have a recovery,” Rafter said.