Information from the public greatly assists research efforts on sawfish. If you see or catch a sawfish we would love to hear from you. You can contact us by email or telephone. To send an email detailing your encounter click on the "Send report" icon below or send an email to sawfish@mote.org. To contact us by phone call 1-800-691-MOTE (6683).

If you are making a report please provide the following information:

1. Your name and contact details

2. Date, time and location of the encounter

3. An approximate size of the sawfish (including the saw)

4. The habitat in the area and what the sawfish appeared to be doing.

5. Your activity at the time (fishing, diving, etc.)

6. Photographs or video of the sawfish.

Information supplied by the public is validated and entered into a database. The database can be queried to provide data summaries that are used to look at distribution by size class, investigate habitat use, and direct other research efforts. The maps below provide a summary of where reports are received from and how the data are used.

A figure showing the distribution of encounters up to January 2003 (top: whole of Florida; bottom: south Florida closeup[blue line indicated Everglades National Park Boundary]).

The figure below shows the density of sawfish sightings by 10km square grids in Florida waters based on data from March 2003.