Early accounts of the elasmobranch fauna of the east coast of the USA and Gulf of Mexico reported that smalltooth sawfish were abundant in coastal and estuarine areas. They were so common that one account from the late 1800s reported that one fisherman in the Indian River, Florida, caught more than 300 in a season. Large animals are also known to have migrated north along the east coast during summer as far north as New York, but more frequently to the Carolinas.

Today, however, the population of smalltooth sawfish in the USA has been severely depleted. A survey of the Indian River system published in the early 1980s reported that sawfish had probably been extirpated from that system, where once they had been common. This story has been repeated throughout the sawfish's range. Three factors have been important in the decline of the population:

1. Fishing. Sawfish were easily caught in a variety of fishing gear including gillnets and trawl nets and are difficult to remove safely. Recreational fishers also regularly caught sawfish and their saw was a prized trophy. While rarely targeted by commercial or recreational fishers decades of by-catch decimated the population.

2. Habitat loss. Shallow coastal and estuarine areas are important for sawfish survival, especially the young animals. Extensive coastal development (e.g. dredging, mangrove removal and sea wall construction) throughout the smalltooth sawfish's range have meant that they have fewer places to live.

3. Low reproductive ability. Like many sharks, sawfish have a low reproductive rate because they grow slowly, mature at a late age and produce few young on a biennial cycle. Thus when subject to fishing pressure and habitat loss the population is unable to reproduce itself, exacibating the decline. It also means that the population will take a long time to recover once conservation measures are put in place.

Today smalltooth sawfish are mostly restricted to the waters of southwest Florida, especially remote sections along the coastal fringe of the Everglades National Park. While it is difficult to estimate the exact numbers of sawfish remaining in US waters, it is likely that the population has declined at least 95% since 1900, and most likely much more.

This graph is one of the only pieces of quantitative data that shows the massive declein of sawfish in US waters. It shows the catch rate of sawfish by Louisiana trawlers. It appears that the decline in sawfish in this state occurred during the 1950s, and by the mid 1960s they had disappeared. The decline in Florida occurred after that in Louisiana, with sawfish relatively common until the 1970s.

In response to the severe decline in the smalltooth sawfish population the western Atlantic popualtion has been listed as Critically Endangered by the World Conservation Union's Shark Specialist Group and included in the Red List of Threatened Animals. In 1992 Florida completely protected sawfish within state waters, setting zero commercial and recreational bag limits. In 1994 the USA proposed all species of sawfish be placed on Appendix I of CITES (the Convention for the Trade in Endangered Species) to stop trade in saws and fins. This prposal was defeated because it could not be demonstrated thay stopping trade would have provided protection to wild populaitons of sawfish.

In late 1999 the Ocean Conservancy (then the Center for Marine Conservation) petitioned the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to protect smalltooth and largetooth sawfish under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA). On March 10th 2000 NMFS returned a 90-day finding that the petition contained information that may indicate the need for an ESA listing (Federal Register volume 65, number 48, pages 12959-12962) and establishing a Status Review Team (SRT). Thus followed nine-month review of information related to the status of sawfishes in US waters. At the end of this review the SRT recommended that the data indicated a need to protect the smalltooth sawfish population (the status review document is available as a PDF file). On April 26th 2001 NMFS published a Proposed Rule to list smalltooth sawfish as Endangered under the ESA (Federal Register vulume 66, number 73, pages 19414-19420). The publication of the proposed started a 90-day public comment period that ended in July 2001. On April 1st, 2003, the smalltooth sawfish was listed as endangered under the ESA (Federal Register volume 68, number 62, pages 15674-15680). This makes the smalltooth the first elasmobranch (sharks and rays) to be included on the US Endangered Species List. This listing provides protection to smalltooth sawfish and throughout the USA and should provide the basis for the recovery of this species.