Ian Atherton from Lancashire in the UK traveled to the US and went fishing with friends on the Florida coast.
That day, Ian Atherton, accompanied by helmsman Jon Cangianella, left the Canaveral forks to a point about 10 meters deep.
The man uses small fish as bait to hook on a fishing rod. Sitting for a while, he felt the fishing rod jerking so hard, he thought he had caught a shark.
Unfortunately, Ian Atherton’s dream of catching a shark did not come true. But he could never have imagined he would end up with an even rarer and more mysterious being.
Ian Atherton was surprised to discover that this was a rare sawfish nearly 4 meters long. After struggling for about an hour, the man managed to pull the fish onto the boat. The fish has an elongated nose with many sharp horizontal teeth. After taking pictures as a souvenir, Ian Atherton released the fish back into the wild.
Jon Cangianella said: “I have been to the beach for 17 years and over the years I have only seen sawfish twice and the last time I caught it was last August”.
This fish is large, sometimes 7 meters long, featuring a protruding part of the front of the head that looks like a saw, sometimes up to 1.5 meters long. They are listed as endangered because of over-hunting. People often hunt sawfish for their fins, teeth and saws, using these parts to make medicine.
Last year, in August 2021, Captain Parker Miley also discovered a giant sawfish in the same Florida area. Meanwhile, a Brevard angler also came across a healthy sawfish in early 2021.
Sawfish easily entangled in fishing nets of seafaring fishermen. Since the early 1900s, sawfish populations have declined dramatically. They became the first marine fish to be listed as endangered in 2003. The only remaining strongholds are in Northern Australia and Florida, USA. They are generally harmless to humans, but can cause serious injury if accidentally bumped into a row of sharp serrated teeth.
