Ethan Sommer was out for a sunny day of kayak fishing in southern Florida when a massive and rare fish surfaced just a few hundred yards from him.
“That’s as big as my kayak,” said Sommer as the large fish swam alongside him.
View this post on Instagram
Kayak angler encounters endangered sawfish
“Look at that thing,” Sommer said as the fish bumped his kayak and swam off, stirring up sediment in its wake.
Though Sommer initially suspected the fish a shark, Sommer and commenters on the viral video went on to identify the fish as a sawfish. By Sommer’s estimates, the saw fish was 13-17 feet in length.
“I can’t catch a fish but I sure do see some good stuff out here,” Sommer commented as he concluded the video.
The elusive sawfish
The endangered smalltooth sawfish is found throughout the Caribbean and can be up to 16 feet in length and weigh several hundred pounds; its cousin the largetooth sawfish can be much larger, up to 23 feet in length but has not been found in the United States in more than half a century. According to NOAA Fisheries, sawfish are commonly confused with sharks but are actually rays. It is illegal to catch, harm, harass or kill endangered sawfish under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), which the sawfish was listed under in 2003.
The sawfish’s most distinctive feature is its snout – long, flat, and edged with teeth – for which the fish gets its name. In the United States sawfish can be found off the southwest coast of Florida, throughout the Everglades and Florida Keys, though historically the fish ranged throughout much of the coast of the southeastern United States.
Sawfish are primarily threatened by habitat loss, particularly loss of nursery areas including red mangroves, and bycatch. Historically sawfish were caught accidentally in fishing nets and were often killed; the 1995 Florida Net Ban Amendment reduced the impacts of bycatch on sawfish but sawfish are still occasionally caught by accident today.
In 2025, the Associated Press reported on a new mysterious affliction affecting the endangered sawfish causing them to spin erratically and often die. The cause is still unknown.
If you spot a sawfish, report the sighting to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Ethan Sommer encounters a rare sawfish. Feature Image: @sommertime_outdoors | Instagram
