Sawfish Habitat Irks Developers

October 5, 2009

Release from: Kevin Lollar
News-Press.com (Florida)

As more than 800,000 acres of Southwest Florida waterways became critical habitat for the endangered smalltooth sawfish this week, marine contractors are waiting to see how the designation will affect their business.

In all, 221,459 acres in Charlotte Harbor, including Pine Island Sound, Matlacha Pass, the Caloosahatchee River and Estero Bay, and 619,013 acres in the Ten Thousand Islands are critical sawfish habitat.

“These areas are important nursery habitat,” said Shelley Norton, a National Marine Fisheries natural resource specialist. “When you’re looking at critical habitat, it’s good to know where the breeding grounds are, but we don’t know where sawfish are breeding. The only habitats we have information on are the nursery areas, and those are key to having juveniles to repopulate the population.”

Local marine contractors are worried that the designation of critical habitat for smalltooth sawfish might make getting permits to build docks more difficult.

“I’ve got my eye on it,” said Jack Organo, owner of Bennett Marine. “The phones have been ringing.

Who knows where it’s going to fall. It is an issue.”

More than 50 marine contractors are listed in the Lee County phone book; Organo said his company builds about $19.5 million in basic, nothing-fancy boat docks a year.

“And that’s in a down economy,” Organo said. “When the economy was booming, the numbers were insane.”

Smalltooth sawfish, listed as an endangered species in 2003, once ranged from New York to Texas, but the U.S. population is now restricted to Southwest Florida.

The main reason sawfish populations crashed was overfishing.

Sawfish saws were once popular souvenirs for recreational fishermen, and although sawfish were never targeted by commercial fishermen, many were killed when they were caught in commercial gill nets.

Since 1995, the use of gill nets has been illegal in state waters, so now the main threat to sawfish populations is loss of habitat.

Southwest Florida has the best remaining sawfish habitat: Essential factors for juvenile sawfish survival in the critical habitat areas are red mangroves, water with fluctuating salinities and depths of less than 3 feet.