Back in 1998, biologist Jason Seitz was reading a scientific paper about Florida's population of smalltooth sawfish when one passage jumped out at him.

"It said they were no longer a functional member of the estuarine marine community," Seitz recalls.

For decades, these otherworldly creature with the blade-covered snouts had been killed in commercial fishing nets or by hook-and-line recreational anglers. A 15-foot sawfish could have a snout up to 4-feet long, and too often, those snouts were cut off as trophies.

Scientific conventional wisdom appeared ready to write off the smalltooth sawfish as a hopeless cause. That conclusion didn't sound right to Seitz and other scientists.

Seitz's job at the Collier County government had nothing to do with sawfish, but he and a friend - Gregg Poulakis of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission - set out on their own to gather every scrap of information they could about them.

They posted fliers asking anglers to report sawfish encounters. They bought old timers breakfast in exchange for sawfish stories. They caught and released sawfish.

The work of Seitz, Poulakis and scientists at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota proved that smalltooth sawfish were clinging on from Florida's west coast to right here in the Florida Keys, especially out at the remote Marquesas west of Key West. There were enough left to justify saving.

In April 2003, the Ocean Conservancy of Washington, D.C., successfully completed a four-year effort to convince NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service to list the smalltooth sawfish as an endangered species.

Smalltooth sawfish are the first fully marine species to receive the status, Seitz said.

Colin Simpfendorfer of Mote leads the team of scientists that is drafting a "recovery plan" for the sawfish. He doesn't think it will be necessary to take a drastic action, such as banning all fishing in the waters where the remaining sawfish live.

More likely, recreational anglers will be asked to make smaller sacrifices. The official "public outreach strategy" is not yet done, but anglers might as well start doing their part now.

Sawfish are so rare and bizarre looking that it's tempting for an angler who catches one to lift it from the water for a picture. The Internet is replete with such photos, and there are even some on Seitz's own Web site (www.floridasawfish.com).

Anglers should resist that temptation because it unnecessarily stresses the fish. Instead, they should take a photo of the fish in the water, and then they should cut the line as close as possible to the hook, Simpfendorfer said.

Anglers should report the encounter to Mote's sawfish hotline (800-691-6683 or e-mail sawfish@mote.org) so that it can be added to the data base.

Likewise, no one should try to catch a sawfish intentionally. That includes fly anglers who have an almost irresistible urge to cast to anything that swims in the shallows.

Big Brother is not out there watching, but the Endangered Species Act makes it illegal to harass sawfish, points out Sonja Fordham of the Ocean Conservancy.

The core of the remaining smalltooth population appears to be centered on Whitewater Bay and Coot Bay, two sheltered waterways surrounded by the wild mangroves of the Everglades. Another critical area is located right here in the Keys.

"I would call the Marquesas Keys a sawfish hot-spot," Seitz said.

The population news has been less encouraging for the smalltooth's cousin, the freshwater-oriented largetooth sawfish. They appear to be all but gone from Florida. There are so few largetooths left that NOAA rejected the Ocean Conservancy's petition to list them as endangered, Fordham said.

It is not just anglers who are making sacrifices because of the smalltooth listing. Seitz and Poulakis had to end the hands-on aspects of their research last April. Handling an endangered species even for scientific purposed requires a permit, which at the moment, only the Mote scientists have. Seitz and Poulakis have applied for a permit from NOAA, Seitz said.

Seitz said the endangered listing is good because it will create more grants for sawfish research.

The research to date has been tantalizing.

About two years ago, Mote scientists placed a satellite tag in 15-foot sawfish off Cape Sable at the southwest corner of Florida, Simpfendorfer said.

The fish swam through Florida Bay, along the shallows of the Keys and to the Marquesas. It spent time in water as shallow as 2 feet, but also ventured beyond the reef to water 300 feet deep.