Photo available at: http://news.ufl.edu/2008/12/01/sawfish-
multimedia/ GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The University of Florida,
keeper of the world’s shark attack records, is also now
overseeing a national records collection for another toothy
marine predator: the sawfish. Distinguished by a long rostrum or
“saw” that makes it a popular curio item and gives it its name,
the sawfish has become a historical and cultural icon that is
rapidly disappearing, said George Burgess, a UF ichthyologist
and curator of both the International Shark Attack File and the
newly expanded National Sawfish Encounter Database. “Postcards
from the turn of the 20th century often depicted this so-called
monster that inhabited Florida waters, and if one goes back and
looks at newspaper accounts from places outside Florida, every
time a sawfish was caught it made the papers,” he said. “Today,
it’s difficult to find a bar in South Florida that doesn’t have
a sawfish ‘saw’ hanging on the wall.” An important part of
Florida’s fauna, the sawfish onc