PALMETTO, Fla. (WFLA) — An endangered smalltooth sawfish was relocated this week after being trapped in a lower Tampa Bay wetland.

A team of research experts from Havenworth Coastal Conservation (HCC), the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), and NOAA Fisheries successfully captured, tagged, and relocated the 7.4 foot sawfish into open waters following reports from concerned citizens.

“The sawfish got in the tidal pond either through the culvert grating when it was a small two-foot-long newborn and then grew too large to swim back out or, more likely, swam in when Bishop Harbor Road was flooded during Hurricane Helen,” explained HCC President, Tonya Wiley, who leads the U.S. Sawfish Recovery Team and Tampa Bay sawfish research. “Given the dire state of the sawfish pop

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