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The smalltooth sawfish is the center piece of Calusa Waterkeeper’s logo and represents our keystone species for the Caloosahatchee River & Estuary.
As your Waterkeeper, I wanted to take some time this month to explain in detail why the sawfish matters so much to our area. This critically endangered species now relies on Southwest Florida's mangrove-lined shallows as one of its last strongholds of critical nursery habitat remaining on the planet.
We've recently published an article describing how habitat loss, poor water quality and recent mass mortality events deeply threaten the species' recovery and what this signals about the health of our Caloosahatchee estuary.
This is about more than protecting one species, this is a call for vigilance across the watershed. As guardians of the Caloosahatchee and Lee County's coastal waters, we must heed the sawfish’s warning: what has acutely threatened this species also impacts our ecosystem at large, and the health and economics of our communities.
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