TAMPA, Fla. — Over the past three years, state and federal wildlife officials have been forced to make extraordinary decisions to save imperiled Florida wildlife.

In 2021, wildlife experts approved a first-ever feeding trial for starving manatees. Biologists fed sea cows lettuce because their main food source, seagrass, was in short supply from human-caused pollution.

Last year, facing perhaps the most widespread coral bleaching crisis in Florida history, scientists raced to rescue corals from scorching offshore ocean temperatures. The mass evacuation of coral was the first of its kind.

The latest decision — to rescue a species on the brink — begins next week in the Florida Keys. It may be the most complicated rescue effort to date.

Reports of odd fish spinning behavior and unusual swirling began in November. It started with erratic pinfish, a popular bait species used by anglers on both the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts. But by January, biologists had their first confirmed report of a dead smalltooth sawfish, the first marine fish to earn federal protections in 2003. Videos surfaced of sawfish spinning in circles throughout Florida’s southern islands, an abnormal behavior that scientists believe is a sign of distress.

As sawfish deaths have mounted to north of two dozen and more than 100 affected, an emergency federal attempt to track down and rescue sick sawfish will initiate next week. A hotline designed to log sightings has been ringing daily in the Keys. Now, scientists will try to find fish in trouble, catch them and bring them to one of at least three facilities for recovery.

The effort will be led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and include Florida’s state wildlife agency.

“People do these rescues for sea turtles, dolphins and manatees all the time. But it’s never been done for a 14-foot sawfish before,” said Tonya Wiley, team leader of the Smalltooth Sawfish Recovery Team and director of Palmetto-based Havenworth Coastal Conservation. “We’re blazing a trail here.”

Wiley has spent two decades researching sawfish in Tampa Bay and beyond. She’s seen nothing like this.

“This is definitely the most devastating singular event for sawfish in my 23 years of studying them,” she said.

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