What's cooler than seeing your first sawfish in the wild? How about seeing your second one just eight days later?

That's what happened recently to Florida Atlantic University biology professor Stephen Kajiura.

Each spring for the past nine years, Kajiura has conducted weekly aerial surveys of blacktip sharks by flying along the coastline of Palm Beach County at 500 feet of altitude. In all those surveys, Kajiura had photographed more than a million blacktip sharks, countless hammerhead sharks, tiger sharks, manta rays and many other forms of marine wildlife.

But it took until earlier this month before he witnessed his first sawfish.

"I have video, but you can’t see the sawfish — it is just a blur," said Kajiura, who heads up FAU's Elasmobranch Laboratory. "It was a very cool sighting, right up close to the beach, no more than 30 meters off the beach."

Kajiura normally brings along a camera for still photos, but did not have it with him the day of the first sawfish sighting. Little did he know, he would get his second chance a few days later.

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The first sawfish was near Boca Raton and was seen swimming southbound in shallow water. He estimated it to be about 9 feet long. The second one was near MacArthur State Park on Singer Island and a little larger. Sawfish can grow as large as 17 feet in length.

Comeback kids?

Kajiura's sawfish encounters are the latest in a regular string of encounters reported by anglers, divers and researchers. In recent years, sawfish have been caught and released by Florida anglers fishing from beaches for sharks, or in inlets for tarpon. Sawfish have become regular catches for anglers fishing the waters of the Indian River Lagoon, Everglades National Park or the waters of Charlotte Harbor.

Divers have been seeing more of them in recent years around reefs and wrecks off southeast Florida near the Treasure Coast and Palm Beaches. Spearfishermen and women will see them lying still on the sandy ocean floor. One spearfisherman, John Dickinson of Jupiter, filmed 10 sawfish in two separate groups on one day in February of 2017. After he uploaded the video to YouTube, sawfish researchers claimed they had never before recorded an encounter of more than two sawfish in one place at the same time.

Scientists working with sawfish have only begun to unlock mysteries about their mating behavior and locations, and where the unique marine animals give live birth to their young. The waters of Florida Bay and the Bahamas are two places where sawfish births have been witnessed. A sawfish mother may produce 7-14 pups about two feet in length. According to scientists working with the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, sawfish reach sexual maturity at about 7 years of age when they are about 11-12 feet in length.

The problem with sawfish, said Adam Brame, sawfish recovery coordinator for NOAA Fisheries, is there aren't very many of them left.

"The good news is, though, we are hearing of more and more encounters by anglers, divers and boaters throughout South Florida," Brame said. And the reports are coming in from farther afield.

Brame said two sawfish sightings early in 2018 came from a Georgia Department of Natural Resources team working on a sea turtle project.

"We also heard of a few juvenile sawfish in the Florida Panhandle a couple of years ago," he said. "There is good strong evidence suggesting the population of sawfish in the wild is stabilizing, and it suggests potential recovery."

Brame said scientific evidence of recovery is still being evaluated.

Unkind history

More than a century ago, sawfish inhabited coastal waters from Texas to North Carolina. However, they only inhabit Florida's waters now. Researchers determined original sawfish numbers have declined by an estimated 95 percent since the early 1900s. In 2003, sawfish received the dubious honor of becoming the first marine fish listed as an endangered species.

The sawfish and many other marine organisms are suffering from habitat loss and a depletion in water quality in the estuaries in which it lives. Although many forms of fishing gear were deadly for sawfish incidentally entangled, the passage of Florida's Net Ban Amendment in 1994 helped by removing some of it. However, sawfish still die by becoming entangled in fishing gear, crab and lobster trap lines, and mooring lines. Brame said some sawfish have had their critically important rostra, or saw, cut off, which is illegal to do.

"We believe these sawfish which have had their rostra removed will eventually die as they will not be able to hunt for themselves," he said.

Kajiura's first sawfish was swimming lazily, seemingly without a care in the world. And while it had no idea it was being watched, it was something Kajiura will never forget.

See a sawfish?

Respect, release, report

It is illegal to harm, harass, target or harvest sawfish in the United States.

Sawfish are protected by the Endangered Species Act after being listed in 2003.

Anglers should release sawfish immediately; Never lift them from the water or drag them onto shore; Do not use ropes or gaffs to secure the fish; Cut line as close to the hook as possible.

Divers should keep one's distance; Avoid disturbing sawfish; Never touch, chase or feed them.

Report all sightings and encounters to 1-844-4SAWFISH or www.sawfishrecovery.org.