Sawfish in The Bahamas

New paper on sawfish sightings throughout The Bahamas. Not surprising most commonly seen on West Andros, but interesting to see the second most common location was Bimini – so yet another species that will be impacted by develop there. Here are their overall findings and concluding paragraph:

In conclusion, through a combination of encounter data and preliminary tracks, this study was able to provide an important current snapshot of the status of P. pectinata in the Bahamas. Positive signs of a viable population in Andros were documented, suggesting that research and conservation efforts use this core location as a platform and lifeboat to launch Bahamas-wide local and regional P. pectinata conservation and protection initiatives. With the Bahamas Government committing to protecting 20% of its near-shore marine environment by 2020 at the United Nations Convention on Biodiversity (UNCBD), there is hope that this, in combination with research, outreach and educational programmes, will help to restore robust P. pectinata populations for the benefit of coastal ecosystem function and biodiversity.

By Craig Layman| 2016-02-09T18:23:56-05:00 February 9th, 2016|Categories: Sawfish|0 Comments

About the Author: Craig Layman

My lab’s interdisciplinary pursuits provide for a multi-faceted understanding of environmental change in the coastal realm. We are ecologists, asking questions that span population, community, ecosystem and evolutionary sub-disciplines. We often use a food web based perspective, exploring top-down (e.g., predation) and bottom-up (e.g., nutrient excretion) mechanisms by which animals affect ecosystem processes. All of our efforts are framed within a broader outreach framework, directly integrating science and education, using approaches such as this website.