360 
National Marine 
Fisheries Service 
NOAA 
Abstract —Juvenile smalltooth sawfish 
(Pristis pectinata ) were monitored in 
the Peace River, Florida. A series of 37 
acoustic receivers was used throughout 
the river, 9 of which were time syn¬ 
chronized. In 2016, 20 individuals were 
tagged and tracked from 27 May through 
26 October. Most juveniles resided along 
the northern shoreline during the day, 
and some individuals crossed the river 
at night. Eleven smalltooth sawfish 
were detected on the southern shoreline, 
and 6 individuals used it extensively. 
Estimates of the sawfish positions 
were sorted into 3 habitat types: shal¬ 
low, deep, and oyster reef. While at the 
southern shoreline, all sawfish tended 
to occupy shallow water, and most of 
them visited the oyster reefs. These 
results 1) improve our understanding of 
how the most productive nursery habi¬ 
tats function within the overall nursery, 
2) will continue to influence decisions 
regarding management in this unique 
nursery, and 3) have implications for 
recovery planning for other nurseries of 
this endangered species. 
Manuscript submitted 13 February 2019. 
Manuscript accepted 22 November 2019. 
Fish. Bull. 117:360-371 (2019). 
Online publication date: 19 December 2019. 
doi: 10.7755/FB. 117.4.8 
The views and opinions expressed or 
implied in this article are those of the 
author (or authors) and do not necessarily 
reflect the position of the National 
Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA. 
Fishery Bulletin 
n* established in 1881 
Spencer F. Baird 
First U S. Commissioner 
of Fisheries and founder 
of Fishery Bulletin 
Automated monitoring of fine-scale 
movements of the endangered smalltooth 
sawfish (t Pristis pectinata) 
Rebecca K. May 1 
S. Gregory Tolley 1 
Rachel M. Scharer 2 
Bass Dye 1 
Felix Jose 1 
Gregg R. Poulakis (contact author) 1 ' 2 
Email address for contact author: gregg.poulakis@MyFWC.com 
1 Department of Marine and Ecological Sciences 
Florida Gulf Coast University 
10501 FGCU Boulevard South 
Fort Myers, Florida 33965 
2 Charlotte Harbor Field Laboratory 
Fish and Wildlife Research Institute 
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission 
585 Prineville Street 
Port Charlotte, Florida 33954 
The term hotspot has been used in 
many contexts and on a variety of spa¬ 
tial scales to refer to important regions 
of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. 
Hotspots have been used to describe 
areas of high plant and animal biodiver¬ 
sity on a global scale (Myers, 1988; Mit- 
termeier et al., 2011), aggregation areas 
of non-native and native vertebrates, 
including elasmobranchs, on regional 
scales (Semmens et al., 2004; Southall 
et al., 2005; Polovina et al., 2006; Huve- 
neers et al., 2018), and areas of emerging 
diseases on local scales (Waruhiu et al., 
2017). Recently, the term has been used 
to refer to the most productive nursery 
habitats for marine fauna (Nagelkerken 
et al., 2015). Regardless of terminology, 
a key aspect of this work acknowledges 
that some portions of nurseries of well- 
studied species are used more than oth¬ 
ers; therefore, results from models that 
use a single habitat or single life stage 
can be misleading. For example, Heupel 
et al. (2007, 2018) attempted to define 
elasmobranch nurseries, and, although 
their criteria may have improved pre¬ 
vious definitions, their model is not 
adaptable because it applies only to 
young of the year (YOY) and fails to 
provide a mechanism for recognizing 
the most productive habitats within the 
broader nursery, if they exist. In gen¬ 
eral, there is much to learn about how 
marine species use nurseries; therefore, 
models that attempt to explain this and 
other complex concepts must be adapt¬ 
able to acknowledge the myriad ways 
in which nature sometimes solves the 
same problems. 
In versatility and elegance, Nature’s 
creative effort provides a never-ending 
source of astonishment and delight. She 
is tireless and imaginative in her inno¬ 
vations. Having evolved a happy solution 
to a given problem, it might be expected 
that she would rest content, adopting her 
discovery universally. Instead, she seems 
determined to demonstrate that the 
same problem can be solved, and solved 
brilliantly, in many ways and always 
with a great show of virtuosity (Gree- 
newalt, 1960). 
