Rare sawfish with rope tied around its mouth reeled in
Peter Deeks was unable to remove the rope from the fish's mouth before releasing it in Florida
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The ocean is full of unexpected surprises.
Two anglers spent hours reeling in a fish only to discover that something was wrong with it. Apparently, it had somehow gotten a rope stuck around its face and its mouth was tied shut.
Peter Deeks and a friend spent two hours trying to reel in a large sawfish during a fishing trip on the Indian River Lagoon in Florida. (Peter Deeks)
Peter Deeks and a friend spent two hours trying to reel in a large sawfish during a fishing trip on the Indian River Lagoon in Florida, Fox 35 reports. As the fish came closer to the boat, however, the two anglers noticed that it had a rope tied around its long, razor-sharp mouth.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}While the anglers tried to free the fish, it was too dangerous.
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"It wasn’t on there very tight but it was still tight enough where we tried to get it off a few times and then it just wasn’t safe for the fish, wasn’t safe for us, so we went ahead and let it go," Deeks told the news outlet.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}According to Deeks, the sawfish was pretty big.
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He described it as, "Probably 12 feet, maybe a bit bigger. So, its saw, itself, was about five feet long. That was the first sawfish that I’ve ever seen so it was really cool."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The anglers theorized that the rope had accidentally become wrapped around the fish’s mouth, as opposed to being something that someone did on purpose.
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"The more we looked at it, it was the same type of palmer rope that’s used on crab traps," Deeks explained, "so what I think happened was – you know because it swims around on the bottom – that it got tangled up in a crab trap rope and then kinda set itself free."