The skin, the intestines, the eyes, the kidneys, the ovaries and above all, the liver are the most deadly parts. The fugu or pufferfish has more than 100 different types worldwide and each one of them is highly poisonous. While illegal in most parts of the world, the Japanese consider it a delicacy and there are currently about 3,800 fugu restaurants in the country. Australians may know it better as the pufferfish, globefish or blowfish. Fugu is the Japanese name for the world’s most delicate, expensive and dangerous fish. Symptoms from poisoning include dizziness, exhaustion, headache, nausea, difficulty breathing and even death.
Susan Scott can be reached at is estimated that each year in Japan, there are between 20 and 40 cases of poisoning courtesy of the fugu fish. This time, though, it’s the fish that are dying. Usually pufferfish are in the news because someone has died from eating one. A pet dog died on Kailua Beach some years ago after biting into a dead pufferfish. When collecting a pufferfish, remember to keep fingers well away from its bladelike teeth and dogs away from the poisonous body. We boaters and beach walkers can help by placing a dying pufferfish on ice or in a bucket of sea water, and calling federal veterinarian Thierry Work at 792-9520 for pickup. Dead ones decompose too quickly to be studied.
Researchers who are studying the pufferfish affliction need specimens that are sick or at death’s door. Seven people in Hawaii have died from eating pufferfish. Some people like to tempt death by eating pufferfish in a dish known as fugu, and sometimes death wins. Tetrodotoxin is one of nature’s most deadly poisons. Not only are tiger sharks able to swallow puffed up pufferfish, they are also immune to tetrodotoxin, the deadly poison that bacteria manufacture inside the bodies of most pufferfish. In the case of tiger sharks, though, pufferfish lose. I don’t know how long pufferfish can survive in those situations, but if found alive and released, these amazing fish simply deflate their bodies and swim away. Marlins and some sharks have been found dead with pufferfish lodged in their throats. Usually that works because the puffer becomes too large for the predator to get in its mouth. Pufferfish expand their bodies with water, or air if the fish is at the surface, to avoid being swallowed. The man had been removing a hook from a pufferfish mouth, and the resulting slice was as straight and clean as a guillotine cut. I once dropped into the Wahiawa ER to see my husband and met a fisherman who was missing the tip of his forefinger.
The puffer swallowed the crushed crab whole.Īnglers and divers who misjudge the power of pufferfish teeth and jaws might live to tell the story, but their hands are never the same. Once in the Ala Wai Boat Harbor, I saw an enormous porcupine fish (the largest here grow to 28 inches long) leap from the water onto a half-submerged rock to grab a hand-size aama (black rock crab). Marine animals that underestimate pufferfishes’ hunting abilities don’t often get a second chance. Some pufferfish eat crown-of-thorns starfish, an impressive feat because toxic, needle-sharp spines cover these coral-eating starfish. Since puffers aren’t fast swimmers, their prey is usually of the slow-moving variety such as snails, urchins and coral. With strong jaws and teeth that resemble white razor blades, these fish can crunch just about anything they can catch. Mostly, though, pufferfish are carnivores. Some puffers eat seaweed, and others are scavengers, cleaning the reef of dead animals and waste material. Because of that remarkable ability, members of this group are also known in other parts of the world as blowfish, swellfish or globefish. All those fish, however, have one trait in common: They can inflate their bellies with water or air. I’m using the terms pufferfish and puffers here to mean members of both families.Īt least 137 pufferfish species swim in the warm temperate and tropical oceans of the world. In general, the fish with sharp spikes on their bodies are porcupine fish, and the ones without, including the little tobies, are pufferfish. The cause of the deaths isn’t known, but local researchers are working to find it.īecause Hawaii hosts 14 species of pufferfish and four species of porcupine fish, the term pufferfish can mean any one of several shapes, sizes and colors of fish. Since February, something has been killing Hawaii’s pufferfish.
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