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"Dangerous to life" for humans: Poisonous puffer fish is spreading in the Mediterranean

2022-06-23T03:29:59.568Z


"Is a danger": Poisonous fish lurks in the Mediterranean - It can even bite through metal Created: 2022-06-23Updated: 2022-06-23 05:19 By: Steffen Maas A dangerous puffer fish is spreading in the Mediterranean - frightening bathers and infuriating fishermen. The Turkish government put a bounty on his head. Istanbul, Turkey – Summer is beginning, the Germans are swarming out and holiday destina


"Is a danger": Poisonous fish lurks in the Mediterranean - It can even bite through metal

Created: 2022-06-23Updated: 2022-06-23 05:19

By: Steffen Maas

A dangerous puffer fish is spreading in the Mediterranean - frightening bathers and infuriating fishermen.

The Turkish government put a bounty on his head.

Istanbul, Turkey – Summer is beginning, the Germans are swarming out and holiday destinations are often on sunny Mediterranean coasts.

However, the highly poisonous harehead puffer has also swarmed out to the Mediterranean in recent years.

It becomes dangerous to humans when consumed - and with its strong bite, which can even penetrate metal, as 24hamburg.de writes.

Experts warn, and the Turkish government sends fishermen out on the hunt.

Surname:

Rabbithead Puffer

scientific name:

Lagocephalus sceleratus

Size:

40 to 110 centimeters

Weight:

Up to 7 kg

Just like numerous animals on land - some poisonous spiders in Germany - the water creature is an immigrant.

The puffer fish originally comes from the Red Sea, first migrating to the eastern Mediterranean via the Suez Canal before making it to the coasts of Italy and Spain a decade ago.

"He feels very comfortable there.

And it is a danger,” says toxicologist Dietrich Mebs, who specializes in fish poisons and used to teach at the University Hospital in Frankfurt.

Other experts also call L. sceleratus – the scientific name – the “worst alien fish” in the Mediterranean.

Puffer fish: Consumption is life-threatening

The great danger for humans is when the puffer fish ends up on the consumer's plate - and then in the stomach.

Then the neurotoxin "tetrodotoxin" spreads in the body.

The paralysis affects the external nervous system, so it doesn't come from the brain, explains Mebs.

"That means: I'm fully aware of it." First, the feeling disappears in the fingertips, among other places.

Then the paralysis takes over.

As soon as it reaches the respiratory muscles, there is an acute danger to life.

The only rescue: artificial respiration.

Looks friendly but is poisonous: the harehead puffer.

© Anne Pollmann/dpa

The population of the wolffish has increased significantly in recent years, says Ekin Akoglu, a marine biologist at Turkey's Odtu University in Ankara.

The fish destroys the ecosystem in the sea with its over-presence and also causes great damage to fishermen.

Not only does it often eat up the catch, it also bites through the nets.

Because the hare's head puffer fish has hardly any predators in the Mediterranean, it was able to spread quite undisturbed.

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Turkey takes action against poisonous fish: bounty on the rabbit's head puffer fish

That's why the Turkish government put a bounty on the poisonous fish's head last summer.

Since then, fishermen from Turkey's Mediterranean and Aegean coasts have been able to hand in the hare's head puffer fish in places set up for this purpose and receive five Turkish lira (50 euro cents) in return, as the newspaper "Cumhuriyet" reported.

The fact that the hare's head puffer fish, with its few but strong teeth, can even bite through metal fish hooks arouses human fears for their own extremities.

However, there is no reason to fear that vacationers in Spain, for example, will encounter a puffer fish while bathing in the Mediterranean Sea.

According to experts, the animals live between 10 and 100 meters below the water surface, sometimes even deeper.

The Spaniards are probably more concerned with getting the drinking tourism on Mallorca under control and how long they can still enjoy their sandy beaches.

Rabbithead puffer: Scientist sees dramatization

This is another reason why Timo Moritz warns against dramatization.

The scientific director of the German Maritime Museum in Stralsund considers the public reaction to L. sceleratus in the Mediterranean to be exaggerated.

According to him, up to 150 of the approximately 750 fish species in the Mediterranean have immigrated, most of them from the Red Sea.

"And very large specimens could perhaps bite through a finger, but you would have to put it in the animal's mouth first," says Moritz.

(With material from the dpa)

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-06-23

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