The survival of living organisms in the wild largely depends on their adaptability to habitats. But what is the ocean? For a diver, he is full of fabulous miracles: colorful fish, colorful corals. For the gourmet, the ocean is a supplier of various delicacies: seafood, shellfish and other inhabitants of the aquatic environment. But in reality it is a rather cruel world where everyone eats someone until he himself becomes the prey of a bloodthirsty predator. Therefore, mimicry is important in the aquatic environment. Predators try to become invisible in order to get closer to prey. And the latter, with all her might, wants to show a potential threat that it can’t be eaten in any way. Bright fish coloring as if shouting: "I am poisonous!" And often this is true. The topic of this article will be the most poisonous fish in the world. We will look at where they live and tell what needs to be done to alleviate the suffering of the person who has become their victim, and even save his life.
Paradoxically, there are also those inhabitants of the seas who combine deadly poison and delicious meat in their bodies. One such is the poisonous Japanese puffer fish. You can taste it only in specialized restaurants. But in this case, it is better to make a will before lunch. You never know what can happen ...
Pisces and people: a bit of history
Probably, humanity first encountered the poisonous inhabitants of the seas back in the Stone Age. Because already at the dawn of civilization, at the pyramids of the pharaohs of the fifth dynasty (2700 BC), a hieroglyph is found depicting a dog fish. She gained bad fame in China too. In the "Book of Herbs" - a medical treatise written between 2838-2700. BC e. - A detailed description is given of how to treat gourmets who had the imprudence to feast on the meat of this fish. The Bible book "Deuteronomy" (1450 BC) also teaches what to eat and what to keep away from the Jews. Aristotle and Pliny the Elder tried to describe the hazardous species living in the Mediterranean Sea. In the era of the Great Geographical Discoveries, poisonous fish of tropical and equatorial latitudes began to come across to the Europeans on the net. James Cook described the pufferfish in 1774. During his second trip around the world, he (with sixteen other crew members) was poisoned by the meat of this fish. Although, as everyone knows, he did not die from this. Unfortunately, such a useful science as zootoxinology, which studies the poisons that accumulate in living organisms, as well as their possible use in medicine, appeared only in the twentieth century.
Some more theory
There are also poisonous creatures on land. Plants, fungi, insects, amphibians and reptiles ... However, the land can not be compared with the ocean. Many inhabitants of the seas are somehow poisonous: fish, jellyfish, snakes, corals. What makes them so? Many predators, being less mobile than their prey, lie in wait for shelter. Their poison is aimed at quickly immobilizing the victim, paralyzing her. Such predators have dangerous teeth and spikes. Some stun their lunch by electric discharge. These are stingrays. Victims, in the course of species evolution, acquire means of “individual chemical protection”. Many fish, in addition to a bright, catchy color, have poisonous spikes. The predator, having seized such prey, will not only prick, but will recover. There are also poisonous fish that have very dangerous mucus on their bodies. Touching it leads to poisoning. In the classification of all these fish are called actively poisonous. “Do not touch me, otherwise you will regret it!” - says only their bristling look. But those who like to enjoy the seafood should be wary of completely different fish. They are called passively poisonous. Evolution has led to the protection of a population, but not of an individual. It looks like an ordinary fish. But eat it and you will be poisoned. The surviving predator will think ten times before tasting one of its relatives.
What do fish lovers need to know?
If you do not dive into the troubled waters of the seas to face the inhabitants of coral reefs, and even if you do not run barefoot along the water's edge, do not think that you are completely protected from poisonous creatures. You can poison them in the restaurant. In this sense, primary and secondary poisonous fish are distinguished. The former produce a deadly secret themselves. It can accumulate in spikes, teeth, on scales. Sometimes poison is a metabolic product. In this case, fish meat or its caviar and milk should not be eaten. In moray eels, for example, blood is poisonous. Other inhabitants of the seas have all the meat. But secondary poisonous fish are no less dangerous. They accumulate harmful substances in their bodies from a reservoir - their environment. For example, blue-green algae, which fish eat, emit cyanides. Thus, you can be poisoned with an ordinary gudgeon, if it is caught from such a pond. The leaching of fertilizers from the soil, which rain down into the water, also makes their inhabitants second-poisonous. Nitrates work well only on plants, not on people. Therefore, it is important to know where the catch comes from before tasting it.
What is the most poisonous fish?
But did you know that the most dangerous inhabitant of the ocean is ... jellyfish. "Transparent killer" refers to this species that lives in tropical waters off the coast of Australia. Its tentacles stretch after the dome for thirty meters. Her touch paralyzes the heart muscle of a person, causing sudden death in 100% of cases. Also on the shores of the Green Continent lives a small blue-ringed octopus weighing only 70 grams. However, this baby can kill ten people with its poison in two seconds. Fish do not lag behind jellyfish, mollusks and snakes. Over 50 thousand people become their victims every year - incomparably more than from sharks. The most poisonous fish in the world is Synanceia verrucosa, or the wart, from the Scorpene family. On its dorsal fin there is a spike, the injection of which causes such severe pain that a person loses consciousness. Poison injected into the blood leads to vascular collapse and cardiac arrest. At the same time, it is difficult for everyone to see the danger, even close. For the purpose of disguise, this small fish takes on the shape and color of the environment. It is very difficult to distinguish from a piece of coral or cobblestone. And therefore it is also called "fish-stone." The closest relatives of the wart, scorpions (or sea ​​scorpions) also have the properties of a chameleon. In addition, they tend to bury themselves in sand or silt at low tide. Therefore, to step on their extremely poisonous spike, you do not need to plunge into the dangerous world of coral reefs.
Where are the most poisonous fish in the world?
Most predators, not chasing after prey, but awaiting it, live in the tropical seas of the Indian Ocean. They are teeming with water off the coast of Southeast Asia, East Africa, Australia, the Philippines, and Indonesia. Enough dangerous creatures in the Pacific. Off the coast of Japan there is a puffer, or pufferfish. But the most dangerous place on Earth in terms of the density of toxic inhabitants per cubic liter of water is Australia. And that's not counting sharks, electric stingrays, jellyfish and shellfish! And there are 51 species of water snakes, of which Hydrophys bseheris, a resident of the Timor Sea , is listed in the Guinness Book for poisonousness . No less dangerous are the local marine fish: poisonous wart, scorpion, lionfish, and inimicus. And you need to know this when going on vacation to the Green Continent. Seven of the top ten most dangerous species live off the coast of Australia. But with global warming, many inhabitants of tropical latitudes began to move farther from the equator. They are already found off the coast of Chile, Japan, and South China. But in the Red, Mediterranean and even Black Seas, there are also enough of their unsafe creatures. In general, scientists have described two hundred and twenty species of poisonous fish. In a word, they simply cannot be counted.
What to do in case of poisoning?
Most people become victims of actively poisonous fish. And not because they are chasing inexperienced swimmers. These fish, if they are predators, inject toxins into smaller prey. And more often poisonous thorns serve as a means of individual protection from large and toothy fish. What do swimmers need to remember? Do not step on the corals and do not touch them with your hands. For relaxing in the tropics, it is better to purchase special bathing shoes (because, besides fish, there is still a danger of stepping on a sea urchin - also poisonous, by the way). If possible, wild beaches should be avoided . And do not grab the hands of the inhabitants of the depths swimming close to you - you don’t know which fish are poisonous and which are not. If you still felt an injection, immediately get out to land or call for help. Toxins that affect the nervous system act with lightning speed, and a person can die if you do not give him timely help.
First of all, you need to take measures to eliminate the poison. If this is a hand, the victim himself can suck out the poisoned blood from the wound, spitting it. In the leg, toxins can be squeezed out by pressing from two sides around the affected area. Further, the victim needs to alleviate the pain, because often it is intolerable and this can cause fainting or shock. At the site of the lesion, necrosis often occurs, there is a risk of reinfection and even gangrene. Therefore, the wound should be treated with a disinfector.
Silent killers
If the body of the fish is covered with thorns, bristled with thorns, if its mouth is full of sharp teeth, then even a fool can understand that these creatures are very dangerous. And the very name of the poisonous fish speaks for itself: pufferfish, sea scorpion, dragon, stingray, prickly shark, terrible tubercle, inimicus, which in Latin means “enemy” ... But the local population in those places where these dangerous creatures, still consumes them as food. Deprived of their frightening thorns, being cleared of poisonous mucus, they give very tender and tasty meat. Thus, the inhabitants of Australia eat and praise scorpion, and fishermen of the Black Sea catch shark-quatranes for restaurants. But passive-poisonous fish, photos of which must be seen in order to remember, are more insidious. Nothing in their appearance resembles those terrible monsters that rescuers scare at beach resorts of the Red Sea. Nevertheless, in such a harmless-looking fish like a puffer, poison lurks, much more effective and faster than potassium cyanide. Evolution does not care about saving the life of one individual, but about the survival of the species. In addition, this fish alone can swell with fear and turn into a ball. Such prey can get stuck in the throat. Having tasted one or two ... ten fish, all the predators of the Pacific Ocean now know that it is not worth swallowing a small puffer.
Is it possible to poison “our” fish?
The poisonous fish of the Black Sea have several species. This is, first of all, the prickly shark Katran, stargazer, mouse-lyre, dragon. Monkfish and scat cat enter Azov. High seas perch, stargazer, katran and puffer, called puffer in Japan, live in the seas washing the Russian Far East coast. In the Baltic, kerchak and stingrays are considered dangerous fish. As you can see, among this cohort, only the puffer is a passive-poisonous species. After removing the thorns, all the rest can be eaten without any fear. But here all kinds of troubles happen. There are so-called seasonal poisonous fish of the Black Sea, and fresh water bodies too. These are some types of bream, carp, perch, as well as tench, barbus, barbel, kutum and others. During spawning, you can poison the caviar and milk of these fish. Serious danger comes from contaminated water bodies and from the blooming of blue-green algae. In this case, even the most edible fish becomes poisonous, as it accumulates toxins from the environment. In medicine, several outbreaks of “epidemics” have been described among the population of the Kaliningrad region, around the lakes of the Yuksovskoye (Leningrad Region), Ukshozero (Karelia) and Sartlan (Novosibirsk Region).
Who is a puffer?
Undoubtedly, the most poisonous fish that lives in the Sea of ​​Japan is the pufferfish. The sailors of the Kuril Islands call it a puffer, and the inhabitants of the Land of the Rising Sun call it a puffer. This fish with a white abdomen and a gray-brown back does not have scales, but at the moment of danger it raises skin plates and swells like a ball. However, this is not the danger of the puffer. The poison contained in its meat, and especially in the liver, skin, genitals, is so toxic that it is twenty-five times higher than curare and 275 times higher than potassium cyanide. The active substance - tetrodotoxin - blocks the processes of nerve cells. Symptoms of severe poisoning appear in the first minutes. Fatal outcome occurs during the first day. First, a person feels a slight tingling in his lips and tongue. Then begins a headache and pain in the abdomen and limbs. Coordination of movements is lost, vomiting begins (in this case, the patient still has a chance to survive). Soon, breathing becomes difficult, blood pressure decreases and body temperature drops. Blueing of the mucous membranes and skin is observed. The patient falls into a coma, his breathing stops. Unfortunately, the antidote against the poison of this fish has not yet been discovered. But despite these chilling details, puffer meat is still considered a delicacy in Japan. Scientists have found that these marine fish are poisonous only in adulthood. "Safe puffer" were grown, but they are not popular among gourmets.
Samurai nation
As we remember, the first European to taste a dish of poisonous puffer fish was James Cook. But the Japanese used it from ancient times. Fugu firmly entered the culture and art of the Land of the Rising Sun. In one of the parks of Tokyo there is even a monument to this fish. What makes millions of Japanese people literally entrust their life to a chef? Indeed, statistics show that every year several dozen people die from puffer poison and a much larger number of victims are hospitalized. Suicidal attitudes, balancing on the verge of life and death - all this is abundant in Japanese culture. Samurai brought fashion to the puffer - severe knights, cold-blooded, ready to make hara-kiri in order to maintain a good name. For a long time, the authorities prohibited the catch of this fish. But in vain. It was sold in black markets. Now, the cook, in order to obtain a license for cooking puffer dishes, must take special courses and pass an exam. Before the commission, he must cut the carcass, prepare three dishes from it and ... taste a piece from each. And only with a happy outcome, poisonous puffer fish, photos of dishes with it decorate the restaurant menu.
Japanese view of Russian roulette
Why do people not want to eat puffer meat, initially not containing tetrodotoxin? Gourmets who have tasted such a safe fish call its taste ordinary and even banal. Poisonous fish is popular in Japan, even with all the sad consequences that follow. But does the Japanese only tickle the nerves? Dishes with a possible, and this word must be emphasized, poison costs from one hundred to five hundred dollars. Here's how gourmets describe the taste of dangerous fugu: “It is akin to Japanese art - as sophisticated, sophisticated, smooth as natural silk.” Europeans claim that the fish is similar to chicken, and its consistency resembles jelly. In dishes with puffer, it is important not the complete absence of poison, but its presence in the most minimal doses. Then the client feels something similar to the effect of the drug. Indeed, tetrodotoxin in activity exceeds one hundred sixty thousand times cocaine! This was adopted by surgeons, using this substance in operations to remove tumors. Of course, it all depends on the dose - both in medicine and in the kitchen. The cook who passes the exam takes into account the weight of the client, his age, state of health and even nationality. A restaurant employee is vigilantly watching the meal to notice the first alarming symptoms and take action. Poisonous Japanese fish is served in several variations. The most favorite dish is fugusashi. From the thinnest slices of raw fish, the cook creates whole pictures. This dish is served with sauces. Also common soup from poisonous fish - fuguzosun. Sometimes pufferfish is boiled and served with the accompanying ingredients.