Look Out for Poisonous Fish

Year after year people are hurt from or die from poisonous fish. Some of these fish are stingrays, weevers, lionfish, stonefish, and many others. They use their poison as a defense against larger predators, like the flatfish and stingray. Humans sometimes get in the way. Some side effects of their poison to humans are numbness, difficulty breathing, blood poisoning, uncontrolled bleeding, and paralysis.

Some of these fish have flesh that is poisonous to humans if eaten. There are certain puffer fish that are poisonous. This poison is in certain body parts of the fish. Its flesh or muscle is supposed to be safe and very delicious. In Japan, they serve puffer fish also known as glove fish in restaurants as a delicacy called fugu. Chefs are specially trained to prepare them but even still some people have become ill and died from incorrect prep.

Stingrays are another type of deadly fish. There are more than 100 species of them. They can grow very large with wingspans of 10 feet and weigh as much as 661 pounds. They mostly hide down in the bottom of the water in the sand or sediment. They also glide sailing slowly while looking for food. When they feel threatened, they raise their stinger towards their prey. The stinger is spine-shaped hard dagger. It is in the tail near the rear. Some have more than one. The poison is released quickly into the prey leaving pain and swelling sometimes death to humans. The largest living ray is over 2 tons with a wingspan of over 20 feet. Even though they are so large, they have small teeth with filter feeders.

The lionfish is very colorful and one of the most poisonous fish in the sea. They grow up to 16 inches long living around reefs and rock near shallow waters. These waters are located in the Red Sea, Indian Ocean, Australia, and the Pacific. It swims alone with the fins waving slowly ignoring its predators. When it sees a small fish that it wants to eat, it dashes forward with lightening speed.
The weever rests partly buried in the sand while waiting for food. They eat small shellfish, crabs, and other small fish that wanders by. If you happen to step on one or they feel attacked, the weever will release venom from its glands which are located at the bottom of the spine.

Source: http://japanesefood.about.com/cs/seafoodfish/a/fugublowfish.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stingray

http://divegallery.com/lionfish.htm

http://www.glaucus.org.uk/weever2.htm