Seafood Poisoning on the Rise As Oceans Become Warmer, More Polluted

[Omaha Steve]

http://omaha.cox.net/cci/newsnational/national?_mode=view&_state=maximized&view=article&id=D8O83IV00&_action=validatearticle

Seafood Poisoning on the Rise As Oceans Become Warmer, More Polluted

04-01-2007 5:59 PM
By MICHAEL CASEY, AP Environmental Writer

ILOILO, Philippines (Associated Press) -- Bowls of piping hot barracuda soup were the much-anticipated treat when the Roa family gathered for a casual and relaxing Sunday meal.

Within hours, all six fell deathly ill. So did two dozen others from the same neighborhood. Some complained of body-wide numbness. Others had weakness in their legs. Several couldn't speak or even open their mouths.

"I was scared. I really thought I was going to die," said Dabby Roa, 21, a student who suffered numbness in his head, tingling in his hands and had trouble breathing.

What Roa and the others suffered that night last August was ciguatera poisoning, a rarely fatal but growing menace from eating exotic fish. All had bought portions of the same barracuda from a local vendor.

Experts estimate that up to 50,000 people worldwide suffer ciguatera poisoning each year, with more than 90 percent of cases unreported. Scientists say the risks are getting worse, because of damage that pollution and global warming are inflicting on the coral reefs where many fish species feed.

Dozens of popular fish types, including grouper and barracuda, live near reefs. They accumulate the toxic chemical in their bodies from eating smaller fish that graze on the poisonous algae. When oceans are warmed by the greenhouse effect and fouled by toxic runoff, coral reefs are damaged and poison algae thrives, scientists say.


Filipino fish vendors wait for customers at the Villa Arevalo public market, the same wet market that sold a Barracuda fish that sickened 32 people last August in Iloilo city in central Philippines in this Feb. 26, 2007 file photo. The victims were diagnosed of Ciguatera poisoning, one of the most dangerous but least known forms of seafood poisoning. Ciguatera has sickened people for centuries but is starting to gain a foothold in the developed nations as restaurants scramble to meet the growing demand for reef fishes. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)


"Worldwide, we have a much bigger problem with toxins from algae in seafood than we had 20 or 30 years ago," said Donald M. Anderson, director of the Coastal Ocean Institute at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts.

"We have more toxins, more species of algae producing the toxins and more areas affected around the world," he said.

Although risk of ciguatera has soared recently, the phenomenon is ancient. Fish poisoning shows up in Homer's Odyssey. Alexander the Great forbade his armies to eat fish for fear of being stricken, according to University of Hawaii professor Yoshitsugi Hokama.

FULL story at link.

[EVDebs]

1. Always BBQ them oysters ! nt

[freethought]

2. I know one person who became ill from ciguatera poisoning

This guy had been all over the world doing various types of ocean related research. I was told by a mutual friend that he had been on one dive on the ALVIN and had worked side by side with Dr. Robert Ballard. His proof of the dive was that he had taken a styrofoam head, the type used to model hats, colored it with magic markers and tied it to the side of the ALVIN. It returned to the surface deformed at about 1/4 its original size.

When I was getting ready to go to Cancun some years ago for some R&R, he warned me about eating certain kinds of fish, barracuda especially. He said he had contracted the poisoning from eating barracuda, and from his description, he nearly bought the farm. A few years later he contracted spinal meningitis. Haven't seen the guy in years but I am told he's healthy and prosperous.