Whether for the thrill or out of desperation, humans love taking the risk of eating venomous animals. Some will drink snake venom for recreational purposes, while people in Northern Mexico may add denatured venom to their alcohol. Japanese cuisine includes fugu (pufferfish), which can be deadly if prepared wrong, while Americans have found their toxic love in the terrible yet delectable lionfish.
Eating lionfish requires the complete and precise removal of the venomous parts, and failure to follow proper toxin-removal protocol can result in severe food poisoning. There’s always a risk in consumption even when the best seafood restaurants are cleaning and filleting them. The National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science found that overall, only 0.7% of lionfish contained dangerous toxins above FDA approval, but in “hot spots,” up to 53% had notable traces.
The reason you may want to avoid lionfish is because their toxins can cause ciguatera, a type of poisoning from reef fish that comes with a host of nasty symptoms. According to the Cleveland Clinic, ciguatera is incredibly hard to detect in humans, and the only way to know for sure is if the fish you consumed can be tested by a lab. There’s no antidote either. Ciguatera is not fatal, only unpleasant, but doctors can help patients manage their symptoms. In other words, it can be tricky for professionals to diagnose.
Read more: A Guide To Buying Salmon At The Grocery Store
Why People Eat Lionfish Despite The Risk
Lionfish in ocean – Ayman Shalaby / 500px
Lionfish are an invasive menace to U.S. waters. They’re indigenous to the Indo-Pacific region but reached America through the aquarium trade, where they were somehow released into the ocean. Unfortunately, they flourished through swift reproduction and wrecked native wildlife through their hunting habits. Few predators can consume lionfish — and humans are one of them.
Just as you would avoid eating fish with high mercury levels, lionfish pose a significant risk, so why do people still consume them? The NOAA encourages people to eat lionfish as a conservation effort. If the demand for them increased, then more lionfish would be fished and taken out of the reefs, which is more resourceful than just killing them off. The downside is that fishermen are unable to meet demand to drastically lower lionfish populations because harvesting them is not economically feasible.
In order to get the funding to make lionfish catching a profitable venture, there has to be enough people who want to consume this food at a higher price. Research has suggested that some people are willing to pay more for lionfish if it means they’re helping the environment — especially when the food has a sweet buttery flavor. Sadly, the lionfish can be unsafe for us, and there are plenty of other tasty, low-mercury fish in the sea that people prefer.
Read the original article on Chowhound.
