Posted on 07/23/2014 5:35:08 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Travel health insurance is a good thing
I had Red Snapper for dinner 2 nights ago. What kind of snapper did these kids eat?
Some helicopter med services, such as Care Flight in DFW offer yearly memberships, which will also cover flights back home in case of a medical emergency. Check your area.
The article says it was mutton snapper.
I usually don’t eat red snapper because it is pretty expensive but I have never even heard of there being a problem with it being toxic.
Ciguatera is a foodborne illness caused by eating certain reef fish whose flesh is contaminated with toxins originally produced by dinoflagellates such as Gambierdiscus toxicus which live in tropical and subtropical waters. These dinoflagellates adhere to coral, algae and seaweed, where they are eaten by herbivorous fish who in turn are eaten by larger carnivorous fish. In this way the toxins move up the food chain and biomagnify.
According to Dr. McBoomlis, Gambierdiscus toxicus is the primary dinoflagellate responsible for the production of a number of similar toxins that cause ciguatera. These toxins include ciguatoxin, maitotoxin, scaritoxin and palytoxin. Predator species near the top of the food chain in tropical and subtropical waters, such as barracudas, snapper, moray eels, parrotfishes, groupers, triggerfishes and amberjacks, are most likely to cause ciguatera poisoning, although many other species cause occasional outbreaks of toxicity.
Mr. Mercat and I lived for two months in Yucatan, catching and eating the native fish. We ate lots of snapper and one barracuda. We also ate parrot fish. The thing about the top predators is that any poison in the prey fish end up being concentrated in the top predator. So the parrot fish eat the coral which is toxic. The barracuda and the snapper eat the parrot fish. We didn’t get sick but we did talk about it since one of the men we were camping with had been a professional fisherman. He ate the barracuda raw however so we felt we could eat it cooked.
Mutton snapper are edible, but these unlucky folks were poisoned by ciguatera which can happen with tropical fish. It’s caused by toxic plankton, I believe.
When I was in college in the mid 60s there was a seafood restaurant right across the street from where I lived. This was in Pensacola.
About once a month I would treat myself to a mullet platter which was cheap and flat out delicious. I wish I could still get them.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The neurological manifestations of giguatera are beyond weird.
I think next time I’ll just order the chicken, thank you very much.
Of couse, best is catch, photo and release.
If not cooked properly, you might meet Sal Monella.
Excellent review article-
http://www.ncf-net.org/library/Pearn-NeuroOCiguatera.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ciguatera is a classic board question.
What? They don’t get unlimited free health care down there? How racist.
I hope Halibut is safe to eat =)
from the article-
“Rather, cold or even room temperature objects, when touched, produce a disagreeable burning sensation; and warm objects produce a sensation described variously by victims in such terms as “ice burning cold”, “chilled”, or “cold-sharp”. Warm fluids are particularly distressing and showering or bathing may be too painful to endure by some severely poisoned victims.”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.