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03-12-2015, 21:28
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#61
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Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2015
Location: Yeppoon, QLD, Australia
Posts: 38
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Re: Ciguatera - foodborne illness - think twice before eating reef fish
so if you can't eat the reef fish does it mean eating the smaller pelagics is OK as they haven't had time to build up enough level of the toxins from eating the toxic reef fish?
I guess our region is pretty safe as I have only heard personally of one person who has had suspected cigatura poisoning. I might try and find out the local statistics.
To clarify, my fishing skills are pretty poor so I don't actually eat many reef fish at all, mainly estuary and beach fish and the odd pelagic. I don't like cod so don't keep them and thats probably the closest we have to grouper here apart from the Humungous versions.
I certainly wont be changing my ways as I could hop in my car and end up paralyzed tomorrow but it doesn't stop me driving. I don't mean to make light of others misfortunes as I know how bad it can be but I think my risk level is much lower than the other risks I face on a day to day basis.
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03-12-2015, 21:58
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#62
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Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2015
Location: San Francisco Bay area
Boat: Condor Trimaran 30 foot
Posts: 1,501
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Re: Ciguatera - foodborne illness - think twice before eating reef fish
I don't know if this will help or dismay...but I know the French girls who serve on chartered cats taught our charter that fresh caught fish can be tested the way they do it...
Take the eyeball out and slice it. Drip some of the aqueous humor on your tongue and see if it burns after a few minutes. Wash and spit it out. If no burn they see how they feel late afternoon before food prep begins for dinner.
Sorry, I just couldn't do it myself...but she said she had been sick more than once with this dreaded disease.
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03-12-2015, 21:59
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#63
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Registered User
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: East coast Australia
Boat: looking for next boat
Posts: 37
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Re: Ciguatera - foodborne illness - think twice before eating reef fish
smaller pelagic fish should be fine, the water's around Australia don't appear to have as much problems as the pacific islands, however I have just returned from the Whitsundays and for myself some symptoms did reappear after eating only a small amount of reef fish.not to the extent of my previous bouts but still there.so as stated before, I will stick to eating cold water varieties in the future
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03-12-2015, 22:32
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#64
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֍֎֍֎֍֎֍֎֍֎
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 15,136
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Re: Ciguatera - foodborne illness - think twice before eating reef fish
The Ciguatera Problem was extensively "discovered" and reported on in the 80's. Practical Sailor was among the many that wrote about it, IIRC.
You can ask the locals, what they are eating everyday is probably safe. On that day.
Or you can use the smaller fish as shark bait, and eat the sharks. Kinda bland, shark meat, but there don't seem to be any complaints about Ciguatera poisoning from eating shark meat.
Of course you can keep a cat on the boat, if it survives you probably will. Problem there is that you've got to keep a CAT on the boat.
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04-12-2015, 00:19
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#65
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Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2015
Location: Yeppoon, QLD, Australia
Posts: 38
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Re: Ciguatera - foodborne illness - think twice before eating reef fish
Avoidance
It is not possible to detect the toxin before eating the fish, which appear quite healthy and the taste and smell of the flesh is not affected.
Probably the simplest precaution is not to eat the fish if your hands feel numb after cleaning it, or if there is any suggestion of a stinging sensation after skinning or filleting it.
Some authorities recommend feeding the viscera of the fish to a cat and confine it for observation. However, the cat may vomit, become uncoordinated, or even die within 48 hours. This is obviously extremely hard on the poor cat, and a more humane option should be entertained first. Testing a small amount of fish flesh on a healthy adult in your party the night before is a better solution, if you can find a willing victim.
A few other avoidance measures include:
Ask the locals as the toxic fish may be confined to a narrow area like one side of a small island.
Avoid the biggest fish of the catch.
At no time eat or handle red bass, chinaman fish, paddle tail, or moray eels.
If still in doubt, stick to safe fish like mullet, whiting, bream and flathead.
The poison is very stable and resistant to heat and drying, so cooking does not deactivate the poison. Soaking the fish won't work either as the poison is not water soluble.
source: Ciguatera Poisoning AndFishing On The Great Barrier Reef
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04-12-2015, 00:53
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#66
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Registered User
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Aboard the Ocean wave
Boat: 55' sloop.
Posts: 1,426
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Re: Ciguatera - foodborne illness - think twice before eating reef fish
Quote:
Originally Posted by Garethk
These are the fish that caused most of my problems, caught in Fiji, Vanuatu.
Blue spotted grouper and all red colour reef fish .don't beleive the locals as they all seem to have got the toxin in there system to some degree. these fish are best left alone ,believe me
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Exactly. Well said. Voice of experience coming through right there, mate.
__________________
‘Structural engineering is the art of modeling materials we do not wholly understand into shapes we cannot precisely analyse as to withstand forces we cannot properly assess in such a way that the public at large has no reason to suspect the extent of our ignorance.’
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04-12-2015, 00:59
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#67
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Registered User
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Aboard the Ocean wave
Boat: 55' sloop.
Posts: 1,426
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Re: Ciguatera - foodborne illness - think twice before eating reef fish
Quote:
Originally Posted by alansmith
I don't know if this will help or dismay...but I know the French girls who serve on chartered cats taught our charter that fresh caught fish can be tested the way they do it...
Take the eyeball out and slice it. Drip some of the aqueous humor on your tongue and see if it burns after a few minutes. Wash and spit it out. If no burn they see how they feel late afternoon before food prep begins for dinner.
Sorry, I just couldn't do it myself...but she said she had been sick more than once with this dreaded disease.
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This and all other "techniques" discussed on this thread are ALL voodoo. Nothing like this works. To those who think that some kind of numbing of hands or tingling or burning may be immediately apparent, you are simply wrong. Onset of symptoms following eating may be delayed for several days. In some cases several days after consumption the symptoms begin, being tingling lips, a feelong of temperature inversion (hot feels cold and vice versa) etc. Sometimes the patient will suddenly collapse, and may die, or may "merely" be paralysed, for days, weeks, years or permamantently.
NONE OF THESE TRICKS WORK> THE ONLY WAY TO STAY SAFE IS NEVER TO EAT REEF FISH WHERE CIGUATERA IS ENDEMIC, EVER.
__________________
‘Structural engineering is the art of modeling materials we do not wholly understand into shapes we cannot precisely analyse as to withstand forces we cannot properly assess in such a way that the public at large has no reason to suspect the extent of our ignorance.’
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04-12-2015, 05:18
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#68
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Senior Cruiser

Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Thunder Bay, Ontario - 48-29N x 89-20W
Boat: (Cruiser Living On Dirt)
Posts: 51,780
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Re: Ciguatera - foodborne illness - think twice before eating reef fish
Meanwhile, according to WHO, Foodborne illnesses kill 420,000 people a year.
At least 600 million people, or 1 in 10 worldwide, fall ill from contaminated food each year, and 420,000 die, including 125 000 children under the age of 5 years, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported on Thursday (Dec. 3/15).
➥ WHO | WHO?s first ever global estimates of foodborne diseases find children under 5 account for almost one third of deaths
__________________
Gord May
"If you didn't have the time or money to do it right in the first place, when will you get the time/$ to fix it?"
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04-12-2015, 05:43
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#69
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Registered User
Join Date: Feb 2014
Location: Sydney
Posts: 200
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Re: Ciguatera - foodborne illness - think twice before eating reef fish
Having grown up fishing in sydney, Australia and NSW south coast i had never heard of Ciguatera until recently.
Such a shame as I plan on spending some time soon living in the tropics. I haven't fished much in the tropics yet, but I have eaten a dam lot of food caught in the tropics, both reef and pelagic. Once it's on the plate in the restaurant it could be bloody anything I wouldn't know.
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