few 

 MARINE ANIMALS THAT ARE POISONOUS TO EAT 117 



CIGUATERA-PRODUCING FISHES 



Ciguatera is a type of poisoning produced by a large variety of 

 tropical marine reef or shore fishes. More than 300 different species 

 have been incriminated, to date. Apparently, any marine fish, under 

 the proper circumstances, may become involved with this type of 

 poison since all of the species listed as poisonous are commonly 

 eaten in some localities, and considered as good food fishes. It is, 

 therefore, believed that these fishes become poisonous because of 

 their food habits, as previously discussed. 



Ciguatera is a serious problem in certain tropical areas such as 

 the central and south Pacific Ocean and the West Indies (Fig. 71). 

 It is unfortunately unpredictable, and therefore, exceedingly diffi- 

 cult to control. The edibility of fishes in an island area has been 

 known to change suddenly. For example, ciguatera intoxications 

 first began to appear in the islands of Midway, Johnston, Palmyra, 

 Fanning, and Christmas about the year 1943, caused by eating 

 fishes which had, previously, been known to be edible. 



Representative Species of Ciguatera-Producing Fishes: 



Surgeonfish, Acanthurus glaucopareius Cuvier (Fig. 72, Top). 

 Indonesia, Philippine Islands, and tropical Pacific. 



Ladyfish, Albula vulpes (Linnaeus) (Fig. 72, Next to Top). All 

 warm seas. 



Jack, Caranx hippos (Linnaeus) (Fig. 72, Center). Tropical 

 Atlantic. 



Herring, Clupanodon thrissa (Linnaeus) (Fig. 72, Next to Bot- 

 tom). Tropical Pacific, Japan, China, Formosa, Korea, Indonesia, 

 and India. 



Surmullet, Parupeneus chryserydros (Lacepede) (Fig. 72, Bot- 

 tom). Polynesia westward to east Africa. 



Surmullet, Upeneus arge (Jordon and Evermann) (Fig. 73, Top). 

 Polynesia and Micronesia. 



Seabass, Grouper, Epinephelus fuscoguttatus (Forskal) (Fig. 73, 

 Bottom) . Indo-Pacific. 



Seabass, Mycteroperca venenosa (Linnaeus) (Fig. 74, Bottom). 

 Western tropical Atlantic. 



Trunkfish, Lactoria cornutus (Linnaeus) (Fig. 73, Center Two). 

 Tropical Pacific. 



Trunkfish, Lactophrys trigonus (Linnaeus) (Fig. 74, Top & Cen- 

 ter). Atlantic coast of tropical America, northward to Cape Cod. 



Porgie, Pagellus erythrinus (Linnaeus) (Fig. 75). Black Sea, 



