POISONOUS FISHES 167 



The 57 species of fishes reported in this paper, of which a majority 

 are shore inhabitants, are largely representative of those likely to be used 

 as food in the regions discussed. Of the families tested, the following 

 ones are either valuable or potentially useful food fishes: Acanthuridae, 

 Belonidae, Carangidae, Chaetodontidae, Coryphaenidae, Exocoetidae, 

 Gerridae, Haemulidae, Hemiramphidae, Holocentridae, Katsuwonidae, 

 Kyphosidae, Labridae, Lutjanidae, Mugilidae, Muraenidae, Priacanthi- 

 dae, Scaridae, Sciaenidae, Scombridae, Serranidae, Sparidae, and Sphyr- 

 aenidae. It was found that 77% of these families contained toxic species. 



TABLE IV 

 Summary of Tables I, II, and III 



Whole 

 Species Specimens Muscle Viscera Liver Gonads Intestines Fish 

 Total 



Tested 57 241 225 88 110 107 131 5 



Total 



Found 



Toxic 38 122 50 33 51 39 54 



Percent 



Found 



Toxic 67 51 22 38 46 36 41 



Of the 241 specimens tested, 122 or approximately 51% were toxic, 

 the viscera being generally more toxic than the somatic musculature. Of 

 217 specimens for which both musculature and viscera (including liver, 

 intestines, gonads, etc.) were tested, 116 or 53% were poisonous. Of 

 these 116 specimens, 50 or 43% had toxic musculature; 107 or 92% had 

 toxic viscera; and 41 or 35% had both. In general, if the musculature 

 was poisonous, so were the viscera. These results should be carefully 

 evaluated as there is a great deal of variation of toxicity within a given 

 species, and the toxin content of the various organs of the fish vary also 

 between specimens. Too few specimens were collected for most of the 

 species for us to present a complete statistical analysis. Once again the 

 reader is warned against arriving at conclusions about the edibility of 

 species listed as "weakly positive," as it is difficult to interpret this reac- 

 tion in terms of human symptomatology. In some cases they have been 

 sufficiently toxic to hospitalize humans ; in others, the significance of the 



