Ciguatera and Other Marine Poisoning in the Gilbert Islands 1 
M. J. Cooper 2 
Among the animals that live in the sea are 
many that may be poisonous to eat; these ani- 
mals include fish, sharks, crabs, molluscs, and 
turtles. Of all marine animals the most impor- 
tant are fish, which are for so many people an 
essential source of food. There are a number of 
different ways in which teleost fish may be poi- 
sonous. Some fish are naturally poisonous; puf- 
fers for instance are always toxic. Some species 
of fish can be poisonous at certain seasons; in 
Fiji there is a species of sardine which may be 
deadly poisonous in the later months of the 
year. A third type of poisoning is found where 
some fish are poisonous to eat when they are 
caught on certain reefs or parts of a reef, and yet 
when caught on other parts of the same reef, or 
on nearby reefs, are perfectly safe to eat. This 
type of poisoning, known as ciguatera, is com- 
mon throughout the tropical Pacific, usually on 
oceanic islands and isolated reefs. 
Ciguatera is not, as many people think, a re- 
cent development. Captain Cook, in the journal 
of his second voyage to the Pacific in 1772-1775, 
relates how all of his officers who ate "two red- 
dish fish, about the size of bream and not unlike 
them” were poisoned and the pigs, that were 
given the offal, died. These fish were taken in 
the New Hebrides, and Cook refers to an earlier 
record of poisonous fish in those waters when 
he remarks that these reddish fish must be the 
same kind as those mentioned by Quiros, and 
called by him "pargos.” Pedro de Quiros was 
in the New Hebrides in 1606. However, prior to 
World War II there were few reports of cigua- 
tera poisoning in the Pacific; cases of poisoning 
did occur, but unless a stranger to the Pacific 
1 Contribution No. 214, Hawaii Marine Laboratory, 
University of Hawaii. Manuscript received September 
24, 1963. 
2 Research Associate, Hawaii Marine Laboratory, 
University of Hawaii. (Home address: 28 Statham 
Street, Laucala Bay, Suva, Fiji.) Study in part sup- 
ported by National Institutes of Health Contract SA- 
43-ph-374l. 
was involved little notice was taken. During and 
after World War II attention was drawn to the 
problem, as there were many more people in the 
Pacific who were poisoned by supposedly good 
food fish, often in areas where toxic fish had 
been previously unknown. 
Although the symptoms of ciguatera poison- 
ing, the species of fish likely to cause it, and 
many of the areas harboring toxic species have 
been recorded, several aspects of the problem 
still remain to be solved. In spite of recent re- 
search into ciguatera poisoning an antidote to 
the poison, a field test for distinguishing a toxic 
fish from a nontoxic one, the true nature of the 
toxin, and the cause of the development of cigua- 
tera among fishes have not yet been discovered. 
This paper is a review of the history and lo- 
cation of ciguatera poisoning in the Gilbert 
Archipelago and of the various Gilbertese be- 
liefs about marine poisoning, together with 
identifications of the species considered toxic 
by the Gilbertese, and some of the author’s 
opinions on the development, cause, and spread 
of toxicity. 
The Gilbert Islands are a group of 16 atolls 
lying north and south of the equator; latitude 
3° N passes through the most northerly island 
and latitude 3° S passes a few miles south of 
the most southerly island. The group lies be- 
tween longitude 172° and 173° E of Greenwich. 
From north to south the 16 atolls are Makin, 
Butaritari, Marakei, Abaiang, Tarawa, Maiana, 
Abemama, Kuria, Arunuka, Nonouti, Tabiteuea, 
Bern, Nikunau, Onotoa, Tamana, and Arorae. 
Atolls are of two distinct kinds, lagoon islands 
and reef islands. A simple lagoon island consists 
of a lagoon, a body of fairly shallow water set 
off from the ocean, according to tradition, by a 
ring of small islets; in fact, the islets are usually 
in a chain lying on the weather side of the la- 
goon, with submerged barrier reefs on the lee 
side. A simple reef island is a small island with 
a fringing reef round it and no enclosed body 
of water. Many islands appear to be a mixture 
of both types. The total land area was estimated 
411 
