Toxic fish with human-like teeth are invading Greece just as tourist season gets into full swing.
The silver-cheeked toadfish is a torpedo-shaped species with distinguished, razor sharp teeth.
In addition to having a vicious bite, it incorporates a robust neurotoxin called tetrodotoxin, which might cause heart and lung failure, making the fish unsuitable for human consumption.
Silver-cheeked toadfish (Lagocephalus sceleratus) often inhabit the Indian Ocean.
Nevertheless, the fish are believed to have travelled up the Suez Canal and into the Mediterranean, attracted by warming waters.
Fishermen in Greece are actually getting money payouts to catch the fish migrating north into the Mediterranean Sea as a consequence of climate change.
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Authorities say the fish haven’t been sighted in bathing areas at Greek island resorts.
But in recent weeks, the fish have wreaked havoc for fishermen off the coast of Crete and several other other islands, chomping through nets.
‘It’s got to the purpose where we’d exit fishing at some point after which spend the following three days fixing our nets,’ Giorgos Kyriakakis, of a Cretan fishermen’s association, told Greek public broadcaster ERT on Friday.
‘They eat our catch and damage our nets — that’s very costly,’ he added.
The invasion prompted Cyprus to launch a similar catch program earlier this 12 months.
Starting Friday, Greece’s government is offering €5.33 per kilogram for catches of the fish, which is often present in tropical waters.
It’s the primary time that such a measure has been taken in Greece, Agriculture Minister Margaritis Schinas, a former European Commission vice chairman, said ahead of the programme’s launch.
The fish – a member of the puffer fish family – might be frozen and incinerated at local government facilities, Schinas said.
He added that the measure would likely be expanded from the currently affected areas to all Greek waters.
Public concern has been stoked in Greece by videos posted online by fishing crews, showing the fish sinking their teeth into soda cans or pieces of wood.
An elderly Greek woman was bitten by a pufferfish last week and required stitches to the wound.
She was injured while swimming off a beach within the coastal resort of Varkiza, near Athens.
The fish lunged at her without provocation, in accordance with local media reports.
The Greek Red Cross has issued a public health warning in regards to the fish, outlining first-aid protocols for bleeding brought on by potential bites and warning of the deadly neurotoxin within the fish’s organs.
Nota Peristeraki, an pufferfish expert from the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, said ‘should you see it approaching you, you actually need to avoid it’.
‘Some attacks have happened when people have tried to feed or touch the fish. There have been a few cases of individuals losing a finger or a toe,’ he told The Telegraph.
Nevertheless, these incidents are rare. ‘You usually tend to encounter a shark,’ he added.
Authorities and businesses on the island of Crete have cautioned against overreacting to the fish’s offshore presence.
‘The presence of those fish within the Mediterranean has been known for years,’ a press release issued on Friday by 16 medical and tourism associations on Crete said.
‘There’s, nonetheless, no ‘invisible’ or imminent danger to bathers. Marine predators don’t threaten the security of holiday makers and residents,’ it said.
‘Exaggeration is usually a feature of public debate.’
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