The World’s Most Dangerous Fish – To Eat

What’s the most dangerous fish to eat? Barracuda and reef fish can give you ciguatera poisoning, Pangas are often contaminated with industrial waste, and Gulf tilefish are laced with mercury, but the most dangerous dinner of all is the famed Takifugu flavidus—also known simply as Fugu.

These puffer fish are recognizable by their prickly skin, which is yellow-brown and green with a yellowish stripe running from the mouth to the tail. This species lives throughout the Northwest Pacific, and is treasured in Japan for it’s high quality meat which is eaten raw as sashimi, and the roe, which is served grilled. Unfortunately, the fish’s organs concentrate a potent neurotoxin called tetrodotoxin, especially in the liver. If the fish isn’t filleted just so, the neurotoxins can taint the meat. First the diner will feel his tongue and lips go numb. Then he or she becomes fully paralyzed, remaining conscious while dying of asphyxiation—and there is no known antidote.

Fugu has been alternately banned and coveted for centuries, and today, sushi chefs in Japan, where it’s most poplar, have to go through a two year apprenticeship, pass a written test, and prepare and then eat a fugu. A grade of an F on this test has, on rare occasions, resulted in the death of the student. Selling the fish whole is illegal, and most of the deaths resulting from tetrodotoxin occur when un-trained people try to prepare the fish themselves. Certified fugu chefs has specific knives they use only for fugu, and never with other fish, and in the 23 fugu poisoning incidents reported in the city of Tokyo in a 10-year period, only one occurred in a restaurant. Where did the other puffer poisonings come from? Fishermen, eating their catch.

Interested in giving fugu a taste? You could head for the Northwest Pacific with your rods and reels, but a safer move is visiting one of the dozen or so restaurants in the US of A which serve it; most are located in New York City. But if you’re in Europe you’re out of luck, because fugu is banned altogether in the EU. Small wonder, considering that this is, in fact, the world’s most dangerous fish to eat. 

Click here to join Earth Sports and get more articles like this one every day. It's free and takes only a minute to sign up.

An Earth Sports Monster Fish Week Article