Ciguatera is a neurotoxin, something that is present in the Tuamotus here in French Polynesia. It seems to be present in areas where the coral is damaged. Lots of fish nibble at the coral formations (and the things that grow on them). Bigger fish might eat those fish. A human that eats a fish infected with ciguatera can exhibit some ugly symptoms and unfortunately the neurotoxin can build up in one’s body over time, leading to severe problems.
The local inhabitants at each atoll generally know what is safe to eat, even to the level of specific areas within the atoll. Due to the damage and destruction related to creating a safe pass into the atoll and navigable channel to the village, it’s usually not safe to eat fish that live anywhere near the village or the ship channel out through the pass. Spear fishing is the best way to selectively catch what we might like to eat. Right now until we grow more confident in the local fish life we’re not shooting the local fish.
Cruisers now anchored around us had been briefed in the last few weeks by the local villagers that fish on the East and Northeast parts of the lagoon were free of ciguatera and thus good to eat. Perhaps the yummiest of those is the camouflage grouper which is pretty easy to shoot, and a decent sized one will easily feed a family of four. We’re friends with such a family, and they were eating grouper they nailed over on the East side near the Kon Tiki motu until both their daughters and the mother began to exhibit symptoms of ciguatera build-up. They’ve stopped eating the local fish, and now we’re not going to start.
Ciguatera is dynamic and can move around. Maybe those guys got unlucky, but even if the local coral is safe a group of infected fish might move into a formerly safe area, become part of the local food chain and infect the larger predators. Bummer. What was the latest local intel on the subject will have to be updated.
Of course one could ignore the risk and happily shoot and eat away. Be the canary in the coal mine.
We’ll take a pass, thank you very much. A pot of black beans or something out of the freezer isn’t much fun to shoot at, but still provides protein.
This isn’t some April Fools Day joke.
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