Sig-wa-terra
I wanted to explore Ciguatera, aka, the most common fish related illness in the world, namely because we were having dinner with some friends the other night and they knew how to pronounce it correctly. Like quinoa, I just kind of mumbled the word anytime I needed to say it, and like quinoa, most people knew what I was saying.
Ciguatera is called an “apex predator toxin,” meaning you’re more likely to find it in predator reef fish like Grouper and Snapper. Ciguatera can be found in any reef fish, but as smaller fish infected with ciguatera are eaten by larger fish, the toxin accumulates in the larger fish, until it’s caught and eaten by some unsuspecting person. There’s no way to test for it, cooking doesn’t destroy it, and infected fish won’t look or taste differently. Fortunately where my wife and I live it’s not very common. We actually don’t eat too much seafood, (ever since taking up scuba diving I’ve had a crisis of faith towards the consumption of seafood) excepting for lionfish.
Symptoms can develop within an hour following consumption and are sometimes mistaken for food poisoning, which it sort of is, just with nastier side-effects. As the global market becomes smaller and the Earth becomes warmer, rates of the disease are likely to increase since fish from the Caribbean are shipped overseas, and ciguatera can survive freezing temperatures. Another reason to go vegetarian I guess…
