High Risk Fish

Wombat 280 · Guru

High Risk Fish

Dougwe · Chief one feather

Shut the front gate!

I like Spanish Makeral but looks like I better keep away from it and eat the trusty old Rock Flathead instead.

rockylizard · Guru

Gday...

good post wommie.

This will give a detailed background of ciguatera poisoning and advice on avoiding the poisoning -

https://www.health.qld.gov.au/foodsafety/documents/fs-37-sea-toxin.pdf

cheers - John

Hey Jim · Guru

Ho Wambat,

We can only ever catch the little ones. confuse lorrys 091.jpg lorrys 288.jpg

Bass · Senior Member

Had cigueterra many years ago and it laid me flat for days that's after I came out of hospital. Its not nice.
Cheers bass

Ron-D · Guru

Nice fish Jim , I have never caught a spaniard,

when I has younger we caught a few spotties on light gear an they went like mad ,the biggest fish I have bagged was back in 83 and that was a 90 kg yellow Finn caught off the banks I still have the fish on the wall , any how getting back to your fish that's a real horse there's nothing like those things for pure speed, great fish mate...

Dougwe · Chief one feather

How can you tell if the fish is ok or not if you buy fillets from the a fresh seafood shop ? I spose you would have to hope they are only filleting the smaller ones.

I could say something is very fishy about it, but won't disbelief smile

bill12 · Guru

The moral is only eat one meal from any large fish. Coral trout, macks and others give ciguatera poisoning at times . I tend to eat the mid range fish anyway, and after 25 years of pro charter fishing, I have never had ciguatera, and I eat a lot of fish. Had food poisoning from bad prawns , Though.

03_Troopy · Guru

I had it many years ago too. Very nasty symptoms: swelling around the mouth and neck, big red welts all over the body that burned and itched, Temperature reversal so that cold water felt like it scalded you, passing out, spewing.... etc etc... took a few days to get over it too.

Hey Jim · Guru

Dougwe wrote:
How can you tell if the fish is ok or not if you buy fillets from the a fresh seafood shop ? I spose you would have to hope they are only filleting the smaller ones.

I could say something is very fishy about it, but won't

Hi Doug,

The secret to all is, Ice and tons of it. We make it on site in our chest freezer. Our ice box in the boat is 200lts. We mix the block ice with sea water ( Ice Slury). Just imagine 7am 30deg heat and rising all day.

The pro boats pull macks all morning floating in 24deg sea water till they drain and ice down.

Barteria is fishers worst enemy.We give to our fellow GN's and backpackers in the CV park, a feed of frest Mackie and they come back and tell us its fantasic. We smoke it, Grill it. And bake it. My favorit is smoked Mackie eaten cold. We take it to happy hour, and the tray aways comes back empty, day after day smile smile smile

Jim.

03_Troopy · Guru

Hey Jim, the ciguatera isn't caused by the fish getting warm and going off, it is caused by a build up of toxins, The fish aquire the toxin from eating smaller fish, that feed either off a particular type of algea, or off other organism that do. It's a bit strange in that it seams to affect some fish like Mackerel, Red Bass, Coral Trout, Marlin etc more than others. Also the type of algea is more prevalent at certain times of year, and in certain areas more than others.
The rule of thumb is: if he's shorter than you arm he'll do you no harm. That's because the toxin is cumulative, so larger fish will have higher levels of toxin.
So you can ice them all you like, as quick as you like, but it won't have any effect on the toxin in the fish.

-- Edited by 03_Troopy on Friday 22nd of April 2016 09:14:36 AM

Hey Jim · Guru

Hi Bob,

I /we know all that stuff.

We have not encounted any problems in our life time. When we say over in the west for three months at a time. We would eat these fish 6 out of 7 days a week.

I keep two trays of smoked Mackie in the fridge on hand. I eat it like Chocolate. Our friends help themselves to our fridge furious .

Everyone to there own I suspose. The Islanders use as part of their staple diet.

Jim

bill12 · Guru

I once drove a barge around the Torres straits for 9 month, and the locals eat red bass and chinamen fish, both which are ciguatera carriers. I never heard about any islander getting sick. How does this work?

Aus-Kiwi · Guru

I've eaten tons of Marlen over the years due to family owning charter boat up Bay of Islands . Never had an issue .. I wander if you build up an immunity ? Like Peanut poisoning ? Etc

03_Troopy · Guru

You don't build up a resistance, in fact it's cumulative. But it's the fish that feed in areas where the algea is prevalent that build up the toxin, not all fish of the same species. But if you are fishing in warmers waters and don't know for sure if the local fish population have it, it pays to be a bit careful.

Or you can just say... I've done that heaps of times and it's never worried me.... and take your chances.
I know what I'll do though.

kandagal · Guru

I had ciguatera poisoning when I was a teenager (long time ago) from a feed of coral trout. Even after all this time I sometimes get a recurrence of symptoms - reversal of hot/cold feelings & water just stays on your skin as if it was covered with oil So if you have a shower you just have to jump up & down a couple of times & the water falls off. Alice

Papou · Senior Member

Dougwe wrote:
How can you tell if the fish is ok or not if you buy fillets from the a fresh seafood shop ? I spose you would have to hope they are only filleting the smaller ones.

I could say something is very fishy about it, but won't

Feed some to your neighbours cat or Mother IN Law n keep an eye on em for a day or so before eating your Spanish filletc/cutlets ..See the Moggy wobbling around on its hindquarters , chuck the stuff out . If not go ahead n eat it :)...

Actually some truth to be said in big Spanish Mackeral supposedly having a possabillity of ciguatera. Have Fished these fish for years and caught in all sizes with no problem at all and think the further north QLD) you head the greater the risk especiall Northern territory etc..

These fish are good to eat regarding health ey..

Some years back a local here had a Fish n Chip shop and supposedly put quite a few people on the sick list selling the Spanish Mackeral to them.....