Young angler’s ‘strange spiny balloon-like’ catch turns out to be rare — and ‘toxic’
While fishing near a port in southern Italy, a young angler felt something tug on the line and reeled in an odd-looking catch. The sea creature turned out to be “rare” — and “toxic.”
Kevin Bibiche Nour caught the “strange spiny balloon-like fish” while fishing from shore near a port in Sicily in August 2023, according to a study published July 19 in the peer-reviewed journal Acta Ichthyologica et Piscatoria. Photos of the catch were shared on Facebook and caught the attention of co-author Bruno Zava.
Zava “contacted the angler and alerted him about possible danger if the fish was consumed,” the study said. Instead, the fish was frozen and shipped to a laboratory.
Scientists took a closer look at Nour’s catch and identified it as a Chilomycterus reticulatus, or spotfin burrfish.
Spotfin burrfish are a type of pufferfish found in warm water throughout the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans, the study said. They can reach about 30 inches in length and feed mostly on “hard-shelled invertebrates.” Like other pufferfish, the species can inflate itself.
Nour’s fish was about 1 foot long and weighed about 2.5 pounds, the study said. Photos show the black-spotted animal.
Adult spotfin burrfish are “usually solitary” and live on reefs and sandy seafloors at depths of up to about 300 feet. To sleep, they “adopt a bracing posture against the substrate.”
Spotfin burrfish are generally considered “toxic,” researchers said.
Nour’s catch is the third confirmed sighting of “this uncommon species” in the Mediterranean Sea, the study said.
Spotfin burrfish were previously seen in 2008 and March 2023 elsewhere in Italy. A scuba diver may have spotted one off the coast of France in 2012, but the identification was not confirmed with DNA.
These sightings “could indicate that the occurrence of the species, although rare, is no longer casual,” researchers said. Instead, there may be a small population of spotfin burrfish living in the Mediterranean Sea. Still, the “cryptic habits” and “rarity” of these fish “render its observation or capture difficult.”
The increased sighting of spotfin burrfish may stem from increased communication between anglers and scientists as well as the species’ distribution changing due to global warming, the study said.
Sicily is an island off the southwestern coast of Italy, roughly 500 miles from Rome.
The research team included Bruno Zava, Maria Corsini-Foka, Danilo Scannella, Gianni Insacco, Alan Deidun, Valentina Crobe and Fausto Tinti.
This story was originally published July 26, 2024 at 1:30 PM with the headline "Young angler’s ‘strange spiny balloon-like’ catch turns out to be rare — and ‘toxic’."
