wrote in message
ups.com...
Beware. On a recent kayak-fishing trip to the Sea of Cortez, Baja,
Mexico, near Bahia de Los Angeles, my wife's Russian mother died of
puffer fish poison. We all ate the meat of the fish (not knowing that
such poisonous fish existed there). My mother in law also made a soup
of the heads and livers, which apparently is a tradition in some parts
of Russia). We all drank some of the soup as well, but apparently (we
don't know for sure) only she actually ate a liver. She died a violent
death within 30 minutes of eating it. The rest of us were fine. We
were on a remote beach miles from anywhere so there was no chance to
get help in time. In any case, there is no known antidote.

The fish was brownish in color, similar to the local small sea-bass
that we usually caught there. One tell-tale sign of the fish we ate
was the odd, fused teeth, which appear almost human. Also, the fish
may puff up while being caught.


Being Japanese I can tell you alot about Puffers.
Sorry to hear of your terrible situation, but most sal****er fishermen in
the US
I've met were aware of tetradotoxin in blowfish. As a general rule you
shouldn't eat
puffers in any warm waters. Tropical waters are the worst.
In the US Northeast where Northern Puffers are caught in the summer off Long
Island
they are eaten because in the northern colder waters the toxin level is so
low that you'd
have to eat a couple hundred before you had to worry.
Those porcupine fish and similar burrfish in tropical waters are also very
poisonous.
Parts of the entrails are where the toxin is most concentrated.
The first sign of poisoning you'll notice is that your lips will start going
numb soon after
eating.
Musashi