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Mark Ralston/AFP - Getty Images, file
Lionfish may be lovely to look at, but the invasive, voracious fish are regarded as the scourge of the seas.
A federal plan to battle invasive lionfish by dishing them up on America’s dinner plates may have backfired with the news that the flamboyantly-finned creatures can harbor a potentially dangerous neurotoxin.
Two years ago, officials with NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, launched a well-publicized campaign, complete with flashy pull-cards, a lionfish cookbook and a catchy slogan. As one newsletter put it, “If we can’t beat them, let’s eat them."
The effort was aimed at harnessing the power of the U.S. appetite to help battle the voracious fish that has spread far from its native Pacific waters to ravage the reef ecosystems of the U.S. Southeast and the Caribbean.
“Once stripped of its venomous spines, cleaned and filleted like any other fish, the lionfish becomes delectable seafood fare,” NOAA officials enthused.
But another government agency, the Food and Drug Administration, now frowns on the “Eat Lionfish” campaign after tests of nearly 200 lionfish show that more than a quarter exceed federal levels for a toxin that can cause ciguatera, a potentially dangerous fish food poisoning.
“We certainly don’t promote any campaign like that since we have found levels above our guidance,” said Alison Robertson, the FDA’s lead ciguatera researcher for the chemical hazards branch of the Gulf Coast Seafood laboratory. “It certainly wouldn’t be our recommendation at this time.”
Robertson said she and other FDA scientists decided to test the lionfish in the summer of 2010 after hearing about NOAA’s gustatory effort.
Of 194 fish tested, 42 percent showed detectable levels of ciguatoxin and 26 percent were above the FDA’s illness threshold of 0.1 parts per billion.
That’s enough to potentially sicken a diner with the illness that causes not only typical food poisoning symptoms – diarrhea, vomiting and fatigue – but also neurological problems such as painfully tingling hands and feet, a feeling of having loose teeth, and, oddest of all, a reversed sense of temperature.
“Whatever I touched, if it was hot, it would feel cold. If it was cold, it felt hot,” ciguatera victim Pat Schroeder of Beaumont, Texas, told msnbc.com three years ago. “I couldn’t walk on the tile floor. It felt like it was burning me.”
At least 50,000 cases of ciguatera poisoning are reported worldwide each year, but the real figure may be 100 times higher, experts say. There are dozens of confirmed reports of ciguatera poisoning in the U.S. each year with more than 300 logged by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention between 2005 and 2009, according to the agency’s database. There were 84 cases in 2007, for instance, including 29 people sickened at a single dinner party.
The link between lionfish and ciguatera is raised in an article in the latest issue of the Annals of Emergency Medicine.
The toxin that causes ciguatera is produced by microscopic sea plants, called dinoflagellates, which are eaten by small fish that are, in turn, eaten by larger fish such as snapper, grouper, sea bass and barracuda. The toxins become increasingly concentrated as they move up the food chain.
Because of that, ciguatera poisoning is usually caused by large reef fish such as amberjack. So far, none of the ciguatera cases confirmed in the U.S. has implicated lionfish, which makes some question the FDA’s caution.
“We have always known that all reef fish can have ciguatera fish poisoning,” said James Morris, a marine ecologist with the National Center for Coastal Ocean Science. “I was not surprised to hear that lionfish contain some toxin.”
The lionfish, dubbed “the Norwegian rats of the sea” by one scientist, are truly destructive, ruining the delicate habitat of every reef they overrun. They have invaded the coastal waters from North Carolina to the Bahamas, now outnumbering native species in some sites.
That’s reason enough to eat them, argues Michael Dimin, founder of Sea to Table, an organization that fosters relationships between fishermen and chefs.
“The best way to solve the lionfish problem is to sauté them,” he said.
No one wants to get ciguatera, but harvesting lionfish for the dinner table might be one way to preserve the ecosystem. As for the ciguatera risk, Dimin likened it to the risk of sticking yourself with your own dinner fork.
“The idea of trying to control the lionfish problem by eating them is a great one, and whatever small risk there is is outweighed by the benefit,” says Dimin, whose group co-sponsored the “Eat Lionfish” campaign.
Chef Barton Seaver, who has been described as an evangelist for sustainable seafood, says legitimate concerns about ciguatera should be balanced by responsible sourcing.
“Nobody wants to serve neurotoxins for dinner,” he said. “I would trust the supply chain.”
The volume of lionfish used in the U.S. totals hundreds, not thousands of pounds, and it’s expensive -- about $16 a pound compared with snapper, which is going for about $8.45.
Seaver says he likes to prepare lionfish in a nice ceviche, as part of a robust romesco sauce or stewed into a tasty curry.
Those dishes may sound delicious, but Robertson, the scientist at the FDA, isn’t convinced.
“Particularly in areas where we know ciguatoxin is present, people should not be eating lionfish," she said. "Just like they shouldn’t be eating grouper or other reef predators.”
Related stories:
- Do your civic duty: Eat this fish!
- Nearly 400 now sick from tainted tuna in sushi
- Bizarre fish poisoning sparks alarm
Officials in Florida are concerned about the sudden appearance of lionfish in the waters near Miami. Lionfish produce a toxic venom that is dangerous for swimmers. TODAYshow.com's Dara Brown reports.
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Just tell people (men) that it increases their sex drive. After a year there will be no Lion Fish problem
You need to convince the Chinese. They'll eat them to extinction.
Why doesn't the US just sell them to China then? There are a few nations that already eat toxic fish for a jolt on a regular occassion, aren't there?
Personally, I think the only thing Lion fish should be doing on land is gracing aquariums, not tables....
@Alex,
The lionfish were introduced into the Atlantic by people who had been raising them in acquariums.
Catching them is the problem. They are reef fish. That means that pretty much they have to be caught individually. The spines are toxic, but fairly easily removed. The real problem is that ALL large reef fish contain toxins produced by microscopic plants similar to algae. These toxins are concentrated as they move up the food chain. Because the lionfish has no natural predators in the areas where it is taking over and destroying reefs, it often also contains the highest concentrations of the toxins (along with groupers and other large reef fishes.)
The Japanese do eat tiny amounts of poisonous blowfish, but after carefully removing the toxic body parts. The consumption of blowfish is very restricted, there is an anti-venom available and nearby in the handful of Japanese restaurants that serve blowfish, and it is extremely expensive ---- generally over $1000 a serving. Even when it is properly prepared, blowfish sushimi has little taste and will make your teeth, lips and gums numb. Serving poisonous fish is illegal in China and most other countries, including this one.
Serving poisonous fish is illegal in China? I guess lead, fiberglass, mercury, and arsenic are A.O.K.
Just need to find out what a Lionfishes natural predator is. Release a couple of them, get rid of the Lionfish, and keep releasing natural predators until we get a fish that is overpopulated that is not harmful to eat.
Yet, probably no more toxic than a lot of food we are already consuming. Hey, tell people they can get a high from eating it and the problem should be brought under control. Bon appetite!
I admit I do not know anything about lionfish, but surely it would have to have some natural predator. It seems that every animal does. Does anyone know the answer to this?
NYPride - in asia these fish have natural pradators in grouper and shark. In the carribean, the grouper and shark don't recognize them as prey. Some are being taught to eat them by being fed by spear fishers, but it's not catching on at half the pace the creatures breed.
Unfortunately they are probably here to stay because some idiots wanted to have them in their aquariums in Florida. They think that possibly a large aquarium full of lionfish was destroyed by hurricane Andrew and they wound up in the ocean. To help control them, maybe a bounty could be put on them so fishermen would go after them, especially if they decide they are unsafe to eat.
These invasive species, that can survive in the wild anywhere in the United States should be outlawed in the entire US. Its just common sense folks. Anyone bringing them into the US would be convicted of a felony and given a mandatory 10 year prison term. The lionfish is just one example. Pythons are another. They are becoming more and more common in Florida because idiots let them go when they get too big to take care of. A large python could easily kill and eat a small child.
What these lionfish are doing is eating all the smaller fish that make up a reef system. These native fish do not even recognize the lionfish as a threat. Once the native fish are gone, the algae that they eat builds up on the reef system, smothering it and killing it. Then, the whole food chain up to the largest fish is affected. It will wind up hurting the fishing industry. Our reef systems were already in trouble and now we have these lionfish causing even more damage.
@Chris-749391
The truth is that no one knows how they got there for certain, just that they couldn't have made the trip on their own. The aquarium pet theory is the most popular but hardly the most valid. For them to reach their current level one hell of a lot of aquarium owners would have had to decide to dump their expensive fish into the sea. The more realistic scenarios are that juvenile fish arrived in ballast water or were washed out to sea when onshore breeding facilities were swamped by a hurricane. To achieve a breeding population you need a bunch of fish in a relatively small area, random people dumping out a fish or two in random locations would take a heck of a lot of luck to build such a population in just a couple decades.
Chris, I don't know about catching them, but they are the easiest thing to kill when diving.
Export to Asia. Payback for all of the toxic crude they send us.
DNA sampling traces back to just 4 fish. I head the aquarium/hurricane story too, but I also heard that hobbyists just set them lose when they outgrew the aquariums.
It's too late for this issue but the U.S. should ban the importation of ALL live non-native species.
They already do that, but sometimes it just happens by accident though. Zebra mussels are a prime example.
Sounds to me as if the lion fish imported themselves. With the effect of global warming already apparent in sea temperatures, it is logical to assume they are migrating to stay in suitable environs.
signbiker: Sounds like you're talking about global cooling! I'm no expert in the field, but I've always understood that in this hemisphere that the Pacific Ocean is a lot cooler than the Atlantic. And the Caribbean is about as warm as you're going to get. It sounds more like they've strayed or been taken from the Pacific and wound up in the warmer Caribbean where they seem to be just fine. Just the first impression I get.
@Mic,
Your suggestion would include talapia (from the Nile), most farm-raised catfish (a Chinese hybrid), and many other fishes. Seafood would become unaffordable overnight if we banned the importation of all non-native fish. The problem is that "exotic" fish are imported as acquarium specimens and when the owners tire of them, they illegally dump them in oceans and lakes and rivers. Some, like the Asian snakefish and several varieties of carp were imported live to eat, but were dumped into rivers and lakes to illegally "stock" them so that snakefish and carp could be caught instead of bought. And some come here along with ballast water on foreign ships which flush the ballast water at sea off our coasts without knowing the problems they are causing (the likely cause of the xebra mussel infestations.) A more recent way that potentially threatening species are coming in is the debris floating from Japan's tsunami. The huge floating dock that beached on the west coast was estimated to contain more than 40 non-native and potentially invasive species of fish, shellfish, and plant life.
No easy answers.
They didn't swim around South America, Africa, or through the Arctic ocean on their own and being saltwater fish, they would survive swimming through the Panama Canal.
Think reef version of Nutria, Kudzu, or burmese Pythons.
That's idiotic, SingBiker. Sure, a lionfish swam thousands of miles across the Pacific Ocean, through the Panama Canal, and up to Floridia. What have you been smoking? Lionfish are reef fish and could not survive in the open ocean, and survive in tropical or subtropical areas.
A saltwater fish could not survive the Panama Canal as it is freshwater. The locks are lake & river fed. I didn't know it either. My old boss was born there & his Dad worked there right after the Canal was built. He told me it was freshwater & I didn't believe him so I looked it up.
This is a passage from a study done in 1935-37.
Whether the Panama Canal serves as a passageway for fishes, permitting at least some of the species of the opposite oceans to cross the Isthmus, has been a subject of conjecture ever since the Canal was built. It was questioned whether fish could successfully negotiate the locks, and if so whether any of them could endure the journey of about 40 miles through the fresh water between the locks at the opposite ends of the Canal.
Some fish can survive in both fresh and salt water, they're called anadromous fish. They've even found bull sharks in Illinois waters.
Maybe the non-native species should 'self-deport'.
All these brainless idiots should have ALL their assets confiscated for dropping non native species in the wild !
Non native species and all exotic animals should be banned from entering the usa and europe !
And for those that suggested americans eat those fish ?? Is their wish, population control ??
Did you read the article? The fish are migrating here naturally (or, unnaturally if you believe in global warming). So, unless you are going to figure out a way to cordon off the ocean, you can't ban these fish.
Reading comprehension is awesome. Sigh.
@PH,
Did YOU read the article? The fish are NOT "migrating here naturally" and none of it has anything to do with "belie(ving) in global warming."
"The red lionfish is found off the East Coast of the United States and the Caribbean Sea, and was likely first introduced off the Florida coast in the early to mid-1990s. It has been speculated that this introduction may have been caused when Hurricane Andrew destroyed an aquarium in southern Florida. It is also believed that six lionfish were accidentally released in Biscayne Bay, Florida after Hurricane Andrew in 1992. However, a more recent report states a NOAA ecologist has discovered that a lionfish was discovered off the coast of south Florida prior to Hurricane Andrew in 1985. It is also believed that the lionfish were purposefully discarded by unsatisfied aquarium enthusiasts. The first documented capture of lionfish in the Atlantic occurred in Dania Beach, Florida. In 2001, NOAA documented multiple sightings of lionfish off the coast of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Bermuda, and were first detected in the Bahamas in 2004. By late November 2011 they have been discovered as far east as Barbados.
Appearently you didn't read it either. The Article never said the migration was natural. Beign warm water fish, they didn't swim around South America, Africa, or through the Arctic ocean on their own.
You're right. My bad.
So this is an immigration issue then.
Maybe Obama will give them amnesty and they can become citizens.
@alan290,
Always with the rightie lies --- it was REAGAN who gave illegalk immigrants amnesty. Obama has never granted amnesty to even one illegal.
@alan290: excellent troll; it has all the key characteristics we normally look for:
- Baseless / pointless accusation with absurd premise
- Immediate changing of the subject
- Includes other people that have absolutely nothing to do with this thread
- Potential to elicit meaningless responses and hijack the discussion
9.5 out of 10 (if you could have somehow worked in Obama's own citizenship in - e.g. something like ".. but first he needs to get his own green card punched!", I would have given you a 10, but still some solid work here). The fact that you did that in a single line speaks volumes - well played, sir, well played!
Am I the only one who read that as 'Of 194 fish tested, 42 percent showed delectable levels of ciguatoxin'?
One key piece of information that was omitted: were the fish tested raw, or cooked?
The article cited leads me to believe that the fish were tested raw. I do not know if cooking effects the toxin, but for good science, they should determine that.
Doesn't matter. Ciguatoxin isn't destroyed by cooking- this much about the toxin is known for certain.
The toxin is NOT changed by cooking, according to the CDCP.
Something I was wondering (maybe I missed it in the article)- did they only test the parts of the fish that would be eaten? If they just mashed up the whole fish, that might have different levels than just the flesh.
It's the friggin FDA, The same people who telling youn not to eat your pork chop until it's been cooked long enough to turn it into jerky and that you shouldn't eat a burger that is still pink. So maybe skip the 10 lionfish a week diet but I wouldn't hesitate to eat it now and then.
Aside from that why can't we just kill everyone we see? Do we really need to justify their elimination by eating them? I generally would only kill something that I intended to eat but sometimes pests need to be gotten rid of. No one is suggesting you saute up the mouse you've caught in a trap so why bother with a toxic fish that's destroying a habitat?
I would never buy a cookbook or take nutritional advice from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). I can't believe they would overstep professional boundaries like that. What's next? The FDA will start having a weather show?
@Charles,
NOAA includes the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the National Ocean Service (NOS.) These two agencies have overlapping responsibilities when it comes to studying or acting against non-native fish and plant life in outr oceans. There is absolutely NO "overstep(ing)" of "professional boundaries." This sort of thing is what the National OCEANIC and Atmospheric Admninistration. And just to render the rest of your ill-informed rant inappropriate, the FDA DOES do weather --- mostly as it relates to agricultural product safety.
For once, it would do some of the NewsVine habitual asocial ranters good to just spend a second or two and find out if what you are saying is a valid opinion, or just a bunch or ill-informed made up trash talk.
But if you are going to go with the FDA's advice, you wouldn't eat grouper or snapper either. They are also reef predators.
Ciguatera is already the reason that you can't buy barracuda.
There are certain grouper in the Carribean & the FL Keys they tell you not to eat because of the toxin, I believe it's the black grouper.
Here it is I saw this awhile back.
"In south Florida ciguatera is endemic, and of all grouper species the black grouper is the most often implicated, this species is considered toxic throughout the Caribbean, except near St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands."
I ate them every day in Akumal, a small tourist town in Q.Roo Mexico, just up from the Belize border.
Ceviche, or deep fried, they were delicious. A small part per billion seems incredibly small....
Also, the coastal diving areas ( everywhere ! ) make it a sport of hunting and eating them, so maybe the laboratory report is a little less helpful that the daily reality.
If Lionfish are invading the precious reefs,why not just catch them and kill them since they are poisonous ?
Why eat them ? Just catch and kill them. Why eat a poison fish? Are we really that poor?
@rose,
Killing lionfish is the aim. They are destroying the reefs more rapidly than people would suppose. But killing them is tough. They are reef fish and must be caught individually, usually by spearing. It is dangerous because their spines are very painfully toxic. NOAA would like for people to simply kill them, but that has never happened, so they created a campaign to eat them as an incentive for people to kill them. It has nothing to do with poor, but everything to do with the fact that these are dangerous and invasive fish that are very difficult to kill.
From the information posted here and reputable links - as opposed to that other kind - it appears that a solution may not be as simple as was stated in the article:
That's too bad because that is such a great line; note how tempting it is to apply that type of logic to other problems as well (e.g. anyone for "Congressional Flambe'"? Several members are already pretty well pickeled, it would just take a match).
The difficulty of individually catching lionfish (not Congress) and then testing them before preparing for consumption is significant. I wonder if a reasonably priced trap could be developed and if they can be used for fertilizer. Those are probably not economically feasible concepts, but we do need to seek a solution before they overrun more areas.
@Chris749391..you are most correct in your posting!
I have traveled/spearfished throughout the Bahamas for many years & the Lionfish population has exploded during the last 10.
There are 2 reasons as to how they got into the Atlantic/Caribbean: they were let go by aquarium owners when the got too big for their tank, and when hurrican Andrew hit Miami 20 years ago & the water front aquarium had major damage, they escaped into the wild & flurished because the have no enemies in these warm waters. As for eating them... I know from personal experience that having Cigutera is THE MOST UNPLEASANT bacteria/toxin to have... it took me years to overcome it & you never truly get it out of your system!(vomiting, diahreah, sweats,tingling in fingers & tongue) The only way to know for sure is to test each fish individually for the toxin, time consuming $ costly! The Islanders can eat these fish because the have an immunity built up from eating barracuda, triggerfish, etc..but I suggest NOT eating lionfish.
Hi All,
This is not very accurate or complete reporting. The lionfish analyzed by the FDA came from a known ciguatera hotspot in the USVI. Research from other areas has shown little to no ciguatera evidence. Many thousands of pounds of lionfish have been sold, served and eaten in the US (and much more consumed abroad) without a single report of ciguatera poisoning. (A single lobster fisherman in the Keys sold an estimated 6,000 lbs of lionfish to local restaurants last season). This is a ciguatera issue, not a lionfish issue.
Also, NOAA did not produce the cookbook referenced in the article - REEF did, and it is already in its second printing.
I will continue to eat lionfish in areas that grouper, snapper and other reef fish are commonly and safely consumed. They taste better than hogfish. (The slogan Eat 'em to Beat 'em was coined in Bermuda).
Lad
Wow....finding a fish that tastes better than hogfish is crazy. That in itself should be enough to make the population dwindle
Your government at work. They came up with a great idea to get the public to eat a fish that has known toxins; if not properly removed they are poisioning us.
Anytime this government gets a great idea it is a stupid one! In the early seventies they decided to redirect the canal system in Florida and they screwed up the aquafir that supplies drinking water to the the public another big idea was to pump sewage into the ocean only to find that it washed back on shore and created a rat problem in Fort Lauderdale.
Anytime this government decides something is good for you ten years later people are finding health issues with the decision. To quote Forest Gump,"stupid is as stupid does."
So I guess the best solution is to eliminate government. Let the free market decide.
i like that. we can have a whole series of body counts just like the national debt.
Pure Genius.
Put out a reward for them? Nothing incites wholesale slaughter like money.
To anyone who is interested in killing Lionfish..most of the Islands in the Bahamas have kill tournaments every year, usually in the Spring & Summer months. Staniel Cay Yacht Club, San Salvador, Cat Island, etc.. look these places up online & sharpen your spear tips!
For Divers, there is even a PADI certification class available at certain resorts.
Ciguatera is a toxin produced by dinoflagellates that live on and in reefs. Small fish eat the dinoflagellates and are, in turn, eaten by larger fish. When I was a kid in the 1950s, when we would visit my grandparents in south Florida, my dad and the neighbor across the street would go fishing for barracuda. I remember them coming home and stacking the 4’ to 6’ fish like cord wood, before cleaning them. We grilled it and fried it and ate it all sorts of ways. In the late 50’s there was an outbreak of ciguatera where a few people actually died. Pretty soon, you weren’t supposed to eat barracuda over 18” long because of the likelihood of ciguatera. Eventually, barracuda became a trash fish, with very few people still eating them.
While I don’t, specifically, fish for barracuda, I do still eat them. I have yet to experience any symptoms of ciguatera. If I were in poor health or had a compromised immune system I would not eat barracuda and I wouldn’t feed them to small children in any case. What’s really funny about all of this is that any carnivorous fish that feeds over the reefs where the dinoflagellates are present will likely have some concentration of ciguatera. This includes some of the most popular fish such as snapper and grouper.
I would never tell anyone they should ignore the warnings or that they should try lionfish or barracuda but, I will tell you that while I have never eaten lionfish, I would like to try it and barracuda has beautiful, white, flakey, lean meat that is great, grilled with a little lemon and butter.
I will also say that lionfish may become one of the most destructive invasive species we have ever seen. They are voracious predators and appear to be having a very negative impact on other fish that feed and breed on or near coral reefs. We will, probably, never be rid of them but, anything we can do to lessen their impact, is a good thing.
The US should be sending this is food "aid" to Iran and Pakistan and all the countries where people are starving. We should tell them it is totally safe (like the various human experiments in the 1950's and 60's). WE could feed Islam out of existence...
We should be sending this to Pakistan and Iran and all the starving Muslim countries. We could feed Islam out of existence. We could tell them it is safe to eat (like all the various experiments in the 1950's that were performed in the 3rd world), we should be shipping this stuff everywhere.
America out of Islam - Islam out of America
You may notice that since Sheriff Arapio (sp?) in Arizona has been on the job no lionfish have tried to illegally immigrate to the Arizona coast...
That would be through the Lake Havasu border?
I just returned from spending 10 days in Roatan, Honduras. We went spear fishing over many amazing reefs and ended up with about 20lbs of Lion Fish fillets. Ceviche, grilling and stew was great. It's a very mild tasting fish. What's interesting, since they have no natural predator, they float right in front of you then blow up with their toxic spines literally 2 feet away when you down about 50 feet. You cock the spear and stick them.
Those are the easy ones.
A lot of the population is below 100 Ft. so we will never get rid of them.
I know, when i dropped down to 90 feet they were all over the place. I see no way of gettig rid of these fish unless they can find some type of poison that only affects that particular breed, and won't harm the reefs. Beautiful fish, but they are going to ruin the reefs and drive the indigenous fish away.
Thats not hunting, thats harvesting..Keep up the good work and please plan you next trip to the Mississippi to spear some flying carp.
Carp is a nasty fish. I'll be passing through Mississippi in two weeks. Not much there other than those fine dance girls at the Coast bar in Beau Rivage.
Check your facts. We have seen these in the Texas Gulf for a LONG time, and call them lion fish, or scorpion fish. They have a very nasty sting. Ask any shrimper.
Scorpion fish are native to the Caribbean and Gulf'; lionfish are not!
By long time you mean the last 10-20 years. Ok. And they are not the same animal but they are closely related.
Our incompetent government, confused as always.
It would be nice to know where the 200 fish which were tested came from, Ive eaten 3 dozen Lionfish with no ill effects, typically I've made RAW SASHIMI and Ceviche with them, so I think I would've encountered some Ciguatoxin by now. I live on the East Coast of Florida, and kill lionfish all the time from Jupiter to Pompano Beach.
What interests me the most from this article is the ability of the neurotoxin to cause "a reversed sense of temperature".
The neurotoxin has a potential medical application in that there are many illnesses, skin conditions, or actual burns that make the skin feel like it is burning. If, in these cases, the sense of temperature could be reversed (not to the complete opposite extreme making one too cold, but enough to neutralize the burning sensation), then the neurotoxin may be used to develop a pain relieving medication.
First, the mechanism as to how the neurotoxin causes a reverse sense of temperature must be understood and then, any side effects neutralized other than the reverse sense of temperature.
That said, why not use the Lionfish for research as they might prove to be efficient sources of concentrated Ciguatera as they bio-accumulate the toxin during their lifetime making it easier to isolate.
Put a bounty of $100 on each. SCUBA divers will rid the oceans of them. By the way, I am a diver and have seen them when diving in Panama. They are beautiful but stay back. I think just maybe, given the boa's in the Everglades, flying carp in the Mississippi and Lionfish in our oceans, maybe it time to stop allowing citizens to own these exotics as pets.
I WOULD LIKE TO TRY SOME OF THAT FISH , '' SMOKED '', FROM AN OPEN PIT !!!!!!!! ; before they outlaw catching and consuming them.