On the occurrence and health risks of the Silver-cheeked Toadfish (Lagocephalus sceleratus Gmelin, 1789) in the marine ecosystem of the Gaza Strip, Palestine

Abstract

Abstract. Abd Rabou AFN. 2019. On the occurrence and health risks of the Silver-cheeked Toadfish (Lagocephalus sceleratus Gmelin, 1789) in the marine ecosystem of the Gaza Strip, Palestine. Biodiversitas 20: 2620-2627. The Silver-cheeked Toadfish (Lagocephalus sceleratus Gmelin, 1789) is one of the most recent invaders into the Mediterranean Sea. It represents a serious ecological risk to Mediterranean biodiversity and fisheries resources and a health risk to public health. The current study comes to handle the occurrence and health risks of the species in the Eastern Mediterranean of the Gaza Strip, Palestine. Frequent visits to local fish markets, meetings, and discussions with stakeholders, and chasing of local media reports were the main tools involved to satisfy the goals of the study, which extended from 2010 to 2019. The first record of the Silver-cheeked Toadfish in the Mediterranean coast of the Gaza Strip was in 2006 as claimed by fisheries parties. The by-catch of the species by fishing gear extended over the entire length of the Mediterranean coast of the Gaza Strip (42 km). The species was said to damage fishing nets, lines and hooks by its strong teeth. Prior to its banning in early 2010s, all pufferfishes including the species in question were sold freely in Gaza fish markets. Several cases of hospitalization have been reported in the Gaza Strip after consumption of the Silver-cheeked Toadfish. The symptoms of TTX intoxication included nausea and vomiting, dizziness, headache, abdominal pain, perioral paraesthesia, and tingling over the entire body. No death cases were reported locally. Many awareness campaigns have been conducted by fisheries parties to warn both fishermen and local people from the ecological and health risks associated with the Silver-cheeked Toadfish and TTX intoxication. Finally, the threats imposed by the Silver-cheeked Toadfish on the Eastern Mediterranean countries including Palestine indicate that potential solutions to the problem should be explored.

An Inventory of Some Relatively Large Marine Mammals, Reptiles, and Fishes Sighted, Caught, By-Caught, or Stranded in the Mediterranean Coast of the Gaza Strip-Palestine

“…It has a total number of at least 3500 fishermen working on more than 1000 fishing vessels of different sizes and capacities. The total production of fisheries resources is about 3480 tons per year [48]. The accessibility and exploitation of Gazan fishermen to the fluctuating fishing area are often governed by the Israeli occupation.…”

“…The accessibility and exploitation of Gazan fishermen to the fluctuating fishing area are often governed by the Israeli occupation. The Directorate General of Fisheries, Ministry of Agriculture, is the competent, responsible, and authorized authority to ensure the maximum utilization of fishery resources in the Palestinian Territories [48].…”

Concentrations of Tetrodotoxin (TTX) and Its Analogue 4,9-Anhydro TTX in Different Tissues of the Silver-Cheeked Pufferfish (Lagocephalus sceleratus, Gmelin, 1789) Caught in the South-Eastern Mediterranean Sea, Lebanon

“…Based on the available literature, the first record of L. sceleratus in the Mediterranean Sea dates back to February 2003 in Gökova Bay, located in the Southern Aegean Sea, Turkey [24]. However, L. sceleratus was reported for the first time in Lebanese waters during 1977 [25], showing that this species has been expanding in the Levantine Sub-basin of the Mediterranean Sea long before the first observations became available in the literature in 2003 and subsequently in 2004 for the South-Eastern Levantine Sea [26,27]. Afterwards, the expansion of this species was recorded in various Mediterranean sub-basins, confirming its ability to adapt to different environments [7,28].…”

“…Furthermore, the highest numbers of cases have been noted for the Southern and South-Eastern shores, namely in Middle Eastern and North African countries, where 89.5% of cases were non-fatal and 10.5% were fatal [10]. In the vicinity of the Suez Canal, it is obvious to record the Lessepsian species L. sceleratus, that has been recorded there more than 40 years ago [25], and which explains the high number of TTX-poisoning cases in the South-Eastern Mediterranean region [25,27,43,48]. All the mentioned poisoning incidents emphasize the role of L. sceleratus as an emerging issue related to food safety and public health in the Mediterranean region [10,51].…”

An Updated Review of Tetrodotoxin and Its Peculiarities

“…Similarly, there are reports on the presence of TTXs in several bivalve mollusks species from other temperate areas of the world, including New Zealand, China and Japan [8,[35][36][37][38], with no relevant intoxications in humans. On the contrary, there are several reports of human poisoning in these "non-traditional" areas related to ingestion of TTX-containing pufferfish, mostly L. sceleratus, specifically in Israel, Lebanon, Palestine (Gaza strip), Turkey, Cyprus, and Greece, with at least three lethal cases in Turkey, and a suspected case of TTX poisoning associated with octopus' consumption in Malta [17,[39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46]. Expectably though, there is potentially significant underreporting of intoxication cases, TTX has been responsible for numerous-occasionally fatal-human intoxication incidents and typically linked to pufferfish consumption, especially in countries of the Far East (particularly Japan), where they constitute a delicacy known as "fugu" [3].…”