A woman was rushed to hospital and needed stitches after being bitten by a silver-cheeked toadfish while swimming off a beach in the coastal resort of Varkiza, near Athens, as the toxic species continues its invasion of Greek waters just as the tourist season gets into full swing.
The torpedo-shaped fish, which has prominent, razor-sharp humanlike teeth, contains a powerful neurotoxin called tetrodotoxin in its skin and organs that can cause heart and lung failure if consumed. The Greek Red Cross has issued a public health warning outlining first-aid protocols for bites and warning of the deadly neurotoxin.
“A woman needed stitches after a toxic toadfish bite on a Greek beach as fishermen report havoc from the invasive species.”
But it is fishermen off the coast of Crete and several other islands who have borne the brunt of the invasion in recent weeks, with the fish chomping through nets and eating their catch. "It's got to the point where we might go out fishing one day and then spend the next three days fixing our nets," Giorgos Kyriakakis, of a Cretan fishermen's association, told Greek public broadcaster ERT on Friday. "They eat our catch and damage our nets — that's very costly."
The fish, normally found in tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, are believed to have travelled up the Suez Canal and into the Mediterranean, attracted by warming waters linked to climate change. In response, Greece's government launched a catch programme on Friday, offering €5.33 per kilogram for the fish — the first such measure in the country, according to Agriculture Minister Margaritis Schinas, a former European Commission vice president.
Schinas said the fish, a member of the pufferfish family, would be frozen and incinerated at local government facilities, and that the measure would likely be expanded from the currently affected areas to all Greek waters. The invasion had earlier prompted Cyprus to launch a similar programme.
Public concern has been stoked by videos posted online by fishing crews, showing the fish sinking their teeth into soda cans or pieces of wood. Nota Peristeraki, a pufferfish expert from the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, said: "If you see it approaching you, you really need to avoid it…"
Despite the alarm, authorities and businesses on Crete cautioned against overreaction. "The presence of these fish in the Mediterranean has been known for years," a statement issued Friday by 16 medical and tourism associations on Crete said. "There is, however, no 'invisible' or imminent danger to bathers. Marine predators do not threaten the safety of visitors and residents."