2023-08-01 14:30:09
Four ‘aliens’ in our seas that are best avoided: spotted ball, scorpion, dusky rabbit and striped rabbit. These are the names of the fish, all tropical invasive species that arrived from the Suez Canal and sighted in Italy, with a poisonous – and very painful – sting (in the case of the scorpion and the two types of rabbitfish) or toxic for those who eat them (ball) . Ernesto Azzurro, research director at the Institute for Biological Resources and Marine Biotechnology of the National Research Council (Irbim-Cnr) of Ancona warns against these ‘close encounters’, which have become possible in our tropicalised waters. alien fish expert.
“The phenomenon – he explains to time.news Salute – is now consolidated, we have also received notices on the Oddfish Facebook group, which collects reports of particular events, alien species and curiosities”. And it is no coincidence that “last year Irbim Cnr, together with Ispra, launched a campaign, still active, which we called ‘Beware of those 4’, in order to inform citizens, explain how to recognize and monitor the presence of these 4 species, their distribution in Italian waters, thanks also to reports from fishermen and divers”. In Calabria, for example, “scorpion fish, also known as lionfish, have recently been sighted, a species that comes from the Red Sea and is rapidly expanding along the entire eastern Mediterranean up to our coasts”. It is a fish “dangerous to human health, with its 18 venomous spines, whose sting is really painful, in addition to the risk of a possible anaphylactic shock”, adds Azzurro.
The “notorious spotted puffer fish, lagocefalus sceleratu, whose presence is still occasional in Italian waters also deserves maximum attention. This species of puffer fish is particularly toxic when consumed: in this case the danger is not in the poison of the spines but precisely in the toxicity of the meat. Sightings have so far been limited: in Sicily, in particular in Lampedusa, and in Calabria”. Then there are “two types of rabbitfish – siganus luridus and siganus rivulatus – tropical herbivores that have venomous spines. The risk is that non-professional fishermen or divers can catch these species with nets, handling them and not knowing the dangers they can get hurt” . Also for this reason “we are working on the ‘beware of those 4’ campaign – he concludes – to inform citizens about this type of danger but also to ask to report any sightings. In this sense, the campaign has a dual purpose”.
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