Pufferfish are not only very unusual fish, but also a rather valuable delicacy. Only cooks with a special license are allowed to cook them, however, due to the appearance of mutant fish, many will soon have to reconsider their gastronomic preferences.
Pufferfish native to Japan are one of the most expensive and gourmet delicacies in the world. One kilogram of such fish can cost up to 30,000 yen, but if it is not prepared correctly, the treat can turn into poisoning. Alas, according to scientists, such cases will now occur much more often than before, and the fault is global warming.
Science knows 50 types of puffer fish. Only 22 of them can be eaten by law, and only cooks who have completed a special training course and received a license have the right to cook them. Nevertheless, even long-term practice turns out to be powerless. Hiroshi Takahashi, an associate professor at the National University of Fisheries, noted that hybrid mutant fry are becoming more common over the past six years. The reason for this is simple: because of the global increase in temperature, the oceans are warming up, which leads to changes at all levels of the oceanic biocenosis - from corals and tiny photosynthesizing plankton to large fish.
Some of the puffer fish, known as T. stictonotus, were forced into northern waters as a result. There they were waiting for "cousins" -T. snyderi. Together, these two species mated and created new species of fish. But what is catastrophic about this? In nature, such migration is completely natural. However, the bottom line is that these fish differ in the average concentration of toxic substances in the body - which means they need to be prepared in different ways. If the chef makes a mistake and takes the hybrid for one breed or another, then the probability of death after such a "delicacy" is extremely high.
Vasily Makarov