A poison inside a fish, the licensed chef, and the puffers of Florida: poisonous versus venomous.
Many pufferfish carry tetrodotoxin, a nerve poison far stronger than cyanide, mainly in the liver, ovaries and skin. There is no antidote. The fish do not make it themselves: it comes from bacteria in their food, so pufferfish raised on clean feed in tanks can be nearly free of toxin.
Is a pufferfish dangerous because of what it is, or what it eats?
In Japan, fugu may be prepared only by chefs holding a prefectural license, first introduced in Tokyo in 1949 and requiring training and an exam. Selling fugu liver has been banned since 1984. Shimonoseki is the center of the fugu trade, and poisonings now mostly come from people preparing wild puffers at home.
Why do some foods need a license to cook?
Florida has its own puffers. After saxitoxin poisonings from southern puffers caught in the Indian River Lagoon in 2002, the state banned harvesting puffers there. Puffer is a lesson in poisonous animals, which harm you when eaten, unlike venomous animals such as lionfish, which inject toxin.
What is the difference between poisonous and venomous?