Giant toxic pufferfish captured off Heraklion, Crete

A fisherman near Heraklion on the island of Crete pulled a 50‑centimetre specimen of the highly poisonous pufferfish Lagocephalus sceleratus from the water. The fish, originally from the Red Sea, entered the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal and has been spreading for two decades, now widely reported around Crete and the wider Aegean Sea.

Lagocephalus sceleratus contains tetrodotoxin in its liver, ovaries and skin, making it lethal if consumed; EU law bans its sale and consumption. Its powerful jaws also damage fishing nets and threaten commercially important fish and cephalopods, raising concerns among marine scientists and the local fishing industry about further ecological and economic impacts.