Some poisonous specimens are descending upon Gaza. And I am not referring to the Freedom Flotilla Coalition.
Gaza’s maritime police warned the enclave’s fishermen to beware of catching poisonous “rabbitfish” – also known as “Aras” – in their nets.
Fishing is one of the main industries in the Gaza Strip.
The venomous fish arrived in the Mediterranean Sea off the shore of Gaza this week via the Suez Canal in a migration known as the “Lessepsian migration – migration of marine species across the Suez Canal, usually from the Red Sea, according to a report in the B’Hadarei Ha’Hareidim news outlet.
Rabbitfish secrete poison from the fins; if touched, it can lead to paralysis for any hapless human who ingests the fish.
Ciguatera poisoning from these fish is the most common fish-borne form of seafood intoxication, according to researchers from the Israel Poison Information Center at Rambam Medical Center and the Technion Israel Institute of Technology.
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Marine police in Gaza have warned the enclave’s fishermen to avoid catching the venomous creatures and ordered them to return them to the sea if they come up in their nets, with “appropriate punishment” threatened for those who violate the order.
Prediction: anti-Israel propagandists are going to accuse Israel of deliberately setting these rabbitfish loose on Gaza. They might even refer to them as rabbifish.
It’s not like this is such a way-off prediction.
Update: Also from the report cited above:
Nevertheless, in June 2000, two families living near Haifa consumed rabbitfish for their dinner, later experiencing “electrical currents” in their limbs, tremors and muscle cramps, among other symptoms, the researchers reported in an article published in the Israel Medical Association Journal (IMAJ).
Apparently, the Simpsons moved to Israel.
