RI Warns Anglers About Catching, Eating Toxic Smooth Puffer Fish

RHODE ISLAND — State environmental officials issued a warning to the public about increased reports of anglers catching poisonous smooth puffer fish in Rhode Island waters.

Officials with the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management said the fish seriously threaten people's health if not cleaned properly. The neurotoxins in puffers responsible for illness and death are tetrodotoxin and saxitoxin, which adversely affect the human central nervous system. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), these toxins are deadlier than cyanide and there are no known antidotes for these toxins. Also, these toxins cannot be frozen or cooked out.

Toxins can be found in all organs of the smooth puffer and even in the skin. State officials urged anglers to not use smooth puffers for bait or chum. Anyone who catches a smooth puffer should take the fish off the hook carefully and release is.

Puffers belong to the family Tetradontidae, which consists of around 120 known species. Smooth puffers have a fairly significant range from New England and Bermuda to Argentina in the western Atlantic Ocean, though they're more common in southern waters.

Usually entirely gray to olive-gray, smooth puffer fish are darker above than below, and their sides are somewhat silvery. The body is entirely unscaled except for the prickly belly and underside of the head.

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