Dangerous fish have appeared in the seas of Crete

Rabbitfish, which have appeared in Crete, continue to cause damage and make the work of fishermen more difficult. The sharp teeth of the poisonous sea predator cause problems.

Fishermen of Ierapetra on Crete daily have to mend nets torn by aggressive fish. The few local fishermen still left in Ierapetra, who began fishing last month as the weather improved, are in despair. The rabbit fish scared away all the living creatures in the sea.

From the moment the fishermen moor at the port and begin to empty their nets with their catch, intending to hand over several kilograms of fish to local traders, the second stage begins – patching torn nets and preparing fishing gear for the next raid.

“Having returned from fishing, we do not go home to rest, as all normal workers do after the end of the working day, but we remain inside the fishing boat and constantly repair broken nets. You have to do this thing every day (and almost the whole day!) in order to somehow put the “working tool” in order. And it seems there is no end to this! ”, a local fisherman tells a neakriti.gr reporter.

“This daily battle with the “sea hares” has tired and disappointed us, because we see that coastal fisheries have almost completely been destroyed, and the state is indifferent to our problem. And although the authorities seem to intend to compensate us for some of the damage caused by poisonous fish species that “leaked” into Greece from the tropics (λαγοκέφαλοι and λεοντόψαρα), it seems that this will not be enough. After all, exotic species have reduced the number of natural local fish (originally intended for fishing and trade). Ultimately, our families will also suffer this year from a widespread phenomenon – a change in the populations of natural marine life and replacement with tropical species that are unsuitable for consumption.

Fish stocks in the Ierapetra sea have sharply declined, and the fishery is dying out. “We all think about changing our profession. We have only fifteen fishing boats left in the port of Ierapetra, and some go fishing no more than twice a week. I have been working as a professional fisherman in Ierapetra for 20 years. And what I have seen in recent years is unprecedented,” adds another local fisherman.

Rabbit fish (λαγοκέφαλος) contains a poisonous toxin, tetradotoxin (TTX), which, when released into the bloodstream, causes breathing problems, circulatory disorders, muscle paralysis and even death in humans. There is no antidote for the toxin.

Environmentalists are also sounding the alarm: fish dangerous to people are increasingly appearing in the country’s seas. The Greeks also call this fish “germanos”. It is one of 90 species of fish and about 1,000 species of marine life that entered the Mediterranean Sea through the Suez Canal.

Researchers from the Hellenic Center for Marine Research report that the first sighting of the rabbitfish, which is native to the Red Sea, Pacific and Indian Oceans, took place in the Mediterranean Sea in 2003.

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