THE Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) has warned the public against eating crabs that are unfamiliar to them though easy to catch.
Al-Zath Kunting, BFAR regional director, issued the warning after one person died while seven others, including a child, were hospitalized recently in Liloy, Zamboanga del Norte, due to food poisoning after eating crabs.
Kunting said his office, through the Provincial Fishery Office in Dipolog City, conducted an investigation on the unfortunate incident and adopted measures to address the situation.
He said investigation showed that the victims indeed ate devil reef crab species, which is poisonous.
“No amount of cooking or heating can destroy or remove the toxins from these (devil reef crab) aquatic species,” Kunting said.
One of the victims said they went to the shore of Liloy in the afternoon of July 1 purposely to gather crags, locally known as “kalas-kalas,” which they often do collect for food.
However, upon reaching the shore, they noticed a new kind of crabs and easily gathered them since they are slow crawlers. The crabs they collected turned out to be devil reef crabs.
Upon reaching home, they cooked the crabs with coconut milk and even invited their relatives to join them for dinner since they have plenty of crabs.
However, 15 minutes after eating the crabs, they experienced tingling sensation in the lips and mouth, numbness of extremities, inability to walk, breathe and talk.
They were rushed to the district hospital, but unfortunately, one of the family members, aged 24, died.
They were later transferred to Zamboanga City Medical Center for further treatment.
Aside from devil reef crab, BFAR said that another species, the floral egg crab, is also poisonous.
Studies revealed that these species of crabs (devil reef and floral egg) were known to be containing significant concentrations of neurotoxins, including tetrodotoxin, the chemical compound responsible for the toxicity of puffer fish or “butete” and saxitoxin, known to be paralytic shellfish toxin commonly associated with paralytic shellfish poisoning due to the phenomenon called harmful algal bloom.
BFAR warned the general public not to gather and consume these types of crabs from the wild to avoid any repeated unfortunate circumstance.
It further advised to only buy and consume fish and other fishery produce from legitimate sources in public markets and establishments. (SunStar Zamboanga)