Warning vs. poisonous crabs up
BE careful crab-lovers!
The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) recently posted a warning about the possible sale and consumption of two varieties of crabs that could cause one’s death.
For the safety of residents, Dagupan City’s agriculture office (CAO) is already closely monitoring the types of crabs being sold in the markets and have posted BFAR’s warning inside markets and in the barangays.
In the poster circulated by BFAR, it identified the deadly crab species as Zozymus aeneus and Atergatis floridus known locally as ‘kuret’ and Sboth contain high concentration of neurotoxins including tetrodotoxin and saxitoxin.
“The shell and meat of these two varieties contain poison that are three times deadlier than that of the pufferfish”, said Emma Molina, city agriculture officer.
The BFAR posters show the pictures of the deadly crabs for the public’s reference.
Kuret crabs can be identified through their dark spots that usually covered a part or their whole shell.
Although Molina admitted that Kuret could easily be mixed with edible crabs especially that they measure only up to 60×90 mm for the Zozymus aeneus while the Atergatis floridus is only 44x45mm.
The CAO advised the public more importantly the fisher folks to be alert before consuming or selling crabs that are suspicious looking as kuret crabs carry deadly toxins.
The symptoms of a person who have eaten a poisonous crab are: numbness of tongue and the surrounding of the lips, difficulty in breathing, vomiting, salivating and unquenchable thirst, dizziness, abnormal taste buds, poor eyesight, headache, stomach ache and loose bowel movement, difficulty in speaking and swallowing and the worst, paralysis that leads to apparent death. (Hilda Martin Austria)
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