Blue-ring Octopus Kills 2 and Sickens 85 in Vietnam

[John_Brandt]

Poisonous octopus leaves two dead, 85 hospitalised in Vietnam


AFP by Yahoo
June 21, 2004


HANOI (AFP) - Two people died and 85 others, including 42 children, needed hospital treatment after eating poisonous octopus in a village in southern Vietnam, health officials said.

A man and a woman in Binh Thuan province's Tam Ngan village died on Saturday after eating the blue-ringed octopus while other villagers were rushed to hospital, said a provincial health official.

They all bought the blue-ringed octopus, a very small organism with poisonous glands, from the village market.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...p/20040621/hl_afp/vietnam_health_040621171131

 

[mark78]

heh I remember going to All-Seas in chicago by the airport and seeing a guy playing with a PVC tube full of them many years ago.

 

[Anonymous]

That sucks. I imagine the village market will have new owner(s) soon.

Louey

 

[dizzy]

Does it taste so good that it's worth the risk? 8O

 

[Mouse]

i think they musta just mistook them for something else, still just goes to show how potent the little dude was.

 

[EmilyB]

Did you ever notice the Zoomed bulb display shows a blue ring octopus on the marine section :roll:

 

[Anonymous]

I had a blue ring octopus years ago - cute little thing. I had it in a 20 gallon hex. After 8 months or so she laid eggs and died. :?

Jim

 

[John_Brandt]

i think they musta just mistook them for something else, still just goes to show how potent the little dude was.

I suspect that there was a quantity of them at the seafood market. I don't think they all fed from a single octopus. These little guys are regionally common throughout the Indo-Pacific. They are probably collected at low tide in ankle-deep water.

But still, there is the question of whether these would normally be avoided. I don't know if they are eaten, and if in some cases they are safe to eat. They have a deadly venom associated with their bite. There might be a way to prepare them that is safe. I just don't know.

 

[investigator1]

Natural Selection.

 

[hdtran]

I believe that the toxin is in the venom, and not the flesh (just like you can eat pufferfish muscles, but don't even think about touching the liver...).

Vietnamese (in fact, Chinese and most other Asians) will prepare food from anything edible. It's a case of waste not, want not. Squid, octopus, silversides, itty bitty crabs, you name it...

I thought the Blue Ring octopus was more endemic to the Great Barrier Reef, and did not range as far North as Southern Vietnam?

 

[Anonymous]

Waste not want not? I'll take want not.

 

[John_Brandt]

I thought the Blue Ring octopus was more endemic to the Great Barrier Reef, and did not range as far North as Southern Vietnam?

It ranges throughout the western Pacific area. It's in the Philippines and probably Okinawa. They were catching them in the fishing village I visited in Bohol, Philippines. Some of them still enter the aquarium trade.

The blue-ring octopus is a gorgeous animal. Easy to keep too especially if you have a fiddler crab supply. Of course the deadly bite will give some pause and think about rethinking things.

I've never heard of a fatal bite to an aquarist.

 

[rexxx]

serves those dinks right..Those zipper head will eat the sole of youre sneaker if you let em

 

[tazdevil]

Now that wasn't very nice :/

 

[hdtran]

Taz,

I don't believe that rexxx was attempting to be mean; I think he was trying to be funny (see the smily). Now, personally, I don't think his comment was funny--but then, I also find David Letterman to be rather boring.

Sneaker soles? Charlie Chaplin has an outstanding recipe for boot soles. I wonder if Matt Wandell could tell us what family & genus sneaker soles are in, or whether we're just floundering

 

[hillbilly]

Oh well, I guess some people will eat anything. I don't see how eating octopus could be tasty. Kinda like chewing on slimy rubber!

 

[Anonymous]

but then, I also find David Letterman to be rather boring.
what family & genus sneaker soles are in, or whether we're just floundering

You have to be slightly warped to understand Letterman.

Family: Cynoglossidae
Genus: Cynoglossus
Species: nikeatus ( though it could be different depending on where they're manufactured)


Regards,
David Mohr

 

[Anonymous]

Strangely enough I was bitten by a fairly large octo on Tuesday. It just happened to be crawling across a mudflat we were on, digging up Phoronids and Echiurans.

It was either O. bimaculatus, O. rubescens, or a juvenile O. dofleini, (have no fear, it was definitely not a blue ring ) with a head the size of a tennis ball. Bit the hell out of me when I let it crawl onto my hands, and drew blood. The strange thing was that it still hurts, even though it's a very tiny puncture. It felt almost exactly like a bee sting after it bit me. I wouldn't be surprised to find all octos have some kind of toxin in their saliva to some degree after experiencing that bite.

 

[Unarce]

I wouldn't be surprised to find all octos have some kind of toxin in their saliva to some degree after experiencing that bite.

Supposedly, all octopi have some level of toxin.