More poison in fish than in snakes or other animals

From LiveScience:

Venomous Fish Outnumber Snakes

By Robert Roy Britt
LiveScience Managing Editor

posted: 22 August 2006

It’s a good thing fish wouldn’t survive long if loose on a plane. A new study finds there are more venomous fish than venomous snakes.

The 1,200 presumably venomous fish tallied in a new study is six times previous estimates.

Fish with a biting bite outnumber all other venomous vertebrates combined, in fact.

“The results of this research were quite surprising,” said researcher William Leo Smith of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

This might surprise you, too: More than 50,000 people are poisoned by fish bites every year, Smith and his colleague said.

Symptoms range from blisters to death.

Among the fish to look out for: lionfishes, catfishes, scorpionfishes, weeverfishes, toadfishes, surgeonfishes, scats, jacks, rabbitfishes, stargazers, and stonefishes.

Poisonous ants in South America: here.

CARACAS, Dec 2 (IPS) – The red lionfish (Pterois volitans), a venomous coral reef fish from the Indian and western Pacific Oceans, has invaded the waters of the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, threatening to wreak havoc on ecosystems, native fish populations and popular underwater diving areas: here. And here.

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