Iloili (Philippines): Bowls of piping hot barracuda soup were the much-anticipated treat when the Roa family gathered for a casual and relaxing Sunday meal.
Within hours, all six fell deathly ill. So did two dozen others from the same neighborhood.
Some complained of body-wide numbness. Others had weakness in their legs. Several couldn't speak or even open their mouths.
"I was scared. I really thought I was going to die," said Dabby Roa, 21, a student who suffered numbness in his head, tingling in his hands and had trouble breathing.
What Roa and the others suffered that night last August was ciguatera poisoning, a rarely fatal but growing menace from eating exotic fish. All had bought portions of the same barracuda from a local vendor.
Experts estimate that up to 50,000 people worldwide suffer ciguatera poisoning each year, with more than 90 per cent of cases unreported.
Scientists say the risks are getting worse, because of damage that pollution and global warming are inflicting on the coral reefs where many fish species feed.
Dozens of popular fish types, including grouper and barracuda, live near reefs. They accumulate the toxic chemical in their bodies from eating smaller fish that graze on the poisonous algae.
When oceans are warmed by the greenhouse effect and fouled by toxic runoff, coral reefs are damaged and poison algae thrives, scientists say.
"Worldwide, we have a much bigger problem with toxins from algae in seafood than we had 20 or 30 years ago," said Donald M Anderson, director of the Coastal Ocean Institute at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts.
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