Ciguatera

[daintreediver]

Just thought Id share my experience with this horrible thing. I'm currently going through my 4th hit of Cig in the last 10 years and my wife is going through it for the second time. I don't know of anyone who has had it 4 times Id be interested to hear from anyone here who could put me in touch with someone who has as I think I'm in unchartered waters so to speak. It is very little understood most general GP have very little idea about it.

I live and spear in Far north Queensland Australia and spearfish the great barrier reef which is where all my fish come from. On 3 of the occasions I have had cig have been from bluespot coral trout and once from what we call "passionfruit" coral trout. However my wifes most recent hit was not from any large or single fish but from simply eating fish too often in which the cig must have been slowly accumulating to toxic levels. This has shown us that its not enough just to avoid certain fish but you need to be careful how often you eat fish as well.

My wife has had enough she will never eat fish from our waters ever again. This leaves me in a hard position I have lived and spearfished here my whole life and providing fish is a way of life. I guess my only options are to spearfish and give all my fish away. I will wait until it clears enough and will probably go back to eating fish eventually but man this is a serious issue. The only people I can think of who might have had as much CIG exposure as me is the pacific islanders people. Unfortunately getting in contact with such people is extremely difficult.

Oh forgot to add all the theory's on testing for CIG are BS, feeding it to the cat, flies wont touch it, ants wont touch it etc none of this works