Blowfish Image
My dad and I love sport fishing and try to get out on the boat as often as we can. The other weekend I was diving with my dad off the coast of Hollywood, Florida when we came across a blowfish. We see blowfish regularly, but I was lucky enough to capture an image of this little guy in his defensive state. Blowfish, which are also known as pufferfish, are easy to catch up with because they don’t swim very fast and when they blow up they can barely swim at all.
When these fish feel threatened, they ingest a lot of water, and sometimes air, to expand to become virtually inedible. This particular blowfish also had spines that added an extra layer of defense against its predators. Blowfish are usually found in tropical and subtropical waters, but there are more than 120 different species of blowfish throughout the world. Some blowfish are found in brackish and even freshwater.
Blowfish have a natural toxin, tetrodotoxin, which makes them taste horrible and is fatal for fish. In fact, there is enough of this toxin in blowfish to kill 30 adult humans if the blowfish are eaten. However, some marine life, such as tiger sharks, are not affected or bothered by the blowfish toxins.
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