KOLKATA: Local residents and a handful of tourists who had gone to Digha were excited after stumbling upon hundreds of strange looking fishes lying dead on the beach of New Digha. Some local fishermen immediately identified the dead fishes as Pufferfish that belongs to Tetraodontidae — a family of primarily marine and estuarine fish of the order Tetraodontiformes.
The species belongs to Chelonodontops bengalensis (Habib et al, 2018) that was discovered from the Sunderbans region of northern Bay of Bengal, in Bangladesh in 2018. A recent study by the Zoological Survey of India has also confirmed its presence along the Bengal coast beyond the Sunderbans areas up to Digha coast.
"The fishermen after finishing their fishing activities leave fishes that are not meant for consumption as it is on the beach. The same has happened in case of these too. It is known as Tepa Maach in local parlance and some fishermen call these Patka Maach. They are sometimes caught in fishing nets in one or two but so many fishes belonging to a single species have never been netted before," said Shyamsundar Das, secretary of Digha Fishermen and Fish Traders Association.
Dr. S Balakrishnan, the officer in charge of Marine Aquarium Research Centre (MARC) in Digha believes that the fishes might have migrated in large numbers due to the effect of the recent cyclone Yaas and were trapped in the nets. " We have collected 2-3 samples for display in our marine aquarium at MARC," he added.
The majority of the Pufferfish's species are toxic and some are among the most poisonous vertebrates in the world. However, the meat of some pufferfish is considered a delicacy in Japan. It is extremely expensive and only prepared by trained, licensed chefs who know that one bad cut means almost certain death for a customer. In fact, many such deaths occur annually. There are more than 120 species of pufferfish world-wide.
Buddhadev Mal, officer in charge of Digha police station said that he had informed the Digha Sankarpur Development Authority of the whole incident and they will take measures for disposal of the fishes from the beach.