The Balsa 85 cannot leave port in eastern Canada after three-quarters of the crew was hospitalized. The Japanese company which owns the ship will have to fly in replacements.
Photo Credit: Matthew Bingley/CBC

Sailors sickened by toxins in fish

Fourteen crew members from a potash ship are in serious condition in a hospital in eastern Canada after eating toxic fish.  The ship’s captain, cook and most of the crew have ciguatera, an illness caused by eating fish that contain toxins produced by microalgae.

The symptoms are nausea, vomiting, cardiac, and neurological effects such as tingling in the fingers or toes. There is no cure, but the symptoms can be treated. They can however last for years.

The crew ate the fish on around noon on Saturday and went to the emergency room of a hospital in Saint John, New Brunswick.

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A boy shows reef fish in Malaysia. Ciguatera poisoning is one of the most dangerous forms of seafood poisoning. Nearly half a million people contract it annually from eating large fish that graze on contaminated reefs. © Vincent Thain/AP Photo

Half a million sickened annually worldwide

The ciguatera toxin accumulates in large, predator, reef fish found in tropical and sub-tropical areas. It cannot be killed by cooking, smoking, freezing, canning or drying. About half a million people around the world contract the disease every year.

The ship, the Balsa 85 was loaded with potash and ready to sail abroad when the men fell ill. There are too few crew members left to man it, so more will have to be flown in.

All the crew members are Filipinos.

Canadians are mostly exposed to ciguatera when they travel, but there has been an increasing number of cases caused by the consumption of imported fish.

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