Toxic fish invader tears beer can on Crete (video)

In particular, the video shows the fish literally eating a metal beer can. In the same way, these fish devour the hook from the fishing rod and take fish through nets.

This seems to be a big problem for the fishermen in the Aegean, as, according to neakriti.gr, catches have fallen and fishermen do not make ends meet.

In fact, the fishermen in Crete have seen a such fish with sizes and weights of up to 12 kilos.

It should be noted that the amateur fishermen used to go to the port of Ierapetra where they fished with poles. However, in the last few years they have found that the populations of the these fish are such that they can not catch a fish with their poles before they are devoured by the toadfish. So they now choose to leave Ierapetra and go to the open seas of Sitia to catch a meze for their table.

The Lagocephalus sceleratus, known as the silver-cheeked toadfish, is an extremely poisonous marine bony fish in the family Tetraodontidae (puffer fishes).

The species is common in the tropical waters of the Indian and Pacific oceans. It is a recent Lessepsian migrant into the eastern Mediterranean Sea, which it reached through the Suez Canal, and it is spreading towards the western Mediterranean.

Similar to other puffer fishes, the silver-cheeked toadfish is extremely poisonous if eaten because it contains tetrodotoxin in its ovaries and to a lesser extent its skin, muscles and liver, which protects it from voracious predators. It becomes toxic as it eats bacteria that contain the toxin.