Detoxification of Lionfish venom

[geokr]

I came across a video on YouTube by Dr. Niels Lindquist of UNC - Chapel Hill that shows how to take the sting out of the lionfish you capture. Dr. Lindquist chills the fish in seawater and ice with additional salt added to lower the ice slurry even farther below freezing, just like when making ice cream, which detoxifys the venom so the fish can be handled safely. This is proven by delibrately stinging himself to show no effect other than the usual prick from a sharp object. I wrote him to ask about the chemistry of how this works but studies haven't gone that far yet. Nevertheless, I think he's on to something here that can make the harvesting of these predators for eating safe and practical enough for anyone (including restaurant chefs) to do routinely. Check this out....

 

[Jim Baldwin]

This would provide a ready market for the lionfish at local restaurants since they would be easy to handle. Give the divemasters more of a reason to hunt the fish since they could get paid. Salt and ice are both cheap and easily acessible. Sometimes the simply solutions are the best.

Would the marine park allow DM's to harvest the fish for a profit?

 

[jlyle]

It's a lot easier just to cut the fins off with a wire cutter before cleaning. Snip, snip, snip and the fish is safe to handle. That's what we do with sculpin here in SoCal. The problem with lionfish is the fillets are small compared to the size of the fish. A medium sized lionfish will only yield a couple of bites.

 

[scubawife]

This would provide a ready market for the lionfish at local restaurants since they would be easy to handle. Give the divemasters more of a reason to hunt the fish since they could get paid. Salt and ice are both cheap and easily acessible. Sometimes the simply solutions are the best.

Would the marine park allow DM's to harvest the fish for a profit?

I read somewhere shortly after the lionfish tournie that the park and whatever other authorities were going to look into the possibility. I don't remember where I read it and I only saw the one mention. It would be fantastic to make this a marketable catch. Give the groupers a break!

 

[geokr]

Give the groupers a break!

That's right! A 17-inch lionfish (soon appearing at a reef near you) is a pretty filling meal. The great thing about lionfish is that you can do anything with them in haute cuisine that you can do with any other fish. A really creative chef can make endless forms of lionfish dishes with a little imagination - smoke 'em, bbq 'em, taco 'em, au grautin 'em, cajun 'em, geez, they're good with just lemon butter. Kris (Kinta) are you listening? Make mine Yucatan-style!

 

[PARADISE HUNTER]

That's right! A 17-inch lionfish (soon appearing at a reef near you) is a pretty filling meal. The great thing about lionfish is that you can do anything with them in haute cuisine that you can do with any other fish. A really creative chef can make endless forms of lionfish dishes with a little imagination - smoke 'em, bbq 'em, taco 'em, au grautin 'em, cajun 'em, geez, they're good with just lemon butter. Kris (Kinta) are you listening? Make mine Yucatan-style!

He definately is the man for the job! I mentioned it to him in March and he seemed interested. Their menu speaks for itself in it's fusion of different flavors and cultures. I think it would be a draw for any restuarant with the diving crowd on Coz.

PH

 

[DandyDon]

It's a lot easier just to cut the fins off with a wire cutter before cleaning. Snip, snip, snip and the fish is safe to handle. That's what we do with sculpin here in SoCal. The problem with lionfish is the fillets are small compared to the size of the fish. A medium sized lionfish will only yield a couple of bites.

It'd be fun to me to just spear 'em and drop 'em for the bottom feeders, if they'd let me carry a spear.

 

[Rutger]

Is this a permanent detoxifying, or only while the fish is frozen?

 

[geokr]

Is this a permanent detoxifying, or only while the fish is frozen?

Permanent - he sticks himself after the barbs have thawed to prove it. I don't know how it works but it sure can't hurt to try it - no pun intended.

 

[DandyDon]

As far as trying, I hate pain so I'll pass on the personal experiments.

As far as how it works? It's known that the toxin is soluble and thermolabile so while heat is the treatment of choice for a sting (like many marine stings, depending), it wouldn't be very surprising that the toxins also breakdown when severely chilled. Notice that he added salt to the ice to lower the temperature below 32F/0C - maybe not below −1.8°C/28.9°F, but significantly below the body temperature of a living lionfish. I wish he had measured the water temperature in the chest once the fish were immersed for several minutes, but his logic was worth trying - and worked.

One report from Walter Reed Hospital included...

The venomous spines of P. volitans contain a non-proteinaceous ichthyotoxin of low molecular weight. This toxin could be isolated only from spines excised from the living fish; the toxin is apparently destroyed following death, as the extracts of the spines of the dead fish were non-toxic.

But I don't know if that is supported by others or the time to detoxify used by them.