9 dead, 78 others hospitalized after eating sea turtle meat on Zanzibar’s Pemba Island
9 dead, 78 others hospitalized after eating sea turtle meat on Zanzibar’s Pemba Island
In Zanzibar, a semi-autonomous region of the East African nation of Tanzania, sea turtle meat has proven to be a sometimes deadly delicacy. Officials have warned against consuming it.
Yeah, don't . . . . don't eat sea turtles, okay.
Everybody? Like if you were sitting around rubbing your belly and licking your lips going "Mmmm mmmm wish I had a big sea turtle meat dish right now", like - don't. Okay?
Just leave the sea turtles alone. They got enough hassles.
Had to look up why sea turtle meat would kill, since it's not reported in the article. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelonitoxism
Sea turtle meat is considered a delicacy by Zanzibar’s people even though it periodically results in deaths from chelonitoxism, a type of food poisoning.
Second paragraph.
It's incredible, I've never seen a disease with so little information on the actual mechanism behind it. The articles just lists where it happens and every symptom you can think of. The word Chelonitoxin itself just refers to the scientific name of these turtles Chelonia followed by toxin.
I dug a little deeper and found this:
Salmonella sp., Proteus sp., Aeromonas, Escherichia coli, Citrobacter sp., Enterobacter sp., Klebsiella sp., Morganella morganii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella sp. and Shigella sp. are some of the pathogenic microorganisms found in this study. Some of these microorganisms are common bacterial flora of nesting green turtles (Santoro et al., 2006).
So it looks like the gut biome of the turtles is capable of killing humans. My first guess was going to be the diet of the turtles.
The saddest is that it's children who probably had no clue and no way of deciding.
Holy fuck, the Wikipedia article for Chelonitoxism is crazy. No wonder everyone is dead or fucked up.
Children are especially susceptible, and the toxins have been reported to transfer readily via breastfeeding, even when the mother experiences no illness.
Motherfucking toxin from the Alien movies
Digestive system signs include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, dysphagia, tongue abnormalities and a firm, nontender liver. Autopsies have revealed hemorrhage in liver, esophagus and stomach, with mucosal edema of the esophagus, stomach and intestines. Fatty changes and necrosis of the liver were present. Other organs found to be abnormal on autopsy include swollen gall bladder, congested kidneys and enlarged spleen.
Goddamn. I have a feeling some of them aren't done dying yet.
I don't wish anyone dead, really. But good, in a way. Leave the fucking turtles alone, we already make it hard enough for them. There's zero reason to kill and eat a bunch.
Edit: Well, I think there's zero reason. I have no clue what foods are available where they are or how plentiful they are. But since this is described as a "delicacy" I assume it's a luxury that could easily be skipped.
There are three known species of salt-water sea turtles that can cause this type of a death (chelonitoxism) - two of them are Vulnerable, one of them is Endangered.
🎶 Toxic marine threatened turtles, toxic marine threatened turtles, toxic marine threatened turtles. Revenge in a half shell, turtle chowder!🎶
Whenever something is described as a delicacy I see a bunch of rich cunts eating something that doesn't even taste good, but it's expensive so they must have it while looking down their noses at people eating a delicious fry up.
So yeah maybe read the article. Hint: it wasn't rich people, but indigenous people of Zanzibar. Apparently the dish is a delicacy to them but perhaps culturally significant. Especially if 3 year olds were consuming it (as fucking wild as that is), sounds like a cultural thing. I mean either way people shouldn't be eating turtles for a lot of reasons, hopefully the Tanzinian government could assist with some education on the subject I dunno.
This is tragic.
While the Wikipedia page lists food poisonings from sea turtles as rare, it still feels like a Russian Roulette kind of meal.
Would you eat something knowing that there is a nonzero chance it might kill you (as in really off you, not just give you a bad night at the bathroom)?
I suppose the answer is a lot of people would, since the article itself mentioned another recent poisoning.
It reminds me of the blowfish which is also lethally poisonous if not handled by someone who's certified to do so.
I suppose everything in life has a risk and I've done my share of reckless things, but rolling the dice on food never appealed to me.
Edit: fixed grammar
Yea a while ago 20 people died at a wedding in Mada after being served Turtle. Hawksbill or Green, not sure. I should find the news article but I'm too lazy and it's late. Hawksbill is supposed to never be edible. Over here in Mayotte there are still poachers
I think we're just kind of bad at evaluating risks of a relatively low order. In the US, E coli kills some 3000 people a year, and most of us have exposure to that risk. It might just be that people don't see much of a difference between chances in the range of, say, 0.1% and 0.00001% of serious illness.
I wouldn't eat something that could kill me, but I def will ingest something like that. But hey that's just me.
Cowabunga! That’s one sick turtle 😎
Turtle Power!
Darwin smiles down on us
This is the best summary I could come up with:
ZANZIBAR, Tanzania — Eight children and an adult died and 78 other people were hospitalized after eating sea turtle meat on Pemba Island in the Zanzibar archipelago, authorities said Saturday.
Sea turtle meat is considered a delicacy by Zanzibar’s people even though it periodically results in deaths from chelonitoxism, a type of food poisoning.
The adult who died late Friday was the mother of one of the children who succumbed earlier, said the Mkoani District medical officer, Dr. Haji Bakari.
Bakari told The Associated Press that laboratory tests had confirmed all the victims had eaten sea turtle meat.
Authorities in Zanzibar, which is a semi-autonomous region of the East African nation of Tanzania, sent a disaster management team led by Hamza Hassan Juma, who urged people to avoid consuming sea turtles.
In November 2021, seven people, including a 3-year-old, died on Pemba after eating turtle meat, while three others were hospitalized.
The original article contains 159 words, the summary contains 151 words. Saved 5%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
A lesson to a bunch of dumb tourists.
Eight children and an adult died
It's a traditional island thing, what are you talking about?
How did you learn they were tourists? Is there a better article?
Eight children and an adult died
I wonder if this is a case of the illness being lethal or the hospitals being bad.
it is lethal, yet people keep eating them
If only there was an article you could read about this incident that would answer your question...
I did read the article. In the west with modern healthcare we routinely survive things that would have killed someone with worse healthcare. The article doesn't discuss that. It just states that people died and what illness killed them.
