IERAPETRA, GREECE šC On his fishing boat moored in the Greek port of Ierapetra in southwestern Crete, Alexis Charlambakis pries open the mouth of a freshly caught puffer fish to reveal two massive teeth on each jaw.
¡°If one of these bites you, it will take your finger clean off,¡± the 43-year-old said. ¡°They are the destruction of the sea. They leave nothing behind.¡±
Proof of the damage is visible on a neighboring boat deck: a ray, a common sea bream and another fish netted that day lie half shredded.
Puffer fish, a warm-water invasive species, were first spotted in Greek waters some 20 years ago and are wreaking havoc with the country¡¯s fishing industry, a pillar of the nation¡¯s agricultural exports.
Off the coast of Crete, Greece¡¯s largest island, fishers are seeing their catch dwindle because of the silver-cheeked Lagocephalus sceleratus menace, which typically measures between 40 and 60 centimeters long.
¡°It¡¯s an omnivorous fish that eats everything it encounters,¡± said 65-year-old fisher Giannis Giankakis.
¡°Nothing seems to bother it, because it has no natural predators among other fish,¡± he added.
The puffer fish explosion in Greek waters is the latest example of how warming oceans are changing ecosystems and upturning their reliant economies.
Of the nearly 200 species of puffer fish living in the world¡¯s warm waters, three are currently found in the eastern Mediterranean Sea.
Scientists recorded them for the first time in Greece in June 2005, said Nota Peristeraki of the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR).
Present in the Red Sea and in the Indian and Pacific oceans, the silver-cheeked puffer fish entered the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal, according to French Cote d¡¯Azur University, which records non-native Mediterranean species.
Originally located near Crete and the Dodecanese islands, it has since spread to other areas, Peristeraki said.
In addition to their powerful toxin that makes them deadly to eat, these members of the Tetraodontidae family have a beak-like mouth strong enough to bite through wood and metal.
They not only ravage the fishers¡¯ daily catch, but leave their nets in tatters too.
¡°If this wasn¡¯t my boat, I¡¯d quit this profession for good,¡± Charlambakis said.
¡°The situation is dire ... we cannot survive,¡± he said.
After five days at sea, Charlambakis said his nets become useless and difficult to repair.
¡°It took me two days to fix these nets. I took them out this morning, another 20 holes,¡± he said.
Feasting on other fish, crustaceans and squid, puffer fish cause around 8,500 ($9,800) worth of damage and lost income per year per fishing boat, said Peristeraki, the HCMR marine biologist.
The predator also contains tetrodotoxin, ¡°an extremely dangerous toxin if ingested,¡± warns HCMR marine biologist Thekla Anastasiou.
¡°It causes heart failure and stops the lungs from functioning,¡± Anastasiou said.
¡°It is imperative to reduce their population,¡± Peristeraki said.
That¡¯s easier said than done, fishers say.
¡°The job gets worse every year,¡± said 53-year-old fisher Kostis Zevelekakis.
¡°The state isn¡¯t doing enough to help us deal with these fish. ... We can control their numbers if we¡¯re given the right framework to hunt them,¡± he added.
The World Wildlife Fund in April released a responsible seafood guide () with over a hundred species found on the Greek market.
Among them are 13 invasive species that were not on the previous guide in 2015.
The newcomers include the Atlantic shrimp (Penaeus aztecus) and blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) in the northern Aegean Sea, and the lionfish (Pterois miles) in waters further south.
The fishers want the state to subsidize them to hunt puffer fish, a program already running in neighboring Cyprus.
¡°They should give us an incentive to round them up,¡± said 25-year-old Babis Doriakis.
¡°I have taken on my father¡¯s fishing boat, but I won¡¯t be able to continue without assistance,¡± he said.
In February, then-deputy agriculture minister Christos Kellas told parliament that authorities were examining a support program for fishers.
Scientists in the meantime are trying to find ways to neutralize the fish¡¯s deadly toxin ¡ª which can cause paralysis, respiratory failure, and death ¡ª in order to make it marketable.
¡°At present, puffer fish are considered class 1 waste,¡± the equivalent of potentially threatening industrial waste, said chemist Manolis Mandalakis.
Under European Union rules, the appropriate way to treat this waste is incineration, he said.
¡°We are trying to find alternative ways ... that are less energy-consuming,¡± said Mandalakis.
Potential uses could include fertilizer or fish feed, he said.
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