SINGAPORE — An email warning people not to eat locally farmed fish and claiming that the recent mass fish deaths were caused by ciguatoxins — a group of marine biotoxins — is a hoax, said the Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) on its Facebook page today (March 9).
Stressing that locally farmed fish are safe for consumption, the AVA said: “Our laboratory tests on fish samples collected from affected fish farms show that no marine biotoxins were detected. Dead fish are also disposed of and not allowed for sale.”
Pointing out that ciguatoxins do not kill fish, the AVA also said that the algae that produces ciguatoxins has not been detected in water samples from Singapore’s fish farming areas. “Ciguatoxins are commonly associated with coral reef fish from tropical and subtropical water waters in the Pacific and Indian oceans as well as Caribbean Sea,” said the AVA.
The email, which was also circulating through SMS, claimed that plankton toxicity was killing the fishes, and gave “tips” on avoiding all shellfish and local fish, saying that the toxins would make consumers ill.
