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15/06/2008: "BLUE SPOT"

On the weather side (ocean side) of Great Detached Reef we met this 10 kg trout that was completely fearless of us. Too remote a region to have been a feed-trained fish.

Some of these blue spot trout have ciguatera poisoning. It's not such a good idea to eat them anymore.

I wonder how many people in western Queensland got ill with ciguatera, went to a local GP for treatment and were mis-diagnosed? It would take a very skilled doctor to recognize the symptoms in the 1960's when professional spearmen and fishermen caught tons of this species at Saumarez Reef and throughout The Swains.

Not the nicest fish either, they will eat their own kind.

When you approach a wild one they may show teeth while finning slowly backwards away from you. Educated versions won't allow anyone to get close easily.