February 9, 2017 — When you think of what can hurt you in the ocean, chances are sharks come to mind. But a more likely threat to your health is something that you can’t see: tiny toxins found on algae called ciguatoxins.
Researchers are Florida Gulf Coast University in Estero have been taking a close look at ciguatoxins, which can make you sick, and in rare cases be deadly.
FGCU Marine Science professor Dr. Michael Parsons tells 4 In Your Corner he’s done a theoretical calculation to give an idea of just how toxic we’re talking. “If you had purified ciguatoxin, you would need, say, just 150 pounds of it to kill everybody on the planet,” says Parsons.