Sea cucumber is identical to sea urchin, eating it by mistake can be fatal
They look very similar, but eating sea urchins can be fatal because they contain the poison tetrodotoxin.
Sea urchins and sea horseshoe crabs both live in coastal areas, in bays, saltwater lagoons and estuaries. They have similar shapes and are therefore easily confused. Every year, the country records fatal poisoning cases due to eating sea urchin eggs.
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The crab and the sea urchin look quite similar, but crabs always come in pairs. |
The horseshoe crab (scientific name Tachypleus tridentatus) has a strange shape, a hard shell like a crab's shell, a round body, about a hand span in diameter (20 cm), with 8 small legs under its belly, swimming very slowly and crawling like a crab. The female horseshoe crab weighs about a kilogram, the male horseshoe crab is smaller, only half the weight of the female horseshoe crab. The characteristic of horseshoe crabs is that they always go in pairs.
The sea urchin (scientific name Carcinoscorpius rotunicauda) looks very similar to a horse horse, but is a poisonous species that can lead to death when eaten.
The difference is very easy to see that horseshoe crabs always go in pairs, while sea urchins are smaller than horseshoe crabs and only go alone.
According to the Food Safety Department, Ministry of Health, horseshoe crab eggs are delicious and nutritious food, but sea urchin eggs are very poisonous, and eating them will cause dangerous poisoning. The deadly poison in sea urchins is Tetrodotoxin, extremely toxic, similar to the toxin of puffer fish. Food poisoning cases caused by Tetrodotoxin are often very severe. This toxin affects the central nervous system, causing paralysis, stopping circulation and respiration, and the victim dies quickly.
This poison is rapidly absorbed through the digestive tract within 10-15 minutes, reaching peak blood concentrations after 20 minutes and symptoms of poisoning appear only a few hours after eating. The lethal dose for humans is 1-2 milligrams of Tetrodotoxin. The main causes of death are paralysis of respiratory muscles and hypotension.
To prevent poisoning, the Food Safety Department recommends that people absolutely do not eat sea urchins, including their eggs and meat.
