Some of our Favorite Facts about Pufferfish

• Fugu (pufferfish) is a fish which contains deadly poison in its organs. Despite the risk of poisoning, fugu dishes are special feasts in Japan. Even the milt is considered a great delicacy.
• It's said that the most poisonous fugu, "Tora-fugu", is the most delicious.
• Mitsugora Bando VIII, a famous Kabuki actor and Japanese national treasure, died from eating fugu in 1975.
• The kanji (Chinese characters) used to write fugu indicates "river pig."
• Fugu is also consumed as an aphrodisiac, made by mixing a teaspoonful of its testes with hot sake.
• A puffer fish's toxin is 1250 times deadlier than cyanide.
• One Japanese cook describes death by fugu poisoning as follows: "It's a terrible death. Although you can think clearly, you cannot speak or move and soon cannot breathe."
• In western Japan, fugu is called "fuku", which means "to blow" or "happiness".
• Ancient Egyptians used one species of puffer fish as a ball in an primitive game of bowls.
• Pufferfish have smaller sized genomes compared to other vertebrates. As a result their genomes can be used as "mini" models for vertebrates.
• The puffer fish genomes have a higher proportion of genes and a lower proportion of "junk DNA" than most other vertebrates.