A venomous weever fish that can stab human fingers with his dorsal spines before injecting a fast-acting poison left a fisherman hospitalised when he tried to remove the fish from his line after hooking it in the Baltic Sea in Germany.
The 37-year-old fisherman who was on a boat at the time had to be hospitalised after the German Maritime Search and Rescue Service (DGzRS) was alerted that he was poisoned by a weever at 12.15 pm on Monday, 14th June 2021.
The fishermen, who has not been named by local media, was enjoying his fishing trip near the island of Fehmarn in the Baltic Sea located near the eastern coast of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein when he was poisoned by the weever he had just caught as he tried to loosen it from his hook.
As soon as the captain of the deep-sea fishing cutter “Tanja” was informed of the incident the voluntary sea rescuers employed the Heiligenhafen lifeboat rushed to the man at a speed of 18 knots (around 20.5 miles per hour).
The voluntary sea rescuers from the Heiligenhafen coastguard station brought the fisherman who needed immediate medical attention ashore and he was hospitalised.
According to tot the DGzRS a weever sting can cause severe pain and swelling and it can even lead to circulatory collapse, anaphylactic shocks and cardiac arrest in rare cases.
The small, sand-coloured fish which are also called dragon fish bury themselves in the sand and can easily embed their dorsal fin into a person’s skin. They then inject a venom that causes excruciating pain to victims.
They are particularly widespread in the Black Sea, the Mediterranean Sea and on the Atlantic coast, whilst their populations have been rapidly increased in the North Sea and Baltic Sea.
The weever fish are considered to be the only poisonous fish in northern European waters and one of the most poisonous animals on the continent.
Cases of people dying from it are however rare with the only recorded case in the UK happening in 1933, when a fisherman in Dungeness we stung several times.
The poisonous weever that stung the fisherman in the Baltic Sea in Germany. 
An illustrative image of how the poisonous weever stung the fisherman in the Baltic Sea in Germany.
The University Hospital in the city of Bonn in Germany appealed that fishermen wear gloves in order to avoid weever consequences and in case of an injury advised them to treat the wounds with hot water at a maximum of 45 Centigrade until they can be treated by a doctor.
There is no further info on the man’s condition.
To find out more about the author, editor or agency that supplied this story – please click below.
Story By: Georgina Jadikovska, Sub-Editor: James King, Agency: Newsflash
The Ananova page is created by and dedicated to professional, independent freelance journalists. It is a place for us to showcase our work. When our news is sold to our media partners, we will include the link here.
