Greece Installs First Floating Barrier Against Toxic Pufferfish
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- Chalkida, Greece installed the country's first floating barrier across the Gulf of Euboea to shield swimmers from toxic pufferfish; 2.5 km of netting is now deployed and an estimated 7 km more is being trucked in from Athens to cover surrounding bays.
- The Greek Red Cross issued an unprecedented public health warning in June urging emergency care for bites, warning that the pufferfish's tetrodotoxin has no known antidote and its 'beak-like jaws' can cause severe wounds and heavy bleeding.
- Athens announced a 'catch' program paying €5.33 (£4.57) per kilogram of pufferfish surrendered, alongside EU-funded fuel subsidies for fishers, initially rolling out in Crete and the southern Aegean; collected fish will be frozen and incinerated in government facilities.
- Cyprus, which launched its own eradication scheme in 2024, has removed more than 103 tonnes of silver-cheeked toadfish (Lagocephalus sceleratus) from its coastal waters under fisheries officer Katerina Georgiou's program.
- The Lagocephalus sceleratus entered the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal from the Red Sea, drawn north by warming sea temperatures, according to scientists cited in the report.
- University of the Aegean marine scientist Ioannis Batjakas called the public alarm 'much ado about nothing,' saying he has seen only one pufferfish in 15 years of diving, while a newly formed Initiative to Save Puffer Fish is already decrying the eradication campaign on ethical grounds.
Why it matters: Greece is now spending public money twice over on the same invasive species — paying for coastal netting infrastructure and a per-kilogram bounty backed by EU fuel subsidies — even as a marine scientist from the University of the Aegean argues human attacks are rare and a conservation club is already challenging the cull. The €5.33/kg rate and the 103-tonne Cyprus precedent suggest the financial incentive will need to scale significantly to dent the population, and the 7 km of barrier being trucked from Athens sets a new baseline for how Greek municipalities prepare for Mediterranean-warming-driven species arrivals.
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