Deadly fish on a British beach

THIS rare puffer fish, whose skin can be deadly to the touch, was found on a British beach. Holidaymaker Constance Morris found the dead specimen on Towan Beach in Newquay, Cornwall, on Saturday.

She said: “I was just looking out over the beach when I noticed some gulls having a peck at a fish. I record dead marine animals for the CWT’S Marine Strandings Network and couldn’t not go down.”

Matt Slater, of Cornwall Wildlife Trust, said: “It is Lagocephalus lagocephalus – the Atlantic oceanic puffer. They can produce toxic slime.”

The fish, usually found in tropical waters, can be up to 1,200 times as poisonous as cyanide.

SOME-FIN SINISTER Puffer fish on beach and, inset, Constance