Six fishermen die from mysterious illness at sea

[webfact]

Six fishermen died mysteriously at sea



RANONG: -- Six fishermen, one Thai and five Cambodians, have died from mysterious sickness, while they were on board two trawlers fishing in high sea near the Indian Ocean.

Twenty others were also sick and were rushed to Ranong provincial hospital soon after two fishing boats arrived on shore in Ranong last night.

According to deputy governor of Ranong province Mr Thongchai Charoenpanichkul today, the Ranong Port-in Port-out Control Centre received urgent radio message from two Thai trawlers that six crew members have died and about 20 were also sick while they were fishing in the Indian Ocean since December 26.

As soon as authorities were alerted, public health officials and charity foundation workers were placed on standby to receive the patients at Sodsai pier in Tambon Pak Nam of Muang Ranong district.

The boats arrived last night at the pier with bodies of six fishermen frozen inside the cold storage chamber of a boat.

Twenty-two others, mostly Cambodians, were admitted to Ranong provincial hospital.

Ranong public health doctor Chaiporn Suchartsunthorn said primary examination of the patients showed they suffered from acute shortage of Vitamin B that resulted in the collapse of the nervous system.

Of the 22 patients sent to hospital, four were admitted, two seriously. The rest were treated and allowed to return homes.

Of the six deaths, one was a Thai and the rest were Cambodians.

The exact cause of deaths of the six crews are pending autopsy.

Questionings of the skippers and the other crews revealed that both trawlers belong to operators in Samut Prakarn province.

The two boats set sail to the sea and fished in the Indian Ocean since December 26.

While fishing in the sea, the crews began to fall sick one after another and some have died. The skippers then kept their bodies in the cold storage chamber and started to return to shore.

Another crew died one day before the boats arrived on shore, they said.

One Thai crew said before they fell sick, one crew had managed to catch a black bird and cooked it as food to feed others.

He said the skipper had earlier warned his crew not to catch any night bird coming and perching on the boat to cook as the bird came to rest. If any crew catch and cook it will bring bad luck to the boat, either be ship wreck or sickness.

He said a day after eating the bird, the crews fell sick one after another, and six have succumbed to the mysterious sickness.

-- Thai PBS 2016-01-14

[jabis]

So which is it - lack of vitamin B or serious food poisoning from mysterious black bird?

RIP the fishermen.

[puukao]

I don't think it's mysterious.. The exact cause of deaths of the six crews are pending autopsy....

we just need to wait...

[NextStationBangkok]

Better stop eating seafood to save the lives of the migrant workers abuse in the ocean!

[Somtamnication]

Those darn Burmese fishermen did it!

[trogers]

The hooded Pitohui of New Guinea...poisonous to consume.

[Cynical Sailor]

If they didn't die of scurvy they aren't real mariners. [emoji572]️

[grumpyoldman]

They have to catch birds to eat? Wow, thats some horrific slave labor conditions......

[Thian]

They have to catch birds to eat? Wow, thats some horrific slave labor conditions......

Why don't they eat fish? Is that too expensive to feed to the crew?

[condo bought]

If there's anything I'm glad I'm not, it's a SEA fisherman slave.

an absolutely horrid existence.

RIP

[casualbiker]

Vitamin B or vitamin C deficit.. C is scurvy an old complaint.. These guys must have been out in the open seas for months with extremely poor diet to get scurvy!

[casualbiker]

They have to catch birds to eat? Wow, thats some horrific slave labor conditions......

Why don't they eat fish? Is that too expensive to feed to the crew?

a possible guess is variety of diet

[Reigntax]

Maybe black bird magic?

[jaywalker]

The hooded Pitohui of New Guinea...poisonous to consume.

Toxin

This species and its two close relatives, the variable pitohui and the rusty pitohui, were the first documented poisonous birds other than the poisonous common quail that cause coturnism. A neurotoxin called homobatrachotoxin, found in the birds' skin and feathers, causes numbness and tingling in those touching the bird.^[2][3]

The hooded pitohui may acquire its poison from part of its diet, the Choresine beetles of the Melyridae family.^[4] These beetles are also a likely source of the lethal batrachotoxins found in Colombia's poison dart frogs.^[5][6]

^{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hooded_pitohui}

[steven100]

I would guess it's food poisoning .... but not from the bird .. how would one bird feed 26 men ?

It's something the chef cooked that was rotten imo.

[luk AJ]

5 died and 20 sick from eating black bird? According to my calculations based on average black bird consumption among fishermen, this bird must have had a wing span of 2 meter and a weight of approx. 5kg!

[loonytune]

"The black pitohui (Melanorectes nigrescens) is a species of bird in the Pachycephalidae family. It is found in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests." from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_pitohui

best picture of pitohui but probably not a black from http://pitohui.com/ note it is being held when it is supposed to poisonous. seems only black pitohui get to indonesia other are just new guinea

"The skin and feathers of some pitohuis, especially the variable and hooded pitohuis, contain powerful neurotoxic alkaloids of the batrachotoxin group (also secreted by the Colombian poison dart frogs, genus Phyllobates). These are believed to serve the birds as a chemical defence, either against ectoparasites or against visually guided predators such as snakes, raptors or humans.[1] The birds probably do not produce batrachotoxin themselves. The toxins most likely come from the beetle genus Choresine, part of the birds' diets.[2] Due to their toxicity, Papua New Guineans call the pitohuis rubbish birds as they are not good for eating; in desperate times, though, they can be consumed but only after the feathers and skin are removed and the flesh is coated in charcoal and then roasted. (Piper, 2007)" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitohui

a picture of "the beetle genus Choresine" from Melyrid beetles (Choresine): A putative source for the batrachotoxin alkaloids found in poison-dart frogs and toxic passerine birds

Edited January 14, 2016 by loonytune

[SOTIRIOS]

...hope it wasn't someone trying to 'cut expenses'.....

..from all those horror stories of slavery abuse and murder....who knows....

[steven100]

and that gigantic bird fed 26 grown men wonder who got a drum stick !

Edited January 14, 2016 by steven100

[Basil B]

Wonder if it was one Thai died... five Cambodians murdered on the way back to port to hide the fact they were slaves???

[ozyjon]

[monk213]

They have to catch birds to eat? Wow, thats some horrific slave labor conditions......

That is horrific but also think about it, they are at sea and the are meant to be catching fish as a living... yet to eat they have to catch birds

[loonytune]

and that gigantic bird fed 26 grown men wonder who got a drum stick !

it was part of a bulk soup or curry. is that too hard for you to figure?

[Krataiboy]

Bird flew.

[ldiablo]

RIP to the slaves, I mean the dead. It's plainly obvious that not much has really changed in this industry if these poor fellows had to resort to catching a bird in order to eat, on a fishing boat in an ocean full of fish.

[NickJ]

It's the old Pirate Curse of the Blackbird Stew...........

[mrfill]

5 died and 20 sick from eating black bird? According to my calculations based on average black bird consumption among fishermen, this bird must have had a wing span of 2 meter and a weight of approx. 5kg!

I read in a book once of a chap in the Middle East who fed 5000 people with just 2 loaves and 5 fishes. Feeding 20 odd with one bird should be a doddle.

[lostinisaan]

Without reading the article, I already know what happened to these poor souls. They committed suicide, jumped from balconies and hang themselves.

Case solved.

Edited January 14, 2016 by lostinisaan

[lostinisaan]

5 died and 20 sick from eating black bird? According to my calculations based on average black bird consumption among fishermen, this bird must have had a wing span of 2 meter and a weight of approx. 5kg!

I read in a book once of a chap in the Middle East who fed 5000 people with just 2 loaves and 5 fishes. Feeding 20 odd with one bird should be a doddle.

But this bloke could walk on the water and had a virgin mother. Can't beat that.

[chickenslegs]

They should have listened to their Skipper.

... the skipper had earlier warned his crew not to catch any night bird coming and perching on the boat to cook as the bird came to rest. If any crew catch and cook it will bring bad luck to the boat, either be ship wreck or sickness.