Lurking in the Bay of Biscay, the Mediterranean and even Great Britain is a species of sea bream that you wouldn’t want to be served with chips. Known in Arabic as “the fish that makes dreams”, the Salema Porgy can give anyone who eats it a hyper-intense hallucinogenic trip.
Like magic mushrooms, the fish were once used as a recreational drug by the Roman Empire – but we wouldn’t recommend trying this at home.
In 1994, a man had his French Riveria trip ruined after eating one of these.
For 36 hours, he suffered muscle weakness, vomiting and had visions of screaming animals.
Researchers suspect that this species of fish ingests particular algae or phytoplankton which renders it ichthyoallyeinotoxic – a word which means “hallucinogenic fish inebriation”.
