It is considered an invasive species in the Mediterranean Sea, where it was first recorded off the Spanish coast in 1981 after entry via the strait of Gibraltar. It invaded the western basin in following decades, and now reaches eastward the Adriatic Sea, the Aegean Sea and Levantine waters. In 2026 Greece offered a bounty of €5.33 per kilogram in a programme to protect the marine ecosystem.
The fish is edible by humans, and is commonly eaten in Japan, where it is referred to as yorito fugu. Its liver contains dangerous levels of tetrodotoxin, a lethal poison, though less than other species of pufferfish also prepared and eaten, with great care to exclude the liver, as fugu.
Article text: Wikipedia contributors, Blunthead puffer (source revision). Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Retrieved 2026-10-11.
