Does Shrub smoke? Give the man a ciguatera.

[Matthew X]

A MEAL of spanish mackerel turned a dream fishing trip into a 19-month 
nightmare of bizarre and painful illnesses, a family says.	
Miecha McLean, 15, her mother, Glenda, and father, Bruce, claim they became 
violently ill and had to be treated in hospital soon after eating the 
mackerel on a fishing trip around Queensland's Hervey Bay Marina.
Seven others who ate the fish, caught on the MV Princess 2 in January last 
year, also fell ill, according to documents tendered to the Supreme Court.
One victim, a young Canadian backpacker, was even blinded for a few days by 
her illness, Mr McLean - who is the Supreme Court's chief executive - told 
the Herald Sun.
Mr McLean claims he suffered 19 months of bizarre, unexplained illness 
including heart-attack-like symptoms, painful muscle spasms, "terrible 
aching all over", fluid retention and depression. He and his family are 
suing the Princess 2's skipper, Anthony David Nicholson.
The Kilsyth family claim Mr Nicholson should reasonably have suspected the 
big spanish mackerel could have caused ciguatera poisoning.
Mr McLean said ciguatera poisoning occurred in only about seven places in 
the world, but Hervey Bay was one of the most notorious.
He said toxic amounts of it were more likely to be found in big fish that 
fed on little fish who ate plankton off the reef.
Mr McLean said when he took his daughter to the hospital, soon after she 
ate the spanish mackerel in a Thai curry, she was drenched in sweat and her 
eyes were rolling back into her head.
"She was in a very, very bad way," he said.
"So was my wife - she was on the verge of collapsing. And then I copped it, 
and a short time later my brother-in-law became very, very ill.
"In the end, he was the worst of all of us.
"We were hallucinating, shaking. My daughter stopped breathing for a while.
"We didn't know what had hit us until the doctor asked whether we had eaten 
fish."
Mr McLean said his family had continued to suffer as a result of the 
neurotoxin still in their bodies.
He said he had lost about 10kg in weight and had become "pretty much a loner".