In ancient times, sailors were struggling with hunger, as if various diseases and vitamin deficiency were not enough in open waters. But why didn’t they fix this problem by fishing in the big ocean?
Sailors wrote about their epic voyages that took months or even years to make great discoveries. in the logbooks They also addressed this issue.
They actually had a lot of seafood entangled in their nets, but not all of them. They had to throw it back.
The crew would not eat the different fish caught in their nets.
Thanks to their experience, “If my father came out of the sea, I would eat” They knew how dangerous the thought was. They had witnessed that if different fish were eaten, dozens of deaths could occur in the crew.
They tested whether the fish they caught were edible by various methods.
Known for being religious spanish sailors, They would first dip the fish they caught in holy water and then put a silver cross or silver coin on them. If the silver tarnished, the fish could be determined to be poisonous.
Other sailors hung on the fish they put on the deck. fly and insect they were leaving. If flies and insects did not land on the fish, this meant that the fish were poisonous.
In fact, it was not known exactly why those who died from eating fish died until the 19th century.
The oldest source of deaths after eating fish is 7th century BC stretches up. Imperial healers in ancient China knew that fish were the cause of death, but it could not be proven that fish were poisonous.
In 1886, a Cuban doctor, In his research after a fatal case, he detected the poison in fish. He saw that the poison was contained in the tissues and muscles of the fish.
The poison is actually in plankton an item found. Although the fish eat these plankton, they are not badly affected, the poisonous substance is stored in the fish’s body, and the poison rate increases as the fish grows. This toxin does not disappear no matter how long the fish is cooked.
An hour after the toxin enters the human body, complaints of headache and stomachache increase. Diarrhea and vomiting occur as the body tries to fight the poison. If the situation worsens in the heart and respiratory system there are serious problems. It can even cause death if not treated promptly.
Poisonous seafood wasn’t the main reason the sailors suffered from starvation.
It is very difficult to find life in some parts of the ocean and sailors often had to continue their voyages from there. These areas are concentrated in the center of tropical climates. Here the westerly winds and the easterly winds collide and change places. Therefore, since loops occur here the winds are not strong. The sailors used to move very slowly because of these weak winds. and in these areas their supplies were running out.
This calmness also affects aquatic organisms.
Creatures living in these areas oligotrophic is in the group. Because important elements such as hydrogen and phosphorus are not found in the upper layer of the ocean, they only come from the deep. This means less lively life.
When we examine the maps of the explorers, we can see that most of the ships passed through these points in the oceans.
In these regions it is a desert from the sea they were in the middle.
Also, simply eating fish could have badly affected sailors. Eating a protein-only diet It damages the kidneys, and if other necessary vitamins and minerals are not taken for a long time, it can even cause death.
Sources: 1, 2