Whole Foods Is Selling This Venomous Fish Now

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Shutterstock

Whole Foods is no stranger to ridiculous food items, like pre-peeled oranges. The newest bizarre food? Venomous fish, which went on sale Wednesday for $8.99 a pound.

You may recognize the Lion Fish as the flamboyant resident of only the coolest aquariums, as it’s more of a visual spectacle than a dinner item, given that those crazy spines contain venom. But, as reported by the Sun Sentinel, Whole Foods wants you to eat this thing, which it says will be prepared by specially trained staff that know exactly how to remove those spines. It’s on sale at Florida Whole Foods stores for $8.99 a pound until May 31, and will be $9.99 thereafter, which means you should totally get on that Lion Fish discount.

The spines employees are removing are kind of a big deal, as they can cause "extreme pain, sweating, respiratory distress, and even paralysis," according to the NOAA. But, luckily for Whole Foods' shoppers, once the spines are removed and the fish is placed on ice, the flesh of the Lion Fish is totally safe to eat. Otherwise, Whole Foods would have a pretty major lawsuit on its hands. Oh and apparently the fish tastes like snapper. Why not just eat snapper?

Well, actually, back in 2010 NOAA issued a campaign to encourage people to eat Lion Fish, which are abundant in the waters from North Carolina to South America and are destroying Florida's reef ecosystems. Basically, the non-native Lion Fish is eating all the other organisms, so humans need to eat it to balance things out. That’s one of the reasons this dangerous fish is now in Whole Foods’ seafood section.

Also, asking for a “half-pound of Lion Fish” sounds really fancy, which is most likely the real reason Whole Foods' shoppers will be buying it.

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Kara King is a News Writer at Thrillist and thinks she'll just stick to salmon. Send news tips to news@thrillist.com and follow her at @karatillie.