The variety I catch all the time.
striped burrfish above, different family from true puffers.
btw, i’ve heard people in virginia/chesapeake eat northern puffers like chicken wings. they call them “blow toads” up there. http://www.pine3.info/Blow%20Toads.htm
so, even though they’re members of the true puffer family, after which tetrodotoxin was named, this species doesn’t produce it according to the FDA: “The Northern Puffer fish from the mid-Atlantic coastal waters of the United States, typically between Virginia and New York, has not been found to contain toxin, but without routine toxin screening there still is a potential risk.” http://www.fda.gov/Food/RecallsOutbreaksEmergencies/SafetyAlertsAdvisories/ucm085458.htm
old fishcrazy and i got into them bad one time while sheep fishing, i know we caught over 50 or 60. we joked the whole time about keeping a bunch and frying them… but just like a stingray, i haven’t gotten that hungry yet.
linked images from a google search for “fried blow toad”
I know people who go out and target blowtoads.
Oh yeah…the picture of the fried puffers above is hilarious.
We used to catch those northern puffers in fl unless it’s a different subspecies that looks similar. You can’t keep them there, it’s illegal. I wouldn’t ever eat one