Just read this article and I must comment upon it. But first an excerpt
Dolphins appear to get high off pufferfish defense chemicals.
According to The Smithsonian, pufferfish produce a potent defensive chemical, which they eject when threatened. In small enough doses, however, the toxin seems to induce “a trance-like state” in dolphins that come into contact with it.
In the documentary, the dolphins gently played with the pufferfish, passing it between one another (puff, puff, pass, anyone?) which was in direct contradiction to what they did with other fish, which they immediately tore apart.
In a hilarious development, the dolphins were also filmed floating just underneath the water’s surface, mesmerised by their own reflections. Just like we do in club toilets at 2am!
Young or adolescent dolphins handle the pufferfish carefully in their mouths, taking turns and passing the fish among members of the pod. After interacting with the fish, dolphins have been observed acting “blissed out” or floating sluggishly near the water’s surface. Because the dolphins do not eat the fish and handle it with precise restraint, marine biologists suspect this is a deliberate form of recreational intoxication.
Pufferfish release this powerful nerve poison Tetrodotoxin (TTX) when threatened. While large amounts of TTX are rapidly fatal to marine life and humans, tiny, sub-lethal amounts appear to act as a narcotic or intoxicant. Surprisingly, the pufferfish usually survive these encounters and swim away unharmed once the pod loses interest. So basically a Pufferfish is an everlasting gobstopper Thai Stick that you can pass around ad infinitum.
So it turns out that these little scamps of the sea are indeed party animals. If I was a merman I would be all in with these dudes. They sound like the room mates that I had back in college. Our activities were slightly different in that we would enclose each other in these huge garbage bags and blow bong hits into the opening. Not unlike the dolphins, we’d also sit and stare at our stoned ass faces in the mirror, mesmerized by our own reflections.
