Fish Id: A Guide To East Coast Fishes

Blowfish, Northern Puffer Sphoerides maculatus, Family:Tetrodontidae (Puffers)

Commonly known as Blowfish, swellfish, globefish, and 'sugar toads'. Covered in tiny, sandpaper spines. Olive green to brown above with yellow at midline, belly white to yellow. Puff up to 3 times normal size when on the defensive. 2 teeth in each jaw. Feeds on soft foods like bits of worm, small shrimp, etc. Found in shallow bay areas during summer, wintering in deeper waters. Fishing hot spots here have been throughout the clamstakes in Great Bay. Larger fish (6" or greater) can provide two nice fingerlength fillets of meat. This year I'll see if I can get some pics of how to clean puffers. Ranges: Western Atlantic: Newfoundland in Canada to northeastern Florida in USA.
Highly edible: These fish are marketed as "sea squab". Not to be confused with the banded and southern puffers, which are not edible.

Puffers

There are about 12 species that may be found on the East coast of the U.S.A. Of those, only the Nothern Puffer is considered edible for safety reasons.

We have only 3 Puffers in our online guide at this time: Burrfish - Northern - Smoothback

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