The Puffer Forum

Hello All

I was just wondering if there's a Puffer Fish Documentry available anywhere, maybe by the discovery channel or some nature program you may've seen?

Preferably I'd like to see one on the life cycle of Mbu's

I think I might email Sir David Attenborough and tell him to get on it

puffertt77 wrote:Hello All

I was just wondering if there's a Puffer Fish Documentry available anywhere, maybe by the discovery channel or some nature program you may've seen?

Preferably I'd like to see one on the life cycle of Mbu's

I think I might email Sir David Attenborough and tell him to get on it

I decide to actually email the BBC's Nature and Science Department and ask them if they could produce a documentry/seires on Puffer Fish

I just thought why not at the end of the program it always say's 'if you have any questions etc get in touch, so you never know they might do something about it

Here's my email:-

Hello

Sir David Attenborough has covered almost every animal on the planet but I have found one that he hasn't yet and I think it would be so fantastic if he did.

The Animal is the Puffer Fish, there are so many Puffer Fish out there ranging from freshwater to brackish water to marine/sea water.

If Sir David could cover the life cycle of the biggest freshwater Puffer called the Mbu (Tetraodontidae) which lives in the rivers in Africa: Congo Basin, Lake Tanganyika that would be great! There's so little known about these puffers lifestyles in the wild and there's no documentries out there about them either so this would be a first and really go down well with nature lovers!

You could also cover people keeping them as pets, the Mbu is know to be one of the most tame and friendly of the puffers and learns to reconise their owner and actually beg for food.

If you want more information on Puffers or you want to see just how obsessed Puffer owners are about their Puffers please visit this website http://www.thepufferforum.com You'll see that this is the only forum about them on the net to so someone really needs to make some programs about them

You could also explain the 2 families of puffers as one is The Tetraodontidae family which have 4 teeth, 2 at the top fused together and 2 at the bottom fused together, most puffers come from this family. The other is the Diodontidae family which has 2 plates in it's mouth to chew and bite, The Porcupine Puffer (Diodon holocanthus) and Burrfish come from this family.

There's so many you could have a whole series on them:-

From Freshwater
The Mbu (Tetraodon), The South American Puffer (Colomesus asellus) and The Congo Puffer (Tetraodon miurus)

From Brackish Water
The Green Spotted Puffer (Tetraodon nigroviridis) and The Figure Eight Puffer (Tetraodon biocellatus)

From Sea Water/Marine
The Porcupine Puffer (Diodon holocanthus), The Stars and Stripes Puffer (Arothron hispidus) and The Papuan Toby (Canthigaster papua)

Like I said before you could cover their lifesyles, eating habbits, breading etc

It'd be great if you could do a whole program for each kind of puffer or if that's not possible then at least say a 1 hour special on Freshwater Puffers, a 1 hour special on Brakish water Puffers and a 1 hour special on Sea water/marine Puffers.

You covered the Salmon in your last 1 hr program that was on the other night and the footage was exellent, so something like that would be great!

Please consider this as it would be amazing to watch!

And if it's possible please reply to me with your thought's on this idea

Thanks in advance

Tony Thornett

Fingers crossed they actually do it

I was asked about 2 years ago to host a documentary on pufferfish, although, it ws supposed to be more on the porc & some on the fugu. Here is the letter sent to me:

My name is Terry Spring, a writer for JumpCut Productions Inc. We are a small, independent film company in Vancouver, Canada, that specializes in wildlife documentaries. I had developed an idea for a documentary on puffers about 3 years ago, but we were forced to shelve it at the time. I personally kept a Porcupine Puffer myself - and was totally enthralled with him until one day he unfortunately died while I was out of town.

In any case, because puffers are such interesting animals, we are now looking at reviving the project and seeking a program host as part of the story arc. We have been checking out a few people, but when I saw the picture of you (and Lulu) on your Harley - I thought YES! there was someone who was perhaps 'colorful' and yet 'intelligent' enough to host our one-hour program; someone with a very broad interest in puffers who could conceivably be interested in traveling the world on a journey of discovery about them. ( not all at once of course )

Our program would follow a basic survey approach, beginning with the host and their 'interest' in puffers, and then we would follow the host on a dive trip to somewhere like malaysia or bahamas where we would explore puffer natural history and get a general overview of the diversity of the species (both puffer & porcupinefish). There we would witness a capture event for the aquarium industry which would lead us to Quality Marine Distributors in Los Angeles, and an exploration of the Aquarium Trade and the popularity of the 'aquadog' as a pet, including interviews with various puffer owners.

That segment would be followed by a brief stint in Cambridge, England where we would check out how puffers helped map the human genome. We would then continue to Vancouver, Canada where a leading biotech company is utilizing puffer tetradotoxin to create a new pain therapy drug for people dying of cancer. (probably preceded by a lead-in on the zombie thing), which would also take us to Naning, China where pufferfish are commercially fished and WEX has their processing plant. Finally, our journey of discovery would end up in Kyushu, Japan where we would explore the Japanese obsession with fugu, how they are farmed, the training of sushi chefs, why people eat it, etc. Our program is entitled, FINDING FUGU. (after 'finding nemo')

Our epilogue would probably take place back in the Bahamas or Malaysia with some thoughts on the Pufferfish and why such an unusual and poisonous animal has attracted such attention from humans, and a perhaps a statement about their future relationship with people.

You seem to have the potential to host this program, and I feel your story would form a compelling framework for this movie. My question is - would you be interested in exploring this further? This could be a great opportunity for you to spread the Puffer gospel. You could also document your adventures in making the film on your website, through your forum. Our last two films aired in 52 countries.

If you are interested, could you provide my producer with your contact details ( such as a telephone number), so that he could chat with you about it? Of course we would like to see how you come across on film and would have to see a short 5 minute video of you in action; acting naturally on camera - perhaps telling us how you developed your interest in pufferfish and showing us your aquariums etc. (loved your story about how your mom used to put you in a laundry basket in front of your dad's tanks as a kid to keep you quiet. LOL) We do want to inject some humour into the movie, and it looks like you have a good sense of humor indeed.

I have already done MEGA research on Puffers and we are preparing this pitch for several big broadcasters including National Geo, Discovery, etc. with whom we are meeting at the Banff World Television Festival June 10 - 14. If you don't feel this is right for you, or don't want to set yourself up for possible rejection (if my producer thinks you're not right for the part), then - with all your contacts - perhaps you know of someone who might be good for this role that we could approach???

Looking forward to hearing from you with a contact number and time to call.

I was going on a dive trip in a week or 2 after that & had a rreally cool 5 minute screen test made on the trip, along with about 3 minutes of me diving with large porcpuffs. They took it to the top 2 broadcasters & they loved it! I was told that they would get funding by the end of the summer (of 07) & we'd start filming in the fall. Didn't hear from them again, even though I sent them countless emails. I finally decided to call the Director & head cinimatographer & he said it was still in the works but they were looking for something more (like the format wasn't enough?), like... some guy, surrounded by his puffer tanks & he lived in a castle. Well, I offered up the idea of trying to find famous people & movie stars who kept puffers for me to interview, but again--no contact. This is still listed in their future projects list:
http://soudeh.com/clients/jump/web.html

So if your Sir David Attenborough is looking for a colorful host...

Very interesting................................................hmm.......................................interesting...............................

Oh my god that would've been sooo cool

I emailed it to the BBC to see what they'd say