I found this on a beach on the East Cape of Cabo San Lucas.These fish inflate to discourage predators (and how!). They have no pelvis and few ribs, allowing them to inflate and become spherical without breaking bones. Their skin contains an abundance of collagen fibers that allow it to expand 30 to 40%.

From National Geographic:

…Toxicity A predator that manages to snag a puffer before it inflates won’t feel lucky for long. Almost all pufferfish contain tetrodotoxin, a substance that makes them foul tasting and often lethal to fish. To humans, tetrodotoxin is deadly, up to 1,200 times more poisonous than cyanide. There is enough toxin in one pufferfish to kill 30 adult humans, and there is no known antidote.

As Food: Amazingly, the meat of some pufferfish is considered a delicacy. Called fugu in Japan, it is extremely expensive and only prepared by trained, licensed chefs who know that one bad cut means almost certain death for a customer. In fact, many such deaths occur annually.…

I have it hanging in my shop. Kids love it.

In 1955, it rained steadily for a week, and the San Lorenzo River broke through the levees and flooded downtown Santa Cruz. Pacific Avenue was 6 feet underwater, and all the bridges washed out. My roommate, George Kovalenko and I put in our surfboards up by the Pasatiempo golf course and went flying down the river. There were refrigerators and cars and parts of houses bobbing along. We got down to the river mouth, and the cops were going to arrest us. For what, I know not, possibly stupidity, but they got diverted and we slipped away.

Pic taken of me by George with my Baby Brownie camera.

Jim Fisher, a powerful swimmer, was on the Lowell High School (San Francisco) swim team in the early 1950s. The first time I ever went swimming in the ocean was when Jim and I went across the Great Highway from Fleishhacker Pool after a swimming meet, and went body surfing. It changed my life — the blue sky, the blue water, the waves…

After graduation, Jim went to Hawaii and, along with other haole California surfers, surfed the biggest waves they could find. I realize that this photo is blurred and scratchy, but It’s one of my favorite surf shots. There’s just something about it that grabs you. Jim said he almost drowned on the wipeout that ensued.