Deadly pufferfish with poison 1,000 times stronger than cyanide washes up on Dorset beach after storms blow it off course

A shocked freediver, Owen Booty, discovered the fully inflated, 17-inch carcass on the sand at Knoll Beach, Studland, after initially mistaking it for a buoy. Storms Austen and Boalo are thought to have carried the fish hundreds of miles from its usual tropical range. Even dead, the creature remains lethal — its natural toxins persist in organs and skin long after death.

The venom, called tetrodotoxin, kills if hidden spines pierce skin or the fish is poorly prepared and eaten.

Pufferfish are normally found in tropical and subtropical waters of the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.

Dorset Wildlife Trust confirmed the identification after Booty sent photographs for expert verification.