Human Interactions
The electric shock of the common torpedo can be severe, but is not life-threatening. In classical antiquity, the electrogenic properties of this species led it (and other strongly electric fishes) to be used in medicine for the treatment of pain and diseases such as gout. For example, the Roman physician Scribonius Largus, in his Compositiones medicae (c. 50 AD), recommended that chronic headaches be treated by the application of a live torpedo to the affected area. The common torpedo is edible, but is little-valued by commercial or artisanal fisheries and is mostly discarded when caught. Because of its shallow-water habits, it may survive being captured and discarded relatively well. It is susceptible to several types of demersal fishing gear, including bottom trawls and trammel nets; fishing activity is heavy within its range but no specific data regarding this species are available. As a result, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has listed it under Data Deficient. The common torpedo has been kept in aquariums, but requires live fish for food.
Read more about this topic: Common Torpedo
Famous quotes containing the words human and/or interactions:
“As soon as we exceed average human goodness by even a single step, our actions arouse suspicion. Virtue stands steadily “in the middle.””
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“The exercise of power is determined by thousands of interactions between the world of the powerful and that of the powerless, all the more so because these worlds are never divided by a sharp line: everyone has a small part of himself in both.”
—Václav Havel (b. 1936)