Quote:
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Originally Posted by BBC
Although researchers can only speculate that domoic acid caused this historic event, modern toxicologists have conclusively linked the toxin to more recent cases. In 1987 contaminated shellfish poisoned 100 people on Prince Edward Island in Canada, killing three and causing many cases of amnesia. In 1998, 400 disoriented sea lions died along California's central coast — domoic acid was traced back to contaminated fish that swam through a toxic bloom before being eaten by the sea lions.
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So... a seaborne poison that can cause amnesia, active in doses as low as what can be consumed in fish that swam through a tainted region.
Picture it: an island without memory. Hundreds of people, living off of the fish, clams, shrimp, and crabs, along with what they can sustainably gather of some seaweed, coconuts, and other plant foods. All of them, in various stages of memory fading out from months past, realizing that the same thing is happening on a regular basis to the entire population, keeping records and engaging in elaborate storytelling rituals to remind themselves who is related to who, and what the laws are.
And if a few outsiders should show up, and stay to observe for a couple of months, and partake of the diet, they find their memory fading too.
A whole society. Hundreds of people.
And one vegetarian.