Oh it’s totally true. We eat the northern puffer in the coastal north east. And it’s in particular considered a delacacy on Long Island. It’s delicious and completely safe. These fish bioaccumulate the toxins from their diet. The algae coral or whatever (i don’t recall) that produces tetrodotoxin is far, far less common in colder waters, and Atlantic waters than in warmer or Pacific. Likewise different species accumulate it differently, at different levels, and in different tissues.
So the blow fish we eat here are pretty much non toxic. You don’t eat the skin, or innards (especially the liver and swim bladder). They won’t kill you, but they’re unpalatable and supposedly can make you a bit sick. But they can’t kill you, and you never hear about anyone being harmed.
You can also farm fugu with limited access to the dietary sources for the toxin to produce safe fish. But it’s apparently not popular because the tingly numbness from trace amounts of toxin in the flesh is a large part of why they’re considered worth eating.
