Brazil Sharks Test Positive for Cocaine

Presence of the drug in wild sharks is verified for the first time
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 23, 2024 12:00 PM CDT
As It Turns Out, Cocaine Sharks Are Real
A small shark swims in shallow waters.   (Getty Images/estivillml)

Cocaine sharks really do exist, researchers have confirmed, a year after scientists probed the possibility in the "Shark Week" documentary Cocaine Sharks and filmmakers terrified audiences with a horror film of almost the same name. A group of Brazilian sharpnose sharks taken from the ocean near Rio de Janeiro were found to have high levels of cocaine in their muscles and livers, a likely consequence of drainage from illegal drug labs, according to a study published last week in the journal Science of the Total Environment. "The concentrations were as much as 100 times higher than previously reported for other aquatic creatures," the BBC reports.

Cocaine has previously turned up in "various forms of aquatic life, including mollusks, crustaceans, and bony fish," per Gizmodo. Brazilian sharpnose sharks, which live in coastal waters and reach up to 3 feet long, feed mostly on "small fish and squid," the outlet adds. Researchers dissected 13 sharks in all, finding cocaine in every one, including several pregnant females. Twelve of the 13 were also found to have benzoylecgonine, the major metabolite of cocaine, in their systems. The effects on the sharks and their offspring are largely unknown. However, experts believe sharks' eyesight would suffer, making them "less efficient hunters," per the Guardian.

"Considering the psychotropic effects of drugs of abuse on vertebrates, behavioral changes may occur, which, although sublethal, could impact the species' survival in ways that remain unexplored," researchers add, per Gizmodo. They believe the sharks came into contact with cocaine through drainage from illegal drug labs or the excrement of drug users which entered the ocean as untreated sewage. Bundles of cocaine lost or abandoned at sea are another, less-likely possibility, according to the study. Trace amounts of cocaine were found in sewage and surface waters in at least 37 countries between 2011 and 2017, showing the extent of the problem, Gizmodo reports. (More cocaine stories.)

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