The drug was detected in their muscle tissue and liver, along with benzoylecgonine, the main metabolite of cocaine.
Researchers don’t know exactly how the sharks were exposed to the drug, but they suspect that traces of cocaine may have been discharged into coastal areas through raw sewage in rivers and city canals.
Another potential source of exposure, scientists say, are packets of cocaine that float in the water, undetected by drug smugglers and authorities, but pose a danger if a shark bites them.
The same was true for another apex predator. Cocaine BearA 500-pound black bear was found in Georgia with a cocaine overdose, likely thrown from a drug smuggler’s plane. The bear’s skeletal remains were discovered by drug agents in 1985. Roughly translated A 2023 horror movie features a bear running wild. (Actually, authorities say the bear Possible overdose Quickly.)
The researchers said this was the first time cocaine had been detected in a wild shark and that their discovery “suggests the potential impact of the presence of illicit drugs in the environment”.
Researchers are concerned that cocaine could re-enter the food chain, as sharks are targeted by fisheries. Their meat.
previous Research suggests Illegal drugs and legal pharmaceuticals have been found accumulating in waters around the world, including in the state of São Paulo, where scientists say cocaine contamination poses an ecological threat to marine life such as mussels and oysters.
Researchers had previously found levels of cocaine in ocean waters around Sao Paulo, Brazil’s most populous city, similar to the amount of caffeine in coffee and tea, concentrations they described as “very high.” State I’m drinking water.
In 2019, British researchers Freshwater shrimp They were exposed to cocaine and other pharmaceutical drugs in the country’s rivers.
Global cocaine consumption has risen sharply in recent decades. united nationsBrazilians are among the largest consumers of the drug. south americaAccording to the study authors.
The Brazilian researchers chose to study flatfish sharks because of their small size and the fact that they live in areas heavily polluted by sewage, making them “environmental sentinels.”
The researchers found that cocaine concentrations in muscle were three times higher than in liver, and female sharks had higher concentrations of cocaine in muscle tissue compared to males. The amounts of cocaine and benzoylecgonine found in the sharks “exceeded by up to two orders of magnitude the concentrations reported in the literature for fish and other aquatic organisms.”
