Sharks On Cocaine: Recreational Narcotics Are Contaminating Ecosystems
The drug was found in all wild Brazilian sharpnose sharks tested, with a concentration as much as 100 times higher than previously reported for other aquatic creatures.
Β© by GrrlScientist for Forbes | LinkTr.ee
Sharks living in shallow coastal waters just off Brazil have surprised scientists by testing positive for cocaine.
Between 2011 and 2017, traces of cocaine were detected in sewage and surface waters from at least 37 countries. Further, cocaine was found in a variety of aquatic life, including mollusks, crustaceans, and bony fish. But until now, no studies had ever been conducted into whether sharks are affected.
This unsettling discovery was made after a team of researchers from the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in Brazil took a closer look at wild sharks for the first time ever. They bought thirteen Brazilian sharpnose sharks, Rhizoprionodon lalandii, from small fishing vessels operating near Rio de Janeiro. The species is relatively small, measuring almost three feet (0.9 meters) in length, and feeds mostly on small fish and squid.
The scientists focused on this particular shark for their studies of oceanic pollution because this species lives in coastal waters their entire lives and therefore was most likely to beβ¦
