Sharks in Brazil test positive for cocaine as drugs dumped into ecosystem

Sharks in Brazil are now testing positive for cocaine as the drugs are being dumped into their ecosystem.

Drug smugglers have been known to get creative when it comes to trying to evade law enforcement, using bananas and other produce to illicitly ship them around the world. Buoys have even been utilised to keep afloat three tonnes worth of cocaine bricks in the ocean.

But, it seems the latter is now having an effect on the animals that inhabit the sea after 13 wild Brazilian sharpnose sharks tested all had cocaine found in their bodies.

Tonnes of cocaine have been found in seas around Florida and South and Central America, leading researchers to fear that it could be polluting the environment and impacting wildlife in those areas.

Now, a worrying study conducted by the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in Brazil has found their hypothesis to be correct.

Experts dissected 13 wild Brazilian sharpnose sharks obtained from coastal waters near Rio de Janeiro and tested their muscle and liver tissue for cocaine and benzoylecgonine – a key metabolite in the substance.

Not only did all the sharks test positive for cocaine, but the concentrations were up to 100 times higher than had been previously reported in other aquatic life.

Due to the Brazilian sharpnose shark species spending their whole lives in coastal waters, rather than further out to sea, they are most likely to be affected by pollution.

The study is the first of its kind to find cocaine present in wild sharks. However, experts say it is not yet fully understood how the presence of cocaine or benzoylecgonine might affect them as the field of research is “very limited”.

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