Sharks with cocaine in their blood found off Caribbean island | World | News
A new study by marine scientists has revealed that sharks swimming off a remote island in the Caribbean tested positive for painkillers, caffeine and even cocaine. The alarming results were obtained by a team from Brazil’s Federal University of Paraná working in the waters around the fascinating former British colonial territory of the Bahamas.
Currently King III. The islands over which Charles presides are known as a tropical paradise and the playground of the rich and famous. But worryingly, the pristine waters surrounding the archipelago appear to be showing signs of excess, which could be a dangerous indicator of man-made pollution.
Scientists working off Eleuthera Island in the Bahamas tested 85 sharks swimming in waters about four miles from shore. Incredibly, they discovered traces of caffeine and painkillers were found in nearly 30 animals, and some of the predators tested positive for multiple over-the-counter drugs. In one case, traces of cocaine were even seen in the system of a shark tested by the team.
The study, titled “Drugs in paradise: Caffeine, cocaine and painkillers detected in sharks in the Bahamas”, has now been published in The Guardian. Science Direct magazine.
Natascha Wosnick, a biologist at the Federal University of Paraná, said the waters where the sharks swim are close to fish farms and sewage outflow pipes where divers will work.
he told ScienceNews He believed the results were “mostly because people went there, urinated in the water, and dumped their sewage into the water.”
He added that sharks “bite things to investigate and end up exposed to substances,” but the high rate of results in the sample is concerning because “we’re talking about a very remote island in the Bahamas.”
The study reports that 28 sharks showed signs of substances including acetaminophen and diclofenac, the active ingredients of anti-inflammatory drugs.
The published report stated: “To our knowledge, this is the first report of caffeine and acetaminophen detected in any shark species worldwide and the first report of diclofenac and cocaine in sharks in the Bahamas.”
Scientists found that sharks with the substance in their blood showed different metabolic markers, with those exposed to caffeine showing greater movements and reactions, similar to the effect on humans.
“What makes this study remarkable is not only the detection of drugs and cocaine in nearshore sharks, but also the associated changes in metabolic markers,” oceanographer Tracy Fanara of the University of Florida in Gainesville told ScienceNews.
