Sharks off the coast of Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro have tested positive for cocaine.
According to a study, published in Science of The Total Environment, these predators have been consuming the potent stimulant due to its continuous release from inadequate sewage treatment facilities and clandestine refining operations.
Some sharks might have also targeted bricks of cocaine that traffickers lost at sea off the coast of Brazil, one of the world’s largest drug markets.
The scientists collected the samples between September 2021 and August 2023 as they monitored the environmental impacts of pollution on marine life.
Of the 13 specimens of the Brazilian Sharpnose Shark scientists tested over almost three years, all presented cocaine in their muscle and liver tissue, according to the study by the Oswaldo Foundation Cruz, an institute of science, technology and health.
“It is necessary to carry out specific studies to determine the exact consequences of this contamination on animals,” said Rachel Ann Hauser-Davis, a biologist from the IOC Environmental Health Assessment and Promotion Laboratory, in a statement.
However, scientists did not list what effects cocaine and other recreational drugs might have on sharks, although other studies have shown brown trout can become addicted to methamphetamine.