BRAZILIAN SHARKS TEST POSITIVE FOR COCAINE
Scientists recently tested 13 sharks off the coast of Brazil for cocaine and they tested positive.
The Brazilian sharpnose dolphins near the shores of Rio de Janeiro tested high for levels of cocaine in the livers and muscles.
The results showed that the concentrations of cocaine were 100 times higher than previously reported for other sea animals.
Experts believe that packs of cocaine that are lost or dumped by drug traffickers at sea could be one of the sources for the traces of cocaine.
Other sources could also be through the excrement of drug users, or the drug could be making its way into the sea through illegal labs where it's manufactured.
The BBC reports that Sara Novais, a marine eco-toxicologist at the Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre of the Polytechnic University of Leiria, told Science magazine that the findings are “very important and potentially worrying”.
This isn’t the first time that illegal drugs have been found in aquatic animals. In 2023, chemical compounds were found in seawater samples collected off the coast of England.
These types of chemical compounds are usually produced by the liver after cocaine use.
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