Scientists have found that several sharks off the Brazilian coast had concentrations of cocaine in their systems.
The researchers tested 13 Brazilian sharpnose sharks in the waters off Rio de Janeiro, and found those fish had cocaine levels that, while low, were still 100 times higher than that found in any other marine organism.
Study co-author and a biologist at Brazil’s Oswaldo Cruz Foundation Rachel Ann Hauser-Davis told The New York Times:
“We were actually dumbfounded. We were excited in a bad way, but it’s a novel report. It’s the first time this data has ever been found for any top predator.”
Houser-Davis told Scientific American that cocaine isn’t the only dangerous substance sharks need to wory about:
“We detected high levels of metals and also detected ‘forever chemicals’ [perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFASs], pesticides and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, PCBs and PBDEs in over 30 shark and ray species.”
The study was published in Science of The Total Environment.
