2024-07-24 16:01:38
A study has found that sharks living off the coast of Brazil have tested positive for cocaine. This is the first time that the drug has been found in sharks living in the ocean.
According to CNN and other sources on the 23rd (local time), a research team from the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in Brazil announced that they detected cocaine in the liver and muscles of all 13 Brazilian Sharpnose sharks tested in the sea off Rio de Janeiro.
The researchers explained that they chose the Brazilian sharpnosed shark because it is small and spends its entire life in coastal waters, where it is exposed to pollutants.
When testing the cocaine levels in the sharks, the levels detected in their muscles were three times higher than in their livers, and the concentrations of cocaine were higher in females than in males.
“The ocean is being polluted by the waste from cocaine users and by illegal labs that make cocaine,” Enrico Mendez Sazior, an ecological toxicologist who worked on the study, told CNN.
The researchers added in the paper that 22 percent of the world’s cocaine is consumed in South America, with Brazil being the second-largest cocaine market. They also said that increasing cocaine consumption and poor sewage treatment infrastructure are driving up cocaine levels in the ocean.
Study co-author Rachel Ann Hauser Davis said no studies have been conducted to determine whether cocaine harms sharks, but previous studies have shown that cocaine harms fish and mussels.
“While it has not been proven that cocaine exposure has a detrimental effect on sharks, it seems quite possible,” he said.
Reporter Jo Yu-kyung, Donga.com, [email protected]
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2024-07-24 16:01:38