SAO PAULO—Cocaine tests on sharks off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil's party capital, have shown favorable results.
According to a research published in Science of The Total Environment, experts found that the powerful stimulant was being continuously released from illegal refining activities and poor sewage treatment facilities, feeding the predators.
A few people could have also assaulted bricks of cocaine that smugglers had misplaced at sea off the coast of Brazil, which is one of the biggest cocaine markets in the world.
The Oswaldo Foundation Cruz, an institute of research, technology, and health, conducted a study on 13 Brazilian sharpnose shark specimens over nearly three years. The results showed that all of the sharks had cocaine in their muscle and liver tissue.
“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.
“It is believed that there may be an impact on the growth, maturation and, potentially, the fecundity of sharks, since the liver plays a role in the development of embryos.”
The scientists collected the samples between September 2021 and August 2023 as they monitored the environmental impacts of pollution on marine life.
According to Ms. Hauser-Davis, sharks are important members of the food chain and are regarded as "sentinel species" that might alert people in advance of potential environmental dangers.
Despite the fact that methamphetamine addiction in brown trout has been demonstrated in prior research, the scientists did not highlight the potential consequences cocaine and other recreational drugs might have on sharks.
Other contaminants that are finding their way into rivers, lakes, and seas include heavy metals, birth control pills, and antidepressants, according to research done by scientists abroad.
