Sharks off Brazil coast test positive for cocaine
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| The Brazilian sharpnose shark is related to the Atlantic sharpnose (file photo from 2015) |
According to scientists, sharks off the coast of Brazil tested positive for cocaine.
marine biologists tested 13 Brazilian sharks off the coast near Rio de Janeiro and found that they tested high levels of cocaine in their muscles and livers.
This amount is more than one hundred times higher than previously reported for other marine organisms. The
study conducted by the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation was the first to demonstrate the presence of cocaine in sharks.
Experts believe that cocaine enters the water through illegal drug laboratories or through the feces of drug users. The
packages of cocaine that were lost or thrown into the sea by traffickers could also be the source, although this is rare, researchers said.
Sara Novais, a marine biologist at the Polytechnic University of Leiria's Center for Marine and Environmental Sciences, told a scientific magazine that the findings were "very important and potentially worrying". Fetal cocaine exposure is unknown, experts say.
Chemical compounds, including benzoylecgonine, produced in the liver after cocaine consumption, were found in water samples collected from the south coast of England last year.
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