'Shark Intoxicated by Cocaine' Discovered for the First Time... Brazil's Seas Contaminated by Drugs

Drug Detected in Shark for the First Time
Levels 100 Times Higher Than Other Aquatic Creatures

A shark living near the coast of Brazil tested positive for cocaine, the British BBC reported on the 23rd (local time). This is the first time that drug substances have been found in a shark living in the sea, providing a stark example of the drug consumption situation in Brazil.

Brazilian sharpnose shark [Photo source: Wikipedia homepage capture]

Researchers from the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in Brazil announced that they detected large amounts of cocaine in the liver and muscles of all 13 'Brazilian Sharpnose' sharks caught off the coast of Rio de Janeiro. The researchers chose the Brazilian Sharpnose shark because it lives its entire life near the coast, where it is exposed to pollutants.

Last year, chemical substances including benzoylecgonine, which is produced in the liver after cocaine use, were found in seawater samples collected from the southern seas of the UK, but this is the first time cocaine has been detected in a living shark.

The effects of cocaine on the health of sharks have not yet been studied. However, previous research has shown that cocaine harms fish and mussels. Notably, the concentration of cocaine detected this time was a staggering 100 times higher than that reported in other aquatic organisms. The levels found in muscles were three times higher than those in the liver. Cocaine tended to accumulate more in females than in males. Since humans are top predators, seafood consumption could also be harmful to the human body.

Enrico Mendes Saggio, an ecological toxicologist involved in the study, told CNN, "The sea is being polluted by the excrement of cocaine users and illegal drug manufacturing laboratories." He suggested that cocaine lost or discarded at sea by drug traffickers could also be a cause, but he analyzed that this possibility is very slim. The researchers analyzed that 22% of the world's cocaine is consumed in South America, and Brazil is the second-largest cocaine consumer market. As cocaine consumption increases, sewage treatment facilities are poor, leading to the accumulation of cocaine in the sea.

Sara Novaes, a marine ecotoxicologist at the Marine Environmental Science Center of Polytechnic University in Leiria, Portugal, described the results of this investigation as "potentially concerning."