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“Cocaine bear” may have been a viral sensation thanks to the movie of the same name awhile back, but “cocaine sharks” are a real thing that keeps popping up in coastal countries around the world.
The latest “cocaine shark” discovery comes in the form of a study conducted from September 2021 to August 2023 and published last week in the journal Science of the Total Environment.
In the study, scientists analyzed 13 Brazilian sharpnose sharks that were captured off the coast of Rio De Janeiro.
What they discovered was that in every one of the sharks that were dissected and studied there was the presence of cocaine, while 92 percent of muscle samples and 23 percent of liver samples also tested positive for benzoylecgonine – the main cocaine metabolite.
The researchers claim that this is the first report of cocaine and benzoylecgonine in free-ranging sharks worldwide.
“Although no maximum permissible concentrations for COC [cocaine] or BE [benzoylecgonine] have been established in foodstuffs, these findings are indicative of potential human health risks, as sharks are highly consumed in the state of Rio de Janeiro, in fact, throughout the entire Brazilian territory and indeed, worldwide,” the researchers wrote.
This “cocaine shark” concern is far from a Brazil-only problem.
Last year, New Zealand law enforcement authorities reported they had found over 3.5 tons, or more than 7,000 pounds, of cocaine floating in the Pacific Ocean.
In Italy, 70 bundles containing 1,600 individual packets of cocaine worth $450 million was found floating in a raft in the waters off Sicily.
Discovery’s “Shark Week” even tackled the topic in the episode “Cocaine Sharks” in 2023.
During the show, two scientists took a closer look at how all of the cocaine that’s washed up on the beaches of Florida over the decades has affected the shark population.
What they found was that when they simulated dropping bales of cocaine from an airplane into the water, multiple species of shark took bites out of them, with one shark even dragging the bale off with him.