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Cocaine shark: Disturbing discovery in Brazil
Thirteen sharks were found to have ingested cocaine, but how is it getting into their systems and what could it mean for their behavior?Sharks swimming off the cost of Brazil have something a little startling coursing through their systems: cocaine.
The drug had never previously been found in wild sharks. But that doesn’t mean these fish are unique; scientists just hadn’t previously tested any shark for coke. The effort was a slam dunk, with the 13 sharks that were examined all testing positive for the drug in their muscles and liver, according to a new study in Science of the Total Environment.
Ongoing research on environmental contamination in these apex predators suggests the notorious drug is only one of the animals’ worries.
“We detected high levels of metals and also detected ‘forever chemicals’.