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Not so Great White! Sharks high on COCAINE are marauding the seas around the Brazil coast after smugglers dump stash in the water
Sharks swimming in the waters around the coast of Brazil have tested positive for cocaine.
Scientists carrying out a study for the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation tested 13 of the Brazilian sharpnose type shark taken from South Atlantic Ocean near Rio de Janeiro.
They found they all had high levels of the drug in their muscle and liver with boffins now fearing it could reduce their life expectancy, with cocaine damaging their eyesight and affecting their hunting skills.
The paper, published in Science of the Total Environment, suggests the drug is getting into their system through the drainage from illicit labs where cocaine is manufactured.
Another possibility is through the excrement of drug users which is being flushed into the waters via untreated sewage.
Sharks swimming in the waters around the coast of Brazil have tested positive for cocaine (Pictured: A Brazilian sharpnose shark)
Scientists carrying out a study for the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation tested 13 of the Brazilian sharpnose type shark taken from South Atlantic Ocean near Rio de Janeiro
The team of researchers also looked into whether the sharks could be nibbling on cocaine that had been dumped into the ocean by smugglers, but they said this was less likely.
But they said there was no evidence the drug was causing them to 'go nuts' and to go on a feeding frenzy, reported The Telegraph.
The wild sharks used in the study were bought from small fishing boats.
They were dissected and then tested where it was found they had concentrations of cocaine 100 times higher than previously found in other aquatic creatures.
Scientists found the sharks had been under 'chronic exposure' to cocaine.
Dr Rachel Ann Hauser-Davis, a British scientist and member of the research team from the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, said this was 'due to human use of cocaine in Rio de Janeiro and the discharge of human urine and faeces by sewage outfalls, as well as from illegal labs'.
There are fears the drug could reduce their life expectancy, with cocaine damaging their eyesight and affecting their hunting skills
Dr Tracy Fanara, an expert in ecotoxicology and environmental engineering from the University of Florida, told The Telegraph: 'They may not be going nuts from the cocaine but it could reduce their life expectancy.'
In July 2023, marine biologists warned that drug-addled sharks may be feasting on cocaine bales dumped by drug smugglers off the coast of Florida.
In a documentary for Discovery's Shark Week, marine expert Tom Hird looked into whether sharks in the area could have been affected by narcotics which are often hurled into the water by drug smugglers to avoid detection.
Hird and his team of researchers noticed strange behavior and movement among the sharks and even found that when they dropped a look-alike cocaine package into the water, predators rushed toward and took bites out of it.