Illegal drug-production labs may be releasing substances into the water that could harm Brazilian sharpnose sharks and other marine animals.
Biologist Paulo dos Santos measures a Brazilian sharpnose shark captured by fishermen in São Paulo state in 2023. The animal was not part of the new research.For the study, researchers dissected 13 sharks captured accidentally by fishermen between September 2021 and August 2023 in the waters off Recreio dos Bandeirantes,The team found cocaine and benzoylecgonine—a metabolite produced when cocaine is broken down in the body—in muscle and liver tissues of all 13 fish.
But negative effects are “probable,” the study authors say, based on previous studies that have shown damage to zebrafish and mussels exposed to cocaine. Study scientists believe there are two ways cocaine is getting into fish: Waste from drug users’ bodies entering the sewage system, as well as “clandestine” cocaine-refining laboratories disposing pure cocaine into sewage ducts along the Sernambetiba Canal, which empties into the ocean at Recreio dos Bandeirantes.Sharks may take up cocaine directly through their gills or eat smaller prey that contain the substance.
But she says the study has a “major” weakness: The scientists did not take the water samples from the location in Recreio dos Bandeirantes where the sharks were caught.
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