Blocks of cocaine thrown into the sea by drug dealers can be “addictive” and cause strange behavior in sharks off the coast of Florida in the US. That’s what scientists reveal in “Cocaine Sharks,” a documentary premiering July 27 on Discovery.
Cocaine sharks may use drugs in Florida seas Photo: DIVULGAÇÃO/PIXABAY/ND
Located in the southeastern United States, Florida is a hub for importing drugs into the country. One of the drug dealers’ strategies is to airdrop large shipments of cocaine into the sea for later rescue by boats.
According to scientists, this practice would trigger a feast and drive the sharks insane.
“The documentary sheds light on a real problem: everything we use, everything we make, everything we put in our bodies ends up in our sewage streams and natural waters, and this aquatic life that we depend on for survival is then exposed to this problem,” said Tracy Fanara, a Florida environmental engineer and a senior member of the science team, in an interview with The Guardian.
“If these cocaine bales represent a point source of pollution, that is very plausible [os tubarões] may be affected by this chemical. Cocaine is so soluble that each of these packets only opens up a tiny bit, destroying the structural integrity and allowing the drug to remain in the water.”
What are the potential effects of cocaine on sharks?
One of the pieces of evidence that the sharks use cocaine is their behavior during the sixday observation in the Florida Keys sea, point out Fanara and Tom Hird, a marine biologist who was also involved in the study.
One of the cases that drew attention was a hammerhead shark. The species, which tends to move away from humans, swam towards the divers in a strange manner. Similar behavior was observed in a great white shark that began swimming in circles around an imaginary object.
The scientists further substantiated the thesis by simulating throwing balls of cocaine into the sea while also playing fake swans at the same time. The sharks desperately chose to bite through the simulated drug charges. “It was crazy,” says Hird.
The scientists claim that the sharks “went insane” biting the packets that simulated cocaine, an experience that would be similar to a large dose of dopamine in humans.
The study is still in its infancy, making it impossible to measure how much cocaine the sharks may have ingested. The idea is to collect samples over the coming months to determine the levels of anesthetic in the animals’ bloodstream.