Caribbean sharks 'becoming more aggressive' due to cocaine spilled in water by tourists
No, seriously. Sharks in the Caribbean may be showing more signs of aggression thanks to ingesting cocaine that may have been accidentally spilt in the water by tourists.
While Cocaine Bear was a hilariously stupid B-movie that turned out to be based on a real story, it turns out that a real-life sequel may already be in the works — as a number of sharks caught off the coast of the Bahamas tested positive for drugs, including cocaine.
Nearly 30 sharks, spanning three species, tested positive for drugs after they were caught off the coast of a remote island near the Bahamas.
No, seriously — sharks in the Caribbean may be showing more signs of aggression thanks to ingesting cocaine that may have been accidentally spilt in the water by tourists. Pic: Shutterstock
The most common drug found in the sharks’ systems was caffeine, while acetaminophen and diclofenac — the active ingredients in Tylenol (paracetamol) and Voltaren — were the second and third most common.
However, two of the sharks tested positive for cocaine — and while some believe that it was due to traces of drugs being carried by sewage, experts believe that, since the sharks were found near an inactive fish farm popular with divers, then the divers themselves may be the culprits.
‘Pharmaceuticals and illicit drugs are increasingly recognised as contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) in marine environments, particularly in areas undergoing rapid urbanisation and tourism-driven development,’ scientists said, while scientist Natascha Wosnick said that sharks become exposed while biting into foreign objects.
Nearly 30 sharks off the coast of a remote island in the Bahamas tested positive for several drugs, with two of them testing positive for cocaine.
‘It’s mostly because people are going there, peeing in the water and dumping their sewage in the water,’ Ms Wosnick, a scientist with the Federal University of Paraná in Brazil, explained to Science News.
‘[Sharks] bite things to investigate and end up exposed.’
While the sharks who were tested didn’t exhibit much of a change in behaviour, it’s bizarrely a story that’s been told a few times so far — with fishermen previously claiming to have seen sharks eating through bricks of cocaine that were dumped in the water by drug traffickers.
Pic: Getty Images
Another incident, which was blamed on coked-up sharks, included a hammerhead, which swam at humans at an odd angle — which is made even more bizarre by the fact that, usually, hammerhead sharks avoid humans.
