This is evident from the documentary, among other things Cocaine Sharks which Discovery will soon be broadcasting during its traditional Shark Week. Scientists who worked on the film call the reason ‘plausible’.
Well soluble
“Cocaine is so soluble in water that a package only needs to contain a very small tear or the drugs are absorbed by the sea water” said research leader Tracy Fanara to the British newspaper The Guardian .
The documentary shows how Fanara and a biologist are attacked underwater by a hammerhead shark that swims around disoriented and approaches them, as shown in the video below. Normally, the fish would be scared off by the air bubbles the divers produce.
Many more sharks were found to exhibit unusual behavior. In addition, the researchers did an experiment with ‘counterfeit bales’ of drugs, which the sharks eagerly attacked, and bait in the form of extra concentrated fishmeal, which the sharks attacked as if their lives depended on it.
In the Keys, the area near Florida where the documentary was partly filmed, packages of drugs washed ashore at least twice a week while the film crew was at work. That alone shows the possible magnitude of the problem, says study leader Fanara.
Taking blood samples
More research is needed to determine whether the animals are actually consuming drugs. Blood samples will therefore be taken from a number of sharks in the coming months.
In Spain, too, unusual behavior by sharks has recently been observed: there they come very close to bathers. But that seems to be due to the high sea temperature rather than to dumped packages of drugs. View the images here:
2023-07-22 20:12:41
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