Brazilian scientists have reportedly discovered traces of nose candy, caffeine and painkillers in sharks swimming in waters around the Bahamas.
New York Post reports on Thursday that these “blow-fish” aren’t getting hooked on purpose; it’s the fallout from an uptick in marine pollutants, according to a jaw-calyptic study published in the journal Environmental Pollution.
The researchers reportedly described the troubling shark-otics trend writing, “Pharmaceuticals and illicit drugs are increasingly recognized as contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) in marine environments, particularly in areas undergoing rapid urbanization and tourism-driven development.”
To see whether these marine marauders were under the influence, the team was said to have analysed blood samples from 85 specimens around Eleuthera, one of the Bahamas’ most remote islands.
The subjects were drug-tested for both legal and illegal substances.
Of the samples, 28 sharks spanning three species reportedly tested positive for drugs, the most common of which was caffeine.
This was followed by acetaminophen and diclofenac, the active ingredients in the popular painkillers Tylenol and Voltaren.
