An article submitted to Slashdot. It should have the elements necessary to make the cut, but you never know. Also, 27 other people may have submitted it.
The BBC are reporting sharks have tested positive for cocaine. A bakers dozen of sharpnose sharks which were captured off the coast near Rio de Janeiro were tested for the drug in liver and muscle tissue samples and returned positive results at concentrations as much as 100 times higher than previously reported for other aquatic creatures.
The research was published in Science of the Total Environment. The little-known "sharpnose" sharks were examined because they spend their entire lives in coastal waters, and so are likely more exposed to drugs from human activities than the more cinematic species starring in "Cocaine Shark" or "Cocaine Sharks", two recent productions on the subject featuring hammerheads and tiger sharks (the "trash cans of the sea").
The likeliest source is effluent from drug processing labs inland, though the snorting population of Rio may have pissed their contribution in to the sewers too. (Which begs the question - does nobody make cocaine-reclaiming filters for users - or enterprising apartment block concierges? Yet?)
Whether cocaine is changing the behaviour of the sharks is not known. Perhaps it would affect their aim with their head-mount lasers, bringing their conquest of the land with it's tasty, tasty humans closer. Hollywood, hopefully, has (tyop!) the answers.
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