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Caffeine, cocaine, and painkillers detected in sharks from The Bahamas

sciencedirect.com

75 points by LostMyLogin a day ago · 58 comments

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dobladov a day ago

This classifies Cocaine Shark as a documentary https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocaine_Shark

  • dbbk a day ago

    "The film features various mutated creatures, none of which are actually sharks on cocaine as the title suggests." they had one job

  • api a day ago

    So much potential in that franchise. Cocaine moose, cocaine snake (or Snakes on Cocaine, which could have the line “I want these mother f’ing snakes off mother f’ing cocaine!”), cocaine lion, cocaine hippo, cocaine alligator…

    • oniony a day ago
    • snapplebobapple a day ago

      Meh, i think branching out to different animals is a mistake. They could have evolved beyond comedy to drama by instead putting the bear on meth in the sequel. Follow the bear through its downward spiral losing its teeth and eventually hitting bottom drinking its own urine to stay high. The redemption ark could be an unlikely friendship formed with one of the campers it mauled in the first movie sparked by the bear sobering up and doing the apology tour.

      • api 21 hours ago

        That sounds more like magic mushrooms bear, in which the bear realizes all life is one and to maul other beings is to maul yourself.

  • yruam001 a day ago

    indeed

numpad0 a day ago

Not surprising. A lot of these substances get metabolized, or just diluted by water and filtered out without being like, magically deconstructed and turned into all CO2 and H2O and N2. So a lot of wacky chemical compounds humans tend to consume tend to get detected wherever humans gather and discharge bodily fluids that eventually reach the ocean. This does not immediately indicate that e.g. evil corporations are dumping toxic wastes, forever plastics pieces are leaching out scary additives, etc.

  • augusto-moura 20 hours ago

    Hm, I'm not convinced this is contamination from human waste. The quantity of caffeine and painkillers a human consume should be too small. Also, the body does break caffeine and painkillers, the amount in waste shouldn't be meaningful

    If diluted in the oceans I would say that it would be undectable. Cocaine is even harder, because it is not commonly consumed, it is for a group of people, but not enough for the statistics

croemer a day ago

The measured concentrations are on the order of 1-20 ng/mL in blood. Cmax in humans when taking those drugs are about 100-1000x higher.

I wouldn't put too much weight on the finding that those with detections had different urea/lactate etc. There might be something underlying explaining both drug and physiology, like age.

Could still be bad to have chronic exposure at such low levels - also fish physiology is different.

laughing_man a day ago

I wonder how much of this is just that our tests are getting more sensitive.

  • croemer a day ago

    Exactly, the detection itself doesn't mean anything. Is the dose relevant? If not, then not. And the dose likely isn't relevant.

    • eggy a day ago

      Agreed. When you zoom in, even the normal life stuff can give you concern. I showed my kids what creatures live on their and others' bodies. You have millions of microscopic arachnids called Demodex mites living in your hair follicles and sebaceous glands, particularly on your face. My wife gave me an evil look as I showed my children this fact in online vids and pics. Granted these are symbiotic/parasitic relationships of life, but still, the closer you look, the more you see!

    • seanhunter 21 hours ago

      You can say what you like about the dose being pharmacologically ineffective but I want my sharks completely sober.

  • bmitc 16 hours ago

    Why does that matter?

saivan 20 hours ago

Reggae Shark is Real https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3ytTKZf344&list=RDA3ytTKZf3...

kleiba2 a day ago

Party on, sharks!

juancn 17 hours ago

These sharks surely know how to party!

losthobbies a day ago

#justlikeus

metalman a day ago

this clearly points to an previously unknown seasonal migration from wall st.

  • pixelpoet a day ago

    The Shark of Wall St

    • Gravityloss a day ago

      Clearly there are missing parts, or opportunites, in the two trilogies.

      [Cocaine] Shark | Wolf | Bear [of Wall St]

  • throwanem a day ago

    Seasonal migration from Wall Street to the Bahamas? 'Previously unknown?' A bit déclassé maybe, but...

dr_faustus 17 hours ago

Thank god, it's not microplastic!

dotcoma a day ago

They probably ate lawyers from New York who were on vacation…

mghackerlady a day ago

I see they've graduated High School

nashashmi a day ago

Does that make for more aggressive sharks in the waters with unexplained behaviors?

Is caffeine really that bad?

tcper a day ago

Sharks obtain cocaine by eating people?

  • wkjagt a day ago

    Maybe it says something about the people taking cocaine and go swimming with sharks.

  • mapontosevenths a day ago

    Sharks are on cocaine for the same reason it rains birth control now.

stavros a day ago

After the "plastic glove" smoking gun the other day, I wonder if this is another instance of lab contamination making it into the results.

BLKNSLVR 21 hours ago

Now all they need is blackjack and hookers.

tskulbru a day ago

First it was cocaine bear, and now cocaine shark.

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