Sharks test positive for cocaine in waters off Brazilian coast

https://www.thetimes.com/world/latin-america/article/sharks-test-positive-for-cocaine-in-waters-off-brazilian-coast-v6x73k9fc

by pelagicAustral • 2 years ago

32 25 2 years ago

thetimes.com

pelagicAustral2• 2 years ago

http://archive.today/lnPf8

theGeatZhopa• 2 years ago

I'm waiting for a similar movie as the superb 'cocaine bear'

eddof13• 2 years ago

cocaine shark was the obvious sequel

joshl32532• 2 years ago

Cocaine Sharknado

IG_Semmelweiss• 2 years ago

The article states that it already happened, but didn't quite make the "cut" that you'd expect.

>> A documentary released in 2023, called Cocaine Sharks attempted to establish whether sharks in the Gulf of Mexico were consuming the hundreds of packages of cocaine lost or dumped every year by drug smugglers.

mistrial92• 2 years ago

documentary .. they had a very tight production deadline! everyone seemed enthusiastic somehow despite obvious problems each day

sam_perez• 2 years ago

Yeah, I can already feel the prompts for scripts being entered into an LLM...

Rhapso• 2 years ago

Bioaccumulation means sharks collect pollutants like this from the local biosphere. The theories in the article seem dubious.

I suspect those sharks test positive for a LOT of things.

jpalawaga• 2 years ago

Do sharks not have any way to metabolize or pass these things? Usually bioaccumulation refers to things that STAY in an organism. For example, vitamin c does not bioaccumulate. Microplastics do.

arghwhat• 2 years ago

Fat soluble compounds accumulate in fatty tissue, while I imagine water soluble compounds could accumulate in e.g. muscle tissue.

It’s not in the same sense as microplastics, as these compounds are released when their storage medium is processed. That’s actually a beneficial mechanism as it means that fat is also a store of essential nutrients rather than just calories, released steadily when fat is burned. It’s just bad when things accumulate in excess.

Cocaine might be able to accumulate in small amounts in tissue this way.

mistrial92• 2 years ago

agree - accumulation of heavy metals e.g. lead, is less exciting, and more worth some public attention..

codr7• 2 years ago

Wait, I've seen this movie.

They experiment on sharks by giving them brain boosting drugs, and then shit happens as expected.

On the other hand, I've never seen anyone become smarter by doing coke; now I'm stuck wondering if this is worse or better.

kevindamm• 2 years ago

Maybe the experiment was to test confidence-boosting instead of intelligence.

pelagicAustral2• 2 years ago

I imagine there are very few ways a shark can get more confident. It's an apex predator.

cjbgkagh• 2 years ago

Cocaine is a d2 reuptake inhibitor like AFAIK pretty much all notropics. But the speed of action and the short duration makes it very addictive. So I could readily believe people are smarter while on cocaine, just that gets shadowed by the focus on feeding the addiction.

I take modafinil which is slower and longer acting d2 reuptake inhibitor and am definitely smarter on it, it helps with my ADHD as I had dopamine dysregulation prior to taking modafinil. Because of that prior state I get a much stronger effect from it and require only a lower dose of it (50 to 100mg).

alan-hn• 2 years ago

D2 is a specific subtype of dopamine receptor not a dopamine transporter. The dopamine transporter is DAT which is inhibited by cocaine along with NET and SERT

nicholasbraker• 2 years ago

Are you...are you a shark? ;-)

tsoukase• 2 years ago

Cocaine equals adrenaline and it's effect is predominant before any other one follows.

FredPret• 2 years ago

Don't sharks have large livers that collect all sorts of chemicals? You'd expect high concentrations of many pollutants.

01acheru• 2 years ago

What an awesome time to be a shark!

masteruvpuppetz• 2 years ago

Just watched C*caine Bear yesterday..

Sharks test positive for cocaine in waters off Brazilian coast

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