Cocaine sharks: The hidden drug problem in the Gulf of Maine and oceans

An article on the BBC and subsequently picked up by the New York Times just reinforced what I have been teaching for a long time. The article reports on a finding from the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation , which found high levels of cocaine in 13 Brazilian sharp-nosed sharks tested near Rio de Janeiro.

So, how did the drugs get into the livers and muscles of the sharks?

I can think of three possibilities. First, illegal drug labs might be discharging wastewater into the harbor. Second, sharks could have ingested floating cocaine packets dumped to evade authorities. Lastly, and most likely, local sewage discharge might be releasing large quantities of urine from drug users.

Water quality tests have revealed high levels of various drugs in the world’s oceans for years. Most of these contaminants come from untreated sewage discharged into the ocean, while others originate from treated wastewater. At this point, there is no easy way to remove drugs from wastewater.

How likely is it that the drugs we consume end up in the Gulf of Maine? More likely than you would imagine.

Let’s start with the Gulf of Maine watershed. This watershed drains into the Gulf of Maine and includes most of Massachusetts north of Cape Cod, almost all of New Hampshire, all coastal and central Maine, the Bay of Fundy New Brunswick to Cape Sable Nova Scotia.  That is a lot of real estate!  But what does that mean? The easy answer is that all streams, rivers, and lakes in the watershed drain directly into the Gulf of Maine. It also means that sewage treatment facilities and septic systems in those areas eventually drain into the Gulf of Maine. Think about this, if you live in the watershed, everything you dump down your sink, dishwasher, washing machine, and toilet eventually drains into the Gulf. Yuck!

Holy mola! Check out video of ocean sunfish spotted off Hampton Beach

Now let’s think about what really goes down your toilet. Does our body absorb all the prescription drugs that we consume? How about all that caffeine in our drinks?  And birth control? Not to mention, any illegal drugs.  Our bodies only absorb a fraction of these things. Much of these end up in our toilet and eventually the Gulf of Maine. In Europe, they have found male fish in the rivers that are developing secondary female sex characteristics from the birth control hormones that have ended up in the rivers.

Hayley Jarvis wrote for Brunel University London in 2023 that, “Endocrine disruption, which can cause male fish to produce female proteins and develop eggs in their testes, has been known about since the 1980s” in rivers throughout Europe. This has far-reaching consequences not just for wildlife but also for human existence.

Scientists feel many of the drugs that we consume, whether legal or illegal, have similar effects on the animals in our environment. More studies will be needed to determine how many of these drugs affect the development and behavior of marine animals.

The Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in Brazil conducted a study on just 13 sharks, a notably small sample size. However, the findings were significant: all 13 sharks exhibited cocaine levels 100 times higher than any previously tested animal. These sharks were selected for the study because they are commonly consumed by the local population, raising concerns about potential risks to human health. It was unclear to me how much cocaine was found in the sharks studied. Obviously, more studies will be needed.

More: Basking shark spotted off Hampton Beach

Now, back to the sharks and cocaine. Sharks can be unpredictable. What will the high levels of cocaine do to their normal behavior?  To me, this could be an immediate question to be answered by scientists.  I can see the next horror movie starring sharks on cocaine!

I actually believe that this could be the next generation's DDT (dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane).

DDT was an insecticide that accumulated in the fatty tissues of birds that consumed exposed insects. This led to the production of eggshells so brittle that they broke under the weight of the nesting females, resulting in a "Silent Spring" devoid of songbirds across the country.

For those of you who never read Rachael Carson’s “A Silent Spring,” this should be at the top of your reading list. She was my generation's environmental wake-up call.

The scientist who develops an economical way to remove drugs from the effluent at the sewage treatment plants will not only make a fortune but should be awarded the Nobel Prize.

Meanwhile, we are left with the questions, “What drugs have been flushed into the Gulf of Maine? And what are we going to do about it?”

In answer to that, as a private citizen, we can do our part. Never flush or dump any drugs or chemicals down your drains. Use environmentally friendly fertilizer and weed killer.  Dispose of unused prescriptions at a receptacle at your drug store. Never flush them down the toilet or put them in the trash, where they will eventually make it into our natural environment. Here in Hampton, there is a drug disposal right in the lobby of the Police Department. If everyone does their part, we can at least start to protect our natural world and, in turn, ourselves.

Ellen Goethel is a marine biologist and the owner of Explore the Ocean World at 367 Ocean Blvd. at Hampton Beach.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Cocaine sharks: The hidden drug problem in the Gulf of Maine and oceans