On Thursday, Science Alert posted an article about some of the results of marine pollution.

The article reports:

Sharks in the Bahamas have tested positive for cocaine, a new study concludes.

Researchers from the Bahamas, Brazil, and Chile also found traces of caffeine and painkillers in the sharks. This isn’t a shift in lifestyle from the animals, but rather something that’s being forced upon them, as marine pollution becomes ever more pervasive.

Finding traces of these substances in a tropical place widely seen as idyllic and pristine is concerning – it seems there are vanishingly few spots on Earth where wildlife can escape our influence.

“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,” write the researchers in their published paper.

“Their continual influx poses risks not only to marine biodiversity but also to human health through seafood consumption and recreational water exposure.”

It sounds like a joke, but it isn’t. Admittedly, America may be partially responsible for the cocaine because of the drug boats it sank, but the cartels lost enough boats to convince them to try other methods. The ocean is an ecosystem. When you add things to an ecosystem that don’t belong there, bad things happen.

The article concludes:

“The detected CECs represent a diverse group of biologically active compounds with the potential to interfere with fundamental physiological processes in marine organisms,” write the researchers.

“This represents the first report concerning CECs and potentially associated physiological responses in sharks from the Bahamas, pointing to the urgent need to address marine pollution in ecosystems often perceived as pristine.”

I am curious as to how the caffeine got into the water.