High levels of cocaine found in sharks in Brazil, new research show

[Simon]

Here's something really messed up. Researchers in Brazil have apparently found traces of cocaine in the bodies of sharks in the wild. 

In a new study fittingly dubbed "Cocaine Shark", researchers by the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation have found high levels of cocaine and benzoylecgonine in 13 wild sharks off the coast of Rio de Janeiro. It is the first time the drug has been found in wild predators, and experts say that the findings are "important and potentially worrying".

There are multiple theories on how the illicit substances are entering the water where the sharks live. One plausible explanation, writes the BBC, is that cocaine ends up in the water from illegal laboratories where the drug is manufactured. But to ascertain whether cocaine is changing the behaviour of the sharks, or what kind of potential consequences there are from the cocaine exposure for the foetuses of female sharks, requires further research, experts say.