Ahhh-- So That's Why Whales Have Blowholes

Sharks in Brazil are now testing positive for cocaine as the drugs are being dumped into the ocean waters.

Drug smugglers have been known to get creative when it comes to trying to evade law enforcement, using bananas and other produce to illicitly ship them across international borders.. Buoys have also been used to keep afloat three tonnes worth of cocaine bricks in the ocean.

But it seems that bricks of cocaine like these are breaking open somehow and are now having an effect on the animals that inhabit the sea-- 13 wild sharks off the coast of Brazil have been tested positive for having cocaine in their bodies.  Tons of cocaine have been found in the waters around Florida and South and Central America, leading researchers to fear that it could be polluting the environment and impacting wildlife in those areas.

Now, a worrying study conducted by the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in Brazil has found this hypothesis to be correct.  Experts dissected 13 wild Brazilian sharp nose sharks obtained from coastal waters near Rio de Janeiro and tested their muscle and liver tissue for drugs.  Not only did all the sharks test positive for cocaine, but the concentrations were up to 100 times higher than had been previously reported in other aquatic life.