--- title: "Sharks Showing Unusually High Levels of Cocaine" description: "Researchers found traces of cocaine, caffeine, and painkillers, in sharks swimming in the waters around the Bahamas." date: "2026-03-29" modified: "2026-03-29" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/science-energy/sharks-high-levels-of-cocaine" categories: - "Environment" - "Pollution" - "Science & Energy" --- # Sharks Showing Unusually High Levels of Cocaine ![A shark with its mouth wide open underwater, showing sharp teeth and gills. Inside the shark's mouth, there is a clear plastic bag containing a white powdery substance. Several small fish are swimming around inside the shark's mouth.]() *Illustration by Tag Hartman-Simkins / Futurism. Source: Getty Images* The expression "coked to the gills" has never been more apt. Scientists from Brazil have discovered that [sharks]() swimming in the Bahamas are testing positive for a potpourri of substances, ranging from caffeine to cocaine and painkillers — as if they, too, are ready for a party in an island paradise. The implications of the findings, detailed in a [study]() in the journal *Environmental Pollution*, make for quite the comedown. That the substances are turning up in detectable quantities in sharks points to an "urgent need to address marine pollution in ecosystems often perceived as pristine," the authors warned in the study, with divers in the area being the most likely culprit. "It's mostly because people are going there, peeing in the water and dumping their sewage in the water," study lead author Natascha Wosnick, a biologist with the Federal University of Paraná in Brazil, [told *Science News*](). Wosnick's team conducted a previous study that found cocaine in sharks off the coast of Rio de Janeiro. In their latest work, the team collected blood samples from 85 sharks that were rounded up near Eleuthera Island, one of the more remote islands in the Bahamas. In theory, its environment should be pristine. Not so. Twenty eight of the sampled sharks contained substances including caffeine, as well as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory painkillers like diclofenac and acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol. The species that tested positive included Caribbean reef sharks, Atlantic nurse sharks, and lemon sharks. (No [great whites]() were represented here, representing a failure in [nominative determinism]().) Some of the sharks, including a baby lemon shark, also turned up cocaine. Wosnick speculates that the shark ingested a packet containing cocaine residue. "They bite things to investigate and end up exposed," she told *Science News*. Cocaine is undeniably the most the head-turning find here, but Wosnick says we shouldn't snort at the implications of the other substances either. "While the detection of cocaine — an illicit substance — tends to draw immediate attention, the widespread presence of caffeine and pharmaceuticals in the blood of many analyzed sharks is equally alarming," Wosnick [told *CBS News*](). "These are legal substances, routinely consumed and often overlooked, yet their environmental footprint is clearly detectable." **More on shark science:** [*It Turns Out Sharks Make Noises, and Here’s What They Sound Like*]() ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()