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“We believe this is a long-standing problem”

“We believe this is a long-standing problem”

Forget cocaine sharks, here are fentanyl dolphins…

An alarming number of bottlenose dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico had traces of fentanyl in their systems, shocking scientists with a horrific twist to the drug epidemic.

Traces of the powerful synthetic opioid were first found inside a dead dolphin that was floating in gulf water when it was later examined by researchers at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in September 2020.

Bottlenose dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico had traces of fentanyl, among other drugs, in their bodies. Tropicals – stock.adobe.com

What was supposed to be a routine blubber scan turned into a years-long search – with more than a third of the dolphins testing positive for the drug.

“It’s not something we were looking for, so of course we were alarmed to find something like fentanyl, especially with the fentanyl crisis hitting the world right now,” doctoral student Makayla Guinn told the Kris.

“These drugs and pharmaceuticals are entering our waters and having cascading effects on our marine life. »

Guinn’s team – with help from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Texas Parks and Wildlife and Precision Toxicological Consultancy – further researched to determine how much fentanyl had infected the dolphins.

The research involved sampling 89 dolphin blubbers, which typically include more than 3,000 different compounds, including several pharmaceutical drugs like sedatives and relaxants, the outlet reported.

Six of the tests involved dead dolphins, while the other 83 were collected by live biopsy.

Makayla Guinn, a doctoral student at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, led the researcher on the drugs found inside dolphins. KRIS 6 News

NOAA

Fentanyl was found in 18 dolphin samples — including blubber from all six dead mammals — or more than 20 percent, according to the study.

A third of those tested contained some form of the man-made drug, while others tested positive for carisoprodol, a skeletal relaxant, and meprobamate, an anxiety disorder drug.

Fentanyl is 100 times more potent than morphine, and one kilogram of the deadly drug is enough to kill 500,000 people, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The research involved sampling 89 dolphin blubbers, which typically include more than 3,000 different compounds, including several pharmaceutical drugs such as sedatives and relaxants. KRIS 6 News

Of the 89 blubber samples, six came from already dead dolphins, while the rest came from live biopsies. KRIS 6 News

Researchers have not yet determined where the drugs came from, as authorities have not ruled out several possibilities.

“One possibility, but not the only one, is that medicines could come from our wastewater,” marine biologist Dr. Dara Orbach told the outlet.

“It is likely that they get these pharmaceuticals into their bodies by eating prey. These prey are the same fish and shrimp that we also eat here, since Coastal Bend is a very important fishing community locally.

This discovery could lead to a breakthrough in discovering the source of drugs, but due to the long period of time between samples, this may prove a difficult task.

“Some of these samples we examined were over ten years old and these animals also contained pharmaceuticals. So we think this is a long-standing problem that no one has looked at,” Orbach said.