{"id":590451,"date":"2026-04-07T03:31:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T03:31:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/590451\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T03:31:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T03:31:16","slug":"sharks-in-bahamas-test-positive-for-cocaine-painkiller-in-new-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/590451\/","title":{"rendered":"Sharks in Bahamas Test Positive for Cocaine, Painkiller in New Study"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> Bahamian Sharks Test Positive for Cocaine, Painkillers: A Deep Dive Into a New Study<\/p>\n<p>Some fish in the Bahamas are experiencing a different kind of spring break\u2014whether they want to or not.<\/p>\n<p>Sharks in the waters surrounding a remote area of the tropical island have tested positive for cocaine, caffeine and pharmaceutical drugs, a new study in the May 2026 issue of Environmental Pollution found.<\/p>\n<p>Of the 85 sharks representing five species analyzed in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/abs\/pii\/S0269749126001880\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noopener noreferrer noopener noreferrer noopener noreferrer nofollow\">&#8220;Drugs in Paradise,&#8221; <\/a>researchers found that 28\u2014of which were Caribbean reef sharks, nurse sharks and lemon sharks\u2014had &#8220;detectable levels&#8221; of cocaine, caffeine, acetaminophen (the active ingredient in Tylenol), as well as the painkiller diclofenac in their bloodstream.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers noted that, to the best of their knowledge, this is the first report of caffeine and acetaminophen in &#8220;any shark species worldwide&#8221; and the first detection of diclofenac and cocaine in sharks in the Bahamas, which is &#8220;an environment commonly described as pristine.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The study argued that the changes were likely exacerbated by the country&#8217;s rapid coastal development\u2014with a growing number of tourists, rental properties and vacation homes\u2014since tourism is a major economic driver.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bahamian Sharks Test Positive for Cocaine, Painkillers: A Deep Dive Into a New Study Some fish in the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":590452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,128,338],"class_list":{"0":"post-590451","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/590452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}