Dolphins in Gulf of Mexico are now testing positive for Fentanyl
Just a few months after cocaine was detected in the bodies of sharks off the coast of South America, research has found fentanyl and other drugs in dozens of dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico, adding to a growing record of pharmaceuticals infiltrating our marine environments.
"Pharmaceuticals have become emerging micropollutants and are a growing global concern as their presence has been reported in freshwater ecosystems, rivers, and oceans worldwide," says mammologist Dara Orbach from the Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi (TAMU-CC).
In 2020, TAMU-CC researchers routinely testing hormone levels in common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) were surprised to find multiple pharmaceuticals in the samples of cetacean fat tissue.
TAMU-CC biologist Anya Ocampos and colleagues have since run tissue samples from 89 dolphins through a mass spectrometer to see how widespread this contamination was.
The researchers found fentanyl — a painkiller 100 times more powerful than morphine – in 24 of the samples, including all post-mortem specimens taken from the six dolphins that had died. The sedative meprobamate and the skeletal muscle relaxant carisoprodol were also found in the marine mammals' blubber.