American expert: Florida sharks may be addicted to drugs | Coast | United States
Media such as "Russia Today"
Reported on July 21st
recently
American marine biologists warn that
Sharks near the coast of Florida, USA
Maybe smoking cocaine abandoned in the sea
Screenshots of relevant reports
It is understood that some people often throw cocaine into the sea while smuggling drugs to avoid being detected. In mid June of this year, the United States Coast Guard issued a statement stating that in 9 anti drug cases conducted in international waters of the Atlantic and Caribbean, the Coast Guard seized nearly 6420 kilograms of cocaine.
According to reports, in the latest documentary released by the Discovery Channel's Shark Week program, ocean expert Tom Hurd conducted an investigation near the Florida coast to see if sharks in the area were affected by drugs.
![American expert: Florida sharks may be addicted to drugs | Coast | United States](https://a5qu.com/upload/images/da6e0e7a19bf6feb0b02ee70f471bf3e.jpg)
During the investigation, Heard and his team members discovered that the sharks here exhibit some strange behavior. For example, once, Heard and his colleague Farnara encountered a hammerhead shark while diving. According to reports, this shark usually tends to avoid humans, but the hammerhead shark they encountered swam straight towards them.
"Generally speaking, when we dive, bubbles will emerge from our mouths, which will scare the hammerhead shark away. So, the situation we just mentioned is not ordinary," said Hurd.
Moreover, Hurd also found that the shark did not appear to have "maintained balance". "It looked a bit leaning towards one side of the body, as if it was being pressed down by something, not reaching complete balance, which is also very unusual," Hurd continued.
In Hurd's view, this unusual behavior of sharks may be caused by injury or "chemical imbalance".
It is worth noting that once, Heard and Farnara made a small bag that looked very much like a cocaine wrap and threw it into the sea along with a swan model. However, to their surprise, the shark did not attack the swan model, but instead swam straight towards the "cocaine wrap" in an attempt to bite it open. One shark even snatched the entire package and left with it.
Once, Heard and his team threw fake "cocaine packages" into the sea from a helicopter to simulate the behavior of drug trafficking gangs in real life. As a result, they found that several sharks immediately swam towards the direction of "cocaine wrap".
In addition, Hurd stated that it is currently unknown how sharks would react if they did indeed consume cocaine, as different marine animals would react differently to cocaine.
"What is thought-provoking behind the phenomenon is how chemicals, drugs, and illegal drugs enter the ocean, and what kind of impact these items may have on marine ecosystems," said Heard.