Our oceans are home to myriad creatures whose lives are in jeopardy due to climate change and pollution. However, now experts are beginning to find new kinds of chemicals in the bodies of marine animals, including fentanyl in dolphins.
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00:00Our oceans are home to myriad creatures whose lives are in jeopardy due to climate change
00:07and pollution.
00:08However, now experts are beginning to find new kinds of chemicals in the bodies of marine
00:12animals having found cocaine in sharks just off the coast of Brazil.
00:17Now experts say the dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico are testing positive for fentanyl.
00:21Fentanyl is a painkiller which is 100 times more powerful than morphine and it has become
00:25a street drug during the ongoing opioid epidemic.
00:28And it is now becoming a wider issue with marine life, with fentanyl being discovered
00:32in the fatty tissues of 24 of the 89 dolphins recently tested.
00:37Dolphins don't drink seawater, so experts' best guess at the moment is that they are
00:41either absorbing the fentanyl through their skin or imbibing it via the fish they eat.
00:45Mammalogist Dara Orbeck says that dolphins are often the canaries in the coal mine with
00:49regards to ecosystem health in an oceanic area, meaning the problem could be much worse
00:54under the surface.
00:55Following science alert that the increasing number of micropollutants, including pharmaceuticals,
00:59is a quote, growing global concern as their presence has been reported in freshwater ecosystems,
01:05rivers and oceans worldwide.