Tag: Salmon

Salmon exposed to cocaine swim almost twice as far as those without, study shows

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An animated orange fish with a worried expression caught in an underwater whirlpool.

Salmon exposed to cocaine in the water swim longer distances than those that go without, according to a study released this week. Cocaine use is on the rise worldwide, with the U.N. reporting an estimated 25 million people used the stimulant in 2023 and the drug being increasingly found in waterways. Joint research released Monday by scientists at Australia’s Griffith University and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences studied how the drug affected the movements of wild fish in their natural habitats.

Researchers took 105 wild Atlantic salmon in Sweden’s Lake Vattern and exposed them to both cocaine and benzoylecgonine — a metabolite created by the drug in the liver — and then tracked their movements. They found the river-dwellers exposed to the drugs traveled 1.9 times farther per week than their clean-living control cousins. Those exposed to the by-product also swam 7.6 miles farther, the study found. “Any unnatural change in animal behavior is a concern,” report co-author Marcus Michelangeli from Griffith University’s Australian Rivers Institute told national broadcaster ABC.

“We’re finding higher and higher concentrations of not just illicit drugs but all types of pharmaceuticals in our waterways.”

Source: Salmon exposed to cocaine swim almost twice as far as those without, study shows – CBS News

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