TEXAS — A team from Texas A&M Corpus Christi has discovered a human drug in dolphins living in the Gulf of Mexico.
The study, “Pharmaceuticals in the blubber of live, free-swimming bottlenose dolphins,” found that pharmaceuticals were detected in 30 out of 89 blubber samples from live dolphins. There were 83 samples from dead dolphins, and 6 samples from dead dolphins. Fentanyl was detected in 18 of the 30 positive tests.
The researchers selected dolphins from three locations in the Gulf of Mexico: Redfish Bay and Laguna Madre in Texas, as well as samples from Mississippi Gulf collected in 2013.
Dolphins living in high-risk areas (oil spills, shipping traffic, algae blooms) had more pharmaceutical contamination in their tissue samples.
Dr. Dara Auerbach, assistant professor of marine biology at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and principal investigator of the study, said, “Medicinal products are products used in human and veterinary medicine to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent disease. “It is a therapeutic substance that can be used to treat cancer.” “Furthermore, pharmaceuticals have become an emerging micropollutant, and their presence in freshwater ecosystems, rivers and oceans around the world has been reported, raising global concerns.”
Orbach also pointed out that in studies of pollutants, dolphins’ lipid-rich adipose tissue stores pollutants and is a valuable biological indicator of ecosystem health.
The long-term effects of pharmaceuticals on marine mammals remain unclear, but given their presence in three dolphin populations in the Gulf of Mexico, Professor Auerbach emphasizes the need for extensive research.
Fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid, acts as a treatment for severe pain and is sometimes used during surgery. According to the DEA, a dose of 2 milligrams of fentanyl can be lethal, depending on factors such as body size, tolerance, and previous exposure.
According to the CDC, overdose deaths in the United States are primarily caused by synthetic opioids such as fentanyl.
