The ocean is so polluted by cocaine, apparently, that a new study found sharks are being poisoned with high levels of the drug.

“Regardless of where the drug came from – which is still not possible to determine – the results show that cocaine is being widely traded and moved in Brazil,” said the study coordinator, Enrico Mendes Saggioro, from the Oswaldo Cruz Institute.

“Cocaine has a low half-life in the environment … so, for us to find it in an animal like this, it means a lot of drugs are entering the biota,” he said.

“In other studies, I had already found cocaine in rivers flowing into the sea off Rio, but it was a surprise to find it in sharks – and at such a high level,” said Saggioro.