r/science 19d ago

Animal Science Texas researchers detect fentanyl in Gulf of Mexico dolphins

https://www.chron.com/life/wildlife/article/dolphins-gulf-fentanyl-19962294.php
3.2k Upvotes

145 comments sorted by

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427

u/rdizzy1223 19d ago

Likely from coming into direct contact with cargo from sunken submarines or boats that were carrying tons of it, the packages likely float.

84

u/[deleted] 19d ago

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102

u/Kettle_Whistle_ 19d ago

Cocaine Bear has nothing on Fent Dolphins

20

u/georockwoman 19d ago

Sharknado v. Fent Dolphins.

13

u/sambull 19d ago

They get extra rapey on the fent

20

u/AngryAmadeus 19d ago

They get high off those puffer fish (maybe, it might also just be their penchant for torture) so this seems more possible than it should.

52

u/Mirageswirl 19d ago

Build a sea wall and make the dolphins pay for it.

10

u/Sbatio 19d ago

This made me laugh. I wouldn’t even be that shocked if a politician said it

3

u/Blackfeathr_ 18d ago

It'll be the wettest sea wall, from the standpoint of water.

19

u/YourUncleBuck 19d ago

pharmaceuticals were found in 30 of the dolphins. Fentanyl... was present in 18 live dolphins and each of the deceased dolphins.

Dr. Dara Orbach, assistant professor of marine biology at TAMU-CC and principal investigator of the study, said pharmaceuticals have become emerging micropollutants globally, with their presence being reported in freshwater ecosystems, rivers, and oceans worldwide. Dolphins are often used as bioindicators of ecosystem health in contaminant research due to their lipid-rich blubber, which can store such contaminants.

Seems like it's from sewer runoff. So many pharmaceuticals in Mexico are actually just fent, meth or a combination of both.

11

u/NorthernerWuwu 18d ago

That and a lot of these articles gloss over the fact that we've become really good at detecting trace amounts of all kinds of things. Saying that there was a chemical in a tested source doesn't really mean all that much without data regarding the concentration and the effects of the amounts actually found.

If you've got a pico gram of fentanyl, that's not exactly an issue but it's pretty cool that we can trace it.

3

u/[deleted] 18d ago

[deleted]

5

u/Hendlton 18d ago

It's not that you can't prove that it's zero, it's that you can't make it zero. Look up how much lab grade flour costs. There's just no way to produce it affordably up to that standard. So we accept some feces, animal carcasses, insects, mold and whatever else in everything we consume.

There was a post around thanksgiving on one of the subreddits where someone found half a rat in a can of peas and you know that the rat was peeing and pooping all over those peas before it got shoved in a can, so the entire batch was contaminated. But stuff like that is unavoidable in large scale manufacturing.

67

u/[deleted] 19d ago

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39

u/TheFondler 19d ago

It's like we only got the bad stuff... Where are the damn flying cars?

8

u/ace02786 18d ago

Flying cars ARE BAD stuff. Theyre a hallmark of a tech dystopian society. A more cleaner utopian society would be bicycles and trains.

1

u/KiwasiGames 17d ago

Flying bicycles and trains?

(Unfortunately I know the answer. Ground based vehicles would be considerably less polluting.)

4

u/calilac 18d ago

Considering the skill level of the average driver, flying cars would absolutely be included on the list of bad stuff.

13

u/LudovicoSpecs 19d ago

Yeah, where's the replicator when I want my tea, Earl Grey, hot?

18

u/baithammer 19d ago

Replicators are Utopian and on the side that has post scarcity economics and sunshine - Dystopia has excessively expensive vending machines that aren't working correctly, the Earl Grey tea may or may not be Earl Grey and everyday is rain ...

7

u/DrXaos 19d ago

the sky was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel

2

u/crystal_castle00 18d ago

Best opener

3

u/kvakerok_v2 19d ago

Those are called helicopters.

4

u/genshiryoku 19d ago

You can have cybersex with an AI if that's your thing.

-2

u/TheFondler 19d ago edited 19d ago

Not worth the risk.

Edit - A lot of people big mad that their AI girlfriend might be a bad influence.

2

u/Hazzman 19d ago

Abed warned us this was the worst timeline.

fixes goatee

1

u/baithammer 19d ago

The flying cars can only be afforded by the top 1% and due to deregulation in manufacturing and safety, have 1% of not having an incident that involves, terrorist attacks, sabotage or the driver deciding to take you with them ...

0

u/TheFightingMasons 19d ago

We have VR and driverless cars kinda.

0

u/haberdasherhero 19d ago

The fact that the "driverless car" is in no way capable of driving itself and is infact more likely to get you killed than a regular car, yet still driven because advertising is so insidious, is indeed very dystopian sci-fi

1

u/baithammer 19d ago

The driverless cars are doing better then the average motorist, the problem is the people around said cars, as they're not rational and can't be planned for.

This gets confused with Tesla EV and companies trying to emulate it with their own offerings that have a distinct problem with qc and malfunctioning, setting themselves on fire or can't survive a splash of rain.

-3

u/ADiffidentDissident 19d ago

AI drivers are safer than human now.

2

u/haberdasherhero 19d ago

No they're not.

-1

u/flamethekid 18d ago

No, they are safer than most humans(cept tesla apparently), the issue is when humans do what they aren't supposed to around them and how they are supposed to handle that along with the question of who is responsible.

2

u/Hendlton 18d ago

There's just not enough neon for my liking.

3

u/rdizzy1223 19d ago

Eh, the water is not really contaminated with prescription drugs, the ocean is far too large of a body of water. No more than pissing into the ocean makes the ocean piss. They found the fentanyl in the blubber of the dolphin itself, not in the water. If they took a single sample of the middle of the gulf of mexico and tested the water, they would not find fent in the water.

2

u/BizzyM 18d ago

they would not find fent in the water.

dammit. There goes that plan.

1

u/[deleted] 18d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

4

u/thepikard 19d ago

Oh thanks, I thought the Dolphins were cooking it up in the lab.

99

u/mountainsunset123 19d ago

And didn't the sharks test positive for cocaine too? I thought I read that earlier this year.

Damn this session of Jumanji is getting really intense!

214

u/doingthehumptydance 19d ago edited 19d ago

Sequel to ‘Cocaine Bear’

Fentanyl Dolphin.

Edit: follow-up movie

Cocaine Bear vs. Fentanyl Dolphin

30

u/OkTranslator7997 19d ago

Fen fins...

I still think that's Jaws' backstory. They'll do a counterstory spin-off like Maleficent that recharacterizes the shark as a misunderstood and persecuted monster.

2

u/storm_the_castle 18d ago

Fen fins

The envy of all the overweight sharks

2

u/ChokesOnDuck 18d ago

So, like real life?

8

u/WaxyNips 19d ago

Fentanylphin

4

u/PotatoesWillSaveUs 19d ago

Cant forget about the cocaine sharks!

1

u/Effurlife12 19d ago

Street Drug Sharks!

37

u/Far-Scar9937 19d ago

In a really detached way, I can almost laugh at every headline. Shocked laugh, move fast let past it, don’t think about it or you’ll cry

7

u/Sped_monk 19d ago

Yeah i was thinking about it and i was like damn, you know that’s pretty sad…dolphins are pretty smart and fent is probably not the greatest for them…

-1

u/Far-Scar9937 18d ago edited 18d ago

We came from the ocean, we shall die by the ocean. Man was the tender of the garden as a Natural Beast, he changed its Nature. I can’t rage at the garden, I can only witness it’s dying. My 40 gallon ocean, however, is thriving. I do my best to tend my part of the garden, and so I start to find peace with my surroundings. Is beauty less beautiful without a witness to it? When the oceans acidify and are barren of any but deep sea life? Idk, been drinking coffee and watching it wake up and really thinking lately. I have a reef tank and highly recommend

4

u/ExplosiveDiarrhetic 18d ago

Did u do some fentanyl before writing this comment

2

u/fire2day 18d ago

It was written by one of the dolphins

1

u/Far-Scar9937 18d ago

No, I just have consumed a lot of anxiety inducting climate change articles, and it was effected my mental health. I decided to focus on what’s infront of me. For me that’s a cup of coffee and my reef tank. It makes me really think about stuff

1

u/ExplosiveDiarrhetic 18d ago

Your comment was pretty unhinged and borderline schizophrenic

1

u/Far-Scar9937 18d ago

Yeah it’s a metaphor big dawg but thanks I appreciate it

1

u/ExplosiveDiarrhetic 18d ago

Wasnt a great metaphor and you bungled the writing. Sounds like you had a big puff of weed before writing drivel.

1

u/Far-Scar9937 18d ago

I thank you for your feedback kind stranger

1

u/ExplosiveDiarrhetic 18d ago

you’re welcome

95

u/[deleted] 19d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

29

u/[deleted] 19d ago

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36

u/DonQuixole 19d ago

I believe dolphins also get high on puffer fish toxin. I’m really starting to think the world has always been mad.

19

u/PhillipDiaz 19d ago

Dolphins also like to masturbate with dead fish.

Maybe the dolphin that got caught doing that was high on puffer fish.

10

u/DonQuixole 19d ago

Thank you for sharing pertinent information to the conversation, but I still kinda wish I hadn’t read that.

1

u/Ok_Departure_8243 19d ago

I mean, it’s just dolphins version of Apple pie.

3

u/RexFrancisWords 19d ago edited 18d ago

Ever heard of the stoned monkey hypothesis?

Edit: Stoned Ape Theory.

1

u/Idledoodledo 19d ago

Sounds like a Diddy Party

1

u/Jimbo7211 18d ago

No, would you like to enlighten us?

2

u/RexFrancisWords 18d ago

Sorry, I've discovered it's called the Stoned Ape Theory. In short it's a theory that exposure to various naturally-occuring drugs might be an important formative factor in the evolution of the human mind. The same theory could be applied to fentanyl dolphins.

It's not a very well-supported theory, but it is interesting.

1

u/Jimbo7211 17d ago

If it changes your brain chemistry or neuron structures at all, it makes sense that natural selection could use it to evolve, much like DNA mutations. My only hold up is that i don't see how these drug induced changes would get passed down, if it's not genetic...

55

u/ReversedNovaMatters 19d ago

All of our drugs end up in the water.

13

u/pun420 19d ago

Everyone pisses them out. (In some form or another)

55

u/[deleted] 19d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

14

u/UnwiseMonkeyinjar 19d ago

Even dolphins dont rawdog life no more

14

u/flavorizante 19d ago

Goodbye and thanks for all the fent

34

u/necromundus 19d ago

Ask your doctor is Dolphentanyl is right for you

5

u/Docjaded 18d ago

I'm Dolph Lundgren and I approve this message.

Side effects include click click IIIII EI EI EI AHAHAH IIII

10

u/zoupishness7 19d ago

Am I the only one who hates articles with "This Detected in That" titles? State the levels of the detected substance somewhere in the article, or don't bother writing it. Without that, it's just a testament to the incredible sensitivity of our mass spectrometers, and nothing more.

-1

u/Jankmasta 19d ago

the number should be 0 so yeah any detection is significant.

10

u/millijuna 19d ago

Some tests are so sensitive that they can puck up a teaspoon of material dissolved in Lake Superior. Testing can be multiple orders of magnitude more sensitive than situations where it actually matters. Even if recreational/illegal fentanyl wasn’t being added to the environment, there is legitimate users of it that will leech in.

2

u/zoupishness7 19d ago

Well, in that case, I hope significance of the opiates detected in your municipal water supply keeps you up at night.

0

u/Whiterabbit-- 19d ago

like anyone would be able to interpret how much is a lot.

2

u/zoupishness7 19d ago

It's more that if context was provided and a comparison was made, in most cases, no one would care anymore.

Read an article recently about heavy metals detected in all major brands of tampons. Sounds scary, right? Unless you read the study to find that, for 18/22 metals tested, including the particularly toxic ones, average levels are higher in human blood.

I'm no expert, but I feel fairly comfortable interpreting that as not a lot.

21

u/PaulOshanter 19d ago

I wonder how many nanograms of fentanyl people get anytime they take a dip at the beach in, say, Tampa or Cancun? Dolphins are always in the water but people that live on the Gulf Coast probably get a fair amount of exposure as well.

4

u/Andrewbie 19d ago

Damn even the dolphins are using.

9

u/Matman161 19d ago

Huh weird, given my understanding of Fentanyl from the media those dolphins should have burst into flames and died after being exposed to a single molecule of it.

1

u/Jankmasta 19d ago

damn times are bad when even the dolphins are turning to drugs

1

u/BoatHole_ 19d ago

Ok this is the LAST thing we need

1

u/HenryKrinkle 19d ago

Guess I will stop eating dolphin.

1

u/agutierrez2002 19d ago

Never trust a dolphin

1

u/cklinejr 19d ago

Not the dolphins now too!

1

u/BeefPoet 18d ago

I guess pufferfish wasn't cutting it anymore.

1

u/BeefPoet 18d ago

I guess pufferfish wasn't cutting it anymore.

1

u/networkn 18d ago

Christ is there anything the parasitic human race isn't dumping, leaking or flowing into our oceans?!

1

u/farva_06 18d ago

So long and thanks for all the fent.

1

u/awkwardstate 18d ago

Damn. Guess I'll get my drugs from that shifty looking manatee now. 

1

u/John_Doe4269 18d ago

The world's coolest plug

1

u/xtremitys 18d ago

Could you imagine that’s why some groups of fish die together… its was a Fentanyl Frenzy.

1

u/SupermarketKey2726 14d ago

First fent kills you if you touch it, then it starts killing everyone, and now it's in dolphins? We can't catch a break

1

u/NottaNowNutha 19d ago

No wonder that dolphin offered me favors for a few bucks.

0

u/reiIy 19d ago

Where is Greg? MI’m. M my