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.
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