00:01We're finding these drugs in the tissues and muscles of wildlife, including fish.
00:08And so we wanted to understand what these, in particular in this study, cocaine could
00:13be doing to their behaviour.
00:15We tracked 100 juvenile Atlantic salmon, some were exposed to cocaine, some were exposed
00:21to the metabolite of cocaine, benzyl-colonine.
00:25And what we found was that actually the fish exposed to the metabolite, which we also
00:31find quite frequently in waterways, made fish move twice as much per week.
00:37And they also dispersed a lot further in the lake.
00:40It's not a risk to human health.
00:43We're finding these cocaine at very low concentrations.
00:47And so even if you happen to eat a fish that was exposed to cocaine, it's not going to affect
00:53you.
00:54But it is, we are finding more and more cocaine residue in our waterways, particularly in
01:01urban centres in Melbourne and Sydney.
01:05So this is not just a localised issue, it's a global concern.
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