Thirteen Brazilian sharpnose sharks (Scientific name:
Rhizoprionodon lalandii) caught off Rio de Janeiro have tested positive for cocaine, marine biologists who carried out the tests have reported.
High concentrations of cocaine were found in the sharks’ muscles and livers by researchers at the Rio de Janeiro-based Oswaldo Cruz Foundation. Benzoylecgonine was also detected in the same sharks. Benzoylecgonine is one of the byproducts produced when cocaine is consumed.
The 13 sharks were three males and 10 females, five of which were pregnant. All the sharks were captured from fishing boats off the coast of the state of Rio de Janeiro from September 2021 to August last year.
Samples were taken from the sharks, and the concentration of cocaine was found to be more than 100 times those previously reported in any other aquatic animals, according to the study.
Although further research is needed, the study suggests this is mostly down to more people using cocaine.
A rise in cocaine use in the region, coupled with an inadequate drainage system, has caused higher quantities of cocaine to be present in seawater.
The study states: “Global COC [cocaine] consumption has increased exponentially in the last decades, as highlighted in the United Nations World Drug Report. About 22% (4.8 million) of the estimated 22 million COC users worldwide reside in South America as of 2021, with Brazil emerging as the second largest consumer market in this area”.
The study added that sewage analysis covering 60 million people in 37 countries from 2011 to 2017 had consistently revealed the presence of cocaine in aquatic environments.
Experts warn of potential health effects on sharks, such as impaired vision affecting hunting abilities, but no evidence yet of altered behavior due to cocaine exposure.
The cat’s out of the bag.
On the 50th anniversary of Hello Kitty, fans were shocked to learn that their beloved cat-inspired character is, in fact, not a feline at all.
“Hello Kitty is not a cat”, Jill Koch, the senior vice president of marketing and brand management at Sanrio, the creators of the iconic cartoon, told Today. “She’s actually a little girl”.
In fact, she’s a tiny girl – who “weighs three apples” and stands five apples tall – raised in the London suburbs with her twin sister Mimmy, their parents and even her own pet cat.
But fans of the widely celebrated character are not so convinced of this fact, while some were gobsmacked that Hello Kitty resided in the UK.
“She has cat ears and whiskers???” one dismayed user wrote on TikTok.
“If she has ears like a cat, has whiskers like a cat, she is probably just a little girl”, quipped another.
“So she has whiskers, ears, and is named ‘Kitty,’ but is actually human? What?” an aghast viewer commented.
“She’s British?!” someone else said.
According to anthropologist and author Christine R Yano, “The Japanese and Japanese women were into Britain” at the time of Hello Kitty’s conception, she previously told the Los Angeles Times.
“They loved the idea of Britain. It represented the quintessential idealized childhood, almost like a white picket fence. So, the biography was created exactly for the tastes of that time”, she explained, adding that Hello Kitty is, in fact, “a little girl”.
Whatever lah! Anyway, we can expect a slew of festivities and plentiful memorabilia to celebrate this year!
