Fentanyl discovered in dolphins: What it means for marine animals

Fentanyl, a drug infamous for its devastating effects on human health, has now surfaced in a completely unexpected domain: marine life. Researchers at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi recently made a startling discovery – traces of fentanyl and other pharmaceuticals in the blubber of bottlenose dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico.

This revelation, born from a routine boating survey, raises urgent questions about the contamination of marine ecosystems and its cascading effects.

A chance discovery

In September 2020, researchers conducting a routine boating survey stumbled upon a dead dolphin floating in Gulf waters.

The team took the dolphin to their lab. Two years later, when the carcass was used for hormone blubber analysis, the researchers uncovered something alarming.

“When I started this project, we did what we call an untargeted study of the blubber, where we put it in a very fancy instrument that’s able to resolve all the compounds inside. We were looking for what we actually found,” explained Makayla Guinn, a doctoral student at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

Guinn and her team collaborated with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Texas Parks and Wildlife, and Precision Toxicological Consultancy, with additional support from the Frazier Family Foundation.

The analysis revealed over 3,000 compounds in the dolphin’s blubber, including sedatives, relaxants, and, most alarmingly, fentanyl.

Fentanyl in dolphins

The study expanded to include 89 dolphin blubber samples. Of these, 83 were collected from live dolphin biopsies and six from deceased dolphins.

Pharmaceuticals were detected in 30 of these samples. Disturbingly, fentanyl was present in all six of the deceased dolphins.

Dolphins were sampled from Redfish Bay, the Laguna Madre in Texas, and the Mississippi Sound. These locations are significant not only for their ecological importance but also for their role in the local fishing industry.

“Dolphins are often used to examine ecosystem health in contaminant research because their blubber can store contaminants and be sampled,” Guinn said.

Fentanyl crisis beyond dolphins

The United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) classifies fentanyl as being 100 times more potent than morphine. Its presence in dolphin blubber underscores a worrying trend of pharmaceutical contamination in marine ecosystems.

“It’s not something we were looking for, so of course we were alarmed to find something like fentanyl, especially with the fentanyl crisis happening in the world right now,” Guinn noted.

“These drugs and pharmaceuticals are entering our water, and they have cascading effects in our marine life.”

Possible sources of contamination

The study’s lead investigator, Dr. Dara Orbach, highlighted the challenge of tracing the source of the fentanyl in dolphins.

“One possibility but not the only possibility is that drugs might be coming from our wastewater,” said Dr. Orbach.

“It’s likely they’re getting these pharmaceuticals in their system from eating prey. Those prey being the same fish and shrimp that we’re also eating over here, considering that the Coastal Bend is such an important fishing community, locally.”

Dr. Orbach pointed out that this contamination is not a new issue. “Some of these samples we looked at are more than a decade old, and those animals also had pharmaceuticals. So we think this is a longstanding problem that no one’s been looking at.”

Pharmaceuticals in marine ecosystems

This discovery has implications that extend far beyond dolphins. Pharmaceuticals entering marine ecosystems could potentially affect a wide array of marine organisms, disrupting food chains and ecosystems.

The contamination may also have repercussions for human health, particularly in regions dependent on seafood from these waters.

Future research directions

Both Guinn and Orbach are committed to advancing this research. They aim to identify the precise sources of pharmaceutical contamination and bring greater awareness to the issue.

“We’re hoping to bring about more awareness to the community on how important it is to preserve our wildlife,” said Guinn.

As this research on fentanyl in bottlenose dolphins progresses, the findings will undoubtedly shed light on the extent of pharmaceutical contamination and its far-reaching consequences for marine and human life.

The study, “Pharmaceuticals in the Blubber of Live Free-Swimming Common Bottlenose Dolphins,” offers a foundation for further exploration and calls for urgent action to address this silent crisis.

The study is published in the journal iScience.

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