Traces of fentanyl have been found inside bottlenose dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico, raising concerns that pharmaceuticals may be affecting sea life in the Gulf.
Researchers at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi (TAMU-CC) studied 89 dolphins from three areas of the Gulf of Mexico and found traces of drugs in 30 of them, including 24 that had traces of fentanyl.
“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,” doctoral student Makayla Guinn said, according to KCRA TV News.
Dara Orbach, the study’s lead author, said the findings are disturbing.
“Pharmaceuticals have become emerging micropollutants and are a growing global concern as their presence has been reported in freshwater ecosystems, rivers, and oceans worldwide,” Orbach said.
Guinn said there were more than 3,000 different pharmaceutical compounds inside the dolphin blubber, including opioids, sedatives and relaxants.
The study traces its roots to a routine boating survey in September 2020, when university researchers recovered a dead dolphin in the Gulf. About two years later, they used the carcass for hormone blubber analysis and came across the drug.
Since then, the TAMU-CC researchers have run tissue samples from 89 dolphins — including 83 collected via live dolphin biopsies and six from dead dolphins — through a mass spectrometer, looking to see how widespread the contamination was.
Orbach said that dolphins’ fatty blubber is a good indicator of ocean pollutant levels because it can store contaminants and be sampled in a minimally invasive way in live animals. She described dolphins as a bioindicator species of ecosystem health.
The dolphins were found in Redfish Bay and the Laguna Madre in Texas and in the Mississippi Sound, along the Gulf Coast of the U.S. states of Mississippi and Alabama.
While pharmaceuticals were found in 30 of the 89 samples, fentanyl was found in all six of the dead dolphins.
“These drugs and pharmaceuticals are entering our water, and they have cascading effects in our marine life,” Guinn added.
The big question the TAMU-CC researchers haven’t been able to answer, according to KCRA TV News, is how did fentanyl get into the dolphins’ blubber?
As dolphins don’t drink seawater — they get water mainly from the breakdown of their food — they may have acquired the chemicals through their diet or absorption through the skin, the science news media outlet Science Alert speculated.
One possibility mentioned by TAMU-CC researchers is that the drugs come from wastewater absorbed by the dolphins’ prey, such as fish and shrimp. This would be a concern since humans eat fish and shrimp.
Orbach hopes their findings lead to more wide-ranging research to trace the fentanyl’s source and to limit potential damage to the ecosystem.
Another potential source of contamination is from the fentanyl and other synthetic drugs being trafficked by Mexican drug cartels via the Gulf of Mexico.
Given that more than a quarter of Earth’s rivers have been found to contain pharmaceuticals, according to Science Alert, it’s perhaps no surprise that these drugs are being found in sea life.
In July, the magazine Science reported that researchers in Brazil found traces of cocaine in the livers and muscles of sharks. Studies have shown that cocaine likely enters the sea in drainage from illegal labs where cocaine is refined.
With reports from Science Alert, KCRA News, Aristegui Noticias and El Pais
![Speaking at an event on Friday in Mexico City, Mexico's economy minister said, "I guarantee you we're going to find [a way around]" Trump's tariffs.](https://mexiconewsdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/1013970_Seminario-Perspectivas-Economicas-ITAM-4_impreso-218x150.jpg "Economy minister: Trump tariff plan is unviable")
I bet they also have mega microplastics in their system too.
So damn sad
This breaks my heart. Really sad stuff. Look what mankind has done now! Another reason to avoid seafood!
We are what we eat- ATE. It’s not just about what we eat. It’s what eat- ate. Grow a carrot in soil laden with arsenic, and you are “what it ate”.. Fish are living sponges. Just a few decades ago, fish grazed on algae on the ocean floor. We can’t metabolize algae efficiently, but fish can. So we ate the fish who ate the algae and absorbed a fair amount of Omega 3’s.
That was then. This is now.
And don’t let words mislead you. The only thing the word “ wild “ means today, is that they had a great time in High School. Even “ Wild” Alaskan Salmon, the few that purportedly still are, from places like the Copper River, were hatched from eggs from farmed hatcheries. Be weary of words. Words like Natural or “Organic”? Sewage is organic! Today, fish are toxic sponges, corrupted by mankind. Still another terrific MND article! I mean, who
knew? Today, these precious creatures are loaded with much more than Mercury. Now it’s fentanyl and prescription drugs as well as all sorts of other pollutants.
Oh, and that healthy Algae thing? Good luck. Most are raised in cages and get lice in close cramped quarters, never gettin down to the ocean floor. Unless they escape and breed with the other pour souls.
Very sad, and really shameful.
Manmade panaceas and “silver bullet” solutions to the problematic human situations and conditions that continue happening not so much in spite of, but more often than not because of “human progress”, may be advancing human interests at the increasingly visible expense of our terrestrial biosphere.
Las panaceas artificiales y las soluciones milagrosas a las situaciones y condiciones humanas problemáticas que siguen ocurriendo no tanto a pesar del “progreso humano”, sino más a menudo debido a él, pueden estar promoviendo intereses humanos a expensas cada vez más visibles de nuestra biosfera terrestre.
SEE THE COMMENTS BUT NOT THE ARTICLE…2ND TIME FOR ME.
Disgusting and extremely sad that this is what we do to this amazing planet God has given us to master and care for. Pharmaceuticals are a plague. Illegal drugs like fentanyl (completely synthetic) are completely in our domain of control….yet we do nothing but blame each other for the problem. It’s the consumers and the makers, and the USA is at the center of all the problems.
We need to look at instituting a “just say NO” program for these dolphins. So sad. 🙁