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--></style></head><body lang="EN-US" link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72"><div class="WordSection1"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#0000cc"><a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2018-09/documents/fish-news-aug2018.pdf?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery">https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2018-09/documents/fish-news-aug2018.pdf?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery</a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#0000cc"> </span></p><p class="Default"><span style="font-size:17.0pt">Cocaine in the Water is Hurting River Eels </span></p><p class="Default"><span style="font-family:"Georgia",serif">Smithsonian.com reported on June 20, 2018, that the Earth’s waters are being laced with prescription and over-the counter medications. Some of these drugs are caffeine, antibiotics, and personal care products. Marine environments are also tainted with illegal drugs, and a recent study demonstrates just how harmful these illicit substances can be to aquatic wildlife. As Michael Marshall reports for <i>New Scientist</i>, researchers in Italy have found that small amounts of cocaine in water can make eels hyperactive and cause significant muscle damage. </span></p><p class="Default"><span style="font-family:"Georgia",serif"> </span></p><p class="Default"><span style="font-family:"Georgia",serif">These findings are disconcerting, because European eels (<i>Anguilla anguilla</i>) in the wild are critically endangered with their future compromised by factors like habitat-loss, dam construction, pollution, and over-fishing. </span></p><p class="Default"><span style="font-family:"Georgia",serif"> </span></p><p class="Default"><span style="font-family:"Georgia",serif">The researchers first took 150 European eels that had been raised on farms and divided them into several different tanks. Some of the tanks contained small amounts of cocaine—20 nanograms per liter, which corresponds to the </span><b><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">Fish and Shellfish Program, August 2018 </span></b><span style="font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:windowtext">mean concentration of the drug that has been detected in surface waters—and some were filled with tap water. The eels were kept in the tanks for 50 days. Then two groups of the cocaine-exposed eels were placed in tanks of cocaine free water—one group for three days, the other for ten. </span></p><p class="Default"><span style="font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:windowtext"> </span></p><p class="Default"><span style="font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:windowtext">At the end of the experiment, the eels were killed and dissected for analysis. The results, published in <i>Science of the Total Environment</i>, showed that the cocaine-exposed eels suffered a host of adverse health effects. </span></p><p class="Default"><span style="font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:windowtext"> </span></p><p class="Default"><span style="font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:windowtext">While the experiment was ongoing the eels swam unusually fast but otherwise seemed as healthy as the drug-free eels. Their insides, however, told a different story. According to Joshua Rapp Learn of <i>National Geographic</i>, the researchers found that cocaine had accumulated in the animals’ muscles, brains, gills, skin, and other tissue. Their muscles were swollen and even showed signs of fiber breakdown. </span></p><p class="Default"><span style="font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:windowtext"> </span></p><p class="Default"><span style="font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:windowtext">European eels spend up to 20 years in fresh waters then undertake a vast migration across the Atlantic to spawn in the Sargasso Sea east of the Caribbean. “This means that, in addition to sufficient energy reserves, the eel needs a healthy skeletal muscle and an efficient aerobic metabolism in order to complete successfully its migration,” the study authors write. If their muscles are damaged, the eels’ ability to complete the journey could be compromised. </span></p><p class="Default"><span style="font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:windowtext"> </span></p><p class="Default"><span style="font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:windowtext">There are a number of ways that drugs can end up in rivers, streams, and other bodies of water. Sometimes, they are improperly discarded—flushed down the toilet, for instance. In addition, human bodies only metabolize a small amount of the drugs that are consumed. The rest is excreted in urine or feces and can end up in wastewater, according to Harvard Health Publishing. </span></p><p class="Default"><span style="font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:windowtext">Studies have shown that a host of animals are affected by the drugs that pollute marine environments. In 2016, for example, oysters from two Oregon bays were found to contain traces of medications like antibiotics, antihistamines, and pain relievers. Fish with both male and female sex traits have been found in Northeastern waterways, and scientists believe that hormones from birth control pills might be contributing to the problem. </span></p><p class="Default"><span style="font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:windowtext"> </span></p><p class="Default"><span style="font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:windowtext">And, as the authors of the recent study point out, drugs in the water could potentially have negative implications for humans. It’s possible that people who eat European eel may inadvertently be consuming cocaine, too: “Since the skeletal muscle is the edible part of the eel, and bioaccumulates cocaine to a large extent, these results suggest the possibility that cocaine could be taken by humans with food, although further studies are needed to verify this hypothesis,” the researchers write. </span></p><p class="Default"><span style="font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:windowtext"> </span></p><p class="Default"><span style="font-family:"Franklin Gothic Demi Cond",sans-serif;color:windowtext">Reference </span></p><p class="Default"><span style="font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:windowtext">Capaldo, A., G. Flaminia, M. Lepretti, G. Paolella, S. Martucciello, L. Lionetti, I. Caputo, and V. Laforgia. 2018. Effects of environmental cocaine concentrations on the skeletal muscle of the European eel (<i>Anguilla anguilla</i>). <i>Science of the Total Environment </i>640-641:862-873. </span></p><p class="Default"><span style="font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:windowtext"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif">Source: <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/how-cocaine-water-harms-european-eels-180969421/?utm_source=smithsoniantopic&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20180624-Weekender&spMailingID=34831632&spUserID=Njc0NzAwMjU5MjcyS0&spJobID=1302279221&spReportId=MTMwMjI3OTIyMQS2">https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/how-cocaine-water-harms-european-eels-180969421/?utm_source=smithsoniantopic&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20180624-Weekender&spMailingID=34831632&spUserID=Njc0NzAwMjU5MjcyS0&spJobID=1302279221&spReportId=MTMwMjI3OTIyMQS2</a></span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#0000cc"></span></p></div></body></html>