Cocaine, caffeine found in sharks in the Bahamas, study says – National-Breaking News, Latest Updates

In 2011, the country established the Bahamas Shark Sanctuary, protecting its entire ocean territory by banning commercial shark fishing and trade in shark products.

The study attributed its findings in part to tourism, which it says is a “major economic driver” that, when coupled with an increase in the number of vacation homes and rental properties, “significantly heightens the volume and chemical complexity of local wastewater.”

Many sharks inhabit shallow coastal areas where tourism traffic is high, which increases their exposure risk, the study added.

This has been a year of firsts for shark-related discoveries.

In Febraury, researchers released footage of a sleeper shark, captured in January 2025, traversing a barren Antarctic seabed, a finding that contradicted a widely held belief that the deep-sea dwellers don’t live in the region.

The shark was large, estimated at between three and four metres long, and was spotted swimming at a depth of 490 metres in temperatures hovering just above 1 degree Celsius.

Data on sharks’ travel patterns and ranges in the region are relatively scarce due to its remoteness, experts said. And while climate change could be a contributing factor in the shark’s sighting, it’s also possible that slow-moving sleeper sharks were already in Antarctica and nobody ever noticed.

&copy 2026 global news, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.