Dolphins in Gulf of Mexico test positive for fentanyl

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We knew the Chinese were flooding our continent with fentanyl, but what we didn’t know is that the dolphin population was also getting in on the party.

That’s right, it’s the reason you clicked on this headline: Dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico have tested positive for fentanyl!

Yes, real story from a real study out of Texas.

The dolphin which set this study in motion was collected, floating dead in the water, back in 2020 by researchers at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. Two years later they would use the same dolphin, among others, for hormone blubber analysis, “where we put it in a very fancy instrument that’s able to resolve all the compounds inside.”

What they found was disquieting.

[A]t least 89 dolphin blubber samples were analyzed within the study, including 83 collected through live dolphin biopsies and six from dead dolphins. Pharmaceuticals were found in 30 of those samples. Fentanyl was found in all six of the dead dolphins, according to the publication.

So the cartels aren’t just killing our citizens; they’re killing our dolphins now – and that’s where I draw the line, at dolphins.

You don’t kill our dolphins!

The dolphins tested were found near Corpus Christi Bay, as well as in the Mississippi Sound (between New Orleans and Alabama).

A little info on why this is so important:

[D]olphins are often used to examine ecosystem health in contaminant research because their blubber can store contaminants and be sampled.

…

‘These drugs and pharmaceuticals are entering our water and they have cascading effects in our marine life,’ [Doctoral student Makayla] Guinn added.

Accompanying Guinn in the study was lead investigating researcher and marine biologist, Dr. Dara Orbach. The big question they haven’t been able to answer is ‘How did the fentanyl get in dolphin blubber?’.

‘One possibility but not the only possibility is that drugs might be coming from our waste water,’ Orbach said. ‘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.’

So, similar to all the prescription drugs that have made their way into our waterways, we now have a bunch of fentanyl, too.