Grant proposal:
- salaries: 100k
- fish tank and equipment: 20k
- chemical supplies: 500k
- animal acquisition and maintenance: 50k
We justify the expenditure in this study with the need to repeat the experiment up to 500 times to reach statistical significance. The ethics committee approved the project after testing the sample of preliminary evidence we provided them with.
You make this joke, but Im sure there are conservatives already harping on this as a waste of money- meanwhile its super valuable to know the effective of human waste on fish behavior to help mitigate the damage
Like the shrimp on the treadmill.
The animal welfare committee has concluded the most humane way to coke up the fish is for the researchers to also do a few bumps so they feel like it’s a party.
Is the Swedish study that tested cocaine in salmon and found the cocaine fish swam further than sober fish but both swam less than the salmon who ingested metabolized cocaine surprisingly swam the furthest. This is important because it shows human drug use is screwing up nature. The metabolized cocaine is benzoylecgonine found in human urine and it is being absorbed by the fish. It’s super interesting to see how even on dry land humans can change the sea without trying.
Are people really using enough cocaine that its impact on the ocean is significant? Like I’m guessing a lot of people drive a car, which I’m guessing is a lot worse than cocaine.
Benzoylecgonine is very stable. It can in fact be analyzed in tap water in communities that recycle waste water to determine how much cocaine is being used.
Indeed, but it is a fair question to ask: what is the actual concentration in the ocean? I did not read the study, possibly they used a concentration similar to the one encountered in oceans.
Seeing as this is about salmon, it’s probably more relevant to ask about the concentration in rivers. A river downstream from a reasonable size city likely has a not insignificant level. I assume the ocean is effectively nothing though.
This was actually a really good study. While cocaine certainly fucks them up, it’s actually the human-cocaine metabolite that’s more impactful! So, ya know, we gotta make sure we’re doing waste water treatment so as to not fuck over the fish from the Saturday night, town-wide benders y’all keep having.
My adhd ass watching as fish get better stimulant medication than I can get. Life is chaos lmao.
I heard that they were trying to get the WHO to decriminalise coca leaf. Would be great if a cup of tea could replace a controlled substance for ADHD treatment. More research needed ofc but hey, it’s hopeful
shocked pikachu face
I’m sure salmon would love that when they’re swimming upstream back to their spawning pools.
Some days ago there was literally an article about this shared around here that says the coked up salmon are swimming for longer and further for their mating season.
What the fuck?
