You’ve Heard of ‘Cocaine Bear,’ Now It’s Time for ‘Cocaine Sharks’: How to Watch the New Shark Week Special

Shark Week is shaping up to be a pretty wild affair in 2023. Not only will Jason Momoa, Aquaman himself, be hosting the week-long event, but a new special will be investigating whether sharks are prone to taking drugs. And no, we’re not joking.

Starring marine biologist Tom “The Blowfish” Hird and environmental scientist Tracy Fanara, Cocaine Sharks will investigate whether sharks in Florida are ingesting the loads of drugs that regularly get dumped in the waters offshore, and whether the discarded drugs have an effect on the predators.

“This is mad but also incredibly relevant,” Hird recently explained to Yahoo Entertainment. “It’s not just you throw out a wet nappy and it makes its way to the sea; it’s everything we take into our bodies, from caffeine to birth control, antidepressants and illegal drugs. They go through us and through our wastewater systems that aren’t built to manage those kind of chemicals, and then they’re making their way down river. Once they get to the ocean, who knows what they could be affecting.” 

There have been multiple reports in recent years of packages of cocaine washing up or being found in Florida waters, sometimes missing chunks, leading locals to believe sharks are chomping at the bales to try and detect food.

After observing some abnormal behavior in sharks in the Florida Keys, Fanara and Hird set up three experiments to see how sharks reacted to “cocaine” being dropped in the water.

One experiment included seeing whether sharks would be more inclined to go to fake swans or bales of fake cocaine. Guess which one they chose?

“The deeper story here is the way that chemicals, pharmaceuticals and illicit drugs are entering our waterways — entering our oceans — and what effect that they then could go on to have on these delicate ocean ecosystems,” Hird told Live Science.

Other experiments investigated how sharks would react to actually ingesting cocaine, though the scientists used a fish powder to mimic the dopamine rush instead of actual drugs. They also planned to take tissue and blood samples as part of their observations, but “unforeseen circumstances let us down at the eleventh hour,” Hird told Yahoo Entertainment.

Intrigued? Here’s what you need to know to watch Cocaine Sharks:

When does Cocaine Sharks premiere?

Cocaine Sharks will premiere on the Discovery Channel on Wednesday, July 26, at 10/9c.

How can I watch Cocaine Sharks? Cocaine Sharks streaming info:

Cocaine Sharks will be airing live on the Discovery Channel, but if you miss the special then, you can still watch after it airs. The show will also be streaming on Max with the rest of Shark Week, which will include other documentary specials such as Belly of the Beast: Feeding Frenzy and Alien Sharks: Strange New Worlds.

Hird hopes their experiments will inspire further research into the subject. Hopefully that means we’ll get a Cocaine Sharks sequel in time for the next Shark Week!