Shrimp on Antidepressant Not So Happy

The oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico isn't the only threat to crustaceans.

Shrimp exposed to the human antidepressant fluoxetine, also known by the brand name Prozac, are changing their behavior in dangerous ways, according to scientists at the University of Portsmouth in the United Kingdom.

The shrimp become five times more likely to swim toward light, potentially bringing them closer to fishermen's nets and birds beaks.

“Crustaceans are crucial to the food chain. And if shrimps’ natural behavior is being changed because of antidepressant levels in the sea, this could seriously upset the natural balance of the ecosystem,” lead researcher Alex Ford said in a university press release.

“Much of what humans consume you can detect in the water in some concentration," Ford said. "We’re a nation of coffee drinkers and there is a huge amount of caffeine found in waste water, for example. It’s no surprise that what we get from the pharmacy will also be contaminating the country’s waterways.”

Drugs can get into our waterways in a variety of ways, including toilets, landfills and sewage runoff, according to a recent report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA).

Traces of those drugs end up in human waste, which then gets flushed down the toilet. Waste water treatment facilities haven't traditionally tested for pharmaceuticals and therefore haven't been able to remove all drug compounds before releasing waste water into rivers and oceans.

That's how drugs end up being fed to shrimp, Ford says.

“Effluent is concentrated in river estuaries and coastal areas, which is where shrimps and other marine life live," he said.

Read the full article here here

People whom have had near death experience often reported walking in a dark tunnel going towards a shining beacon of light, presumably at the end of the tunnel. In a horribly reversed role, the light here spells the end for these crustaceans.

Isn't this a vicious cycle, that we end up consuming waste that we dispose of in the first place?

I'll never look at my hae in the same light again..