GMB Host Double Take As Marine Biologist Claims Fish Are Full Of ‘Cocaine’ And ‘Antidepressants’
Good Morning Britain host Susanna Reid needed to check she’d heard marine biologist Professor Alex Ford correctly during a report by chief correspondent Richard Gaisford on pollution in British waters after he said every species looked at by his team was “full of cocaine.”
The report from Hampshire’s Langstone Harbour found that the marine animals were swimming in a cocktail of drugs, including contraceptive pills, antidepressants, and cocaine, a consequence of rampant sewage spills.
During his interview Prof. Ford, said that a local sewage treatment facility, overwhelmed by the waste of half a million people, was discharging untreated sewage into the waters.
“The sewage treatment plant behind us takes in the waste of half a million people, and when it can’t cope with it, it chucks it out here,” Ford told the reporter. “In the marine life, we are finding they are full of drugs – contraceptive pills, antidepressants – every single marine species that we’ve looked at so far is full of cocaine.”
This alarming contamination comes as new data from the Environment Agency, set for release on Wednesday, is anticipated to reveal an unprecedented surge in sewage spills last year, a nationwide-level contamination that could impact ecosystems and human health.
As Gaisford signed off Reid, back in the studio, in disbelief at what she’d heard asked for some clarification: “Sorry, Richard, can I just ask you to clarify with your expert there, if your expert is still there? Yes. Every marine species is full of cocaine, did he say? What…?”
Gaisford relayed: “They’re just asking about the cocaine that you’ve found. I mean, you’re sampling these marine species and you’re finding that what’s in the sewage water ends up in those species.”
“Yeah, exactly,” Prof. Ford said. “The drugs affect this wildlife in the same way that they do us. So if you give a fish contraceptive pill, it starts to feminise. If you give crabs antidepressants, it changes their behaviour because those drugs were designed to change behaviour. So if you give them illegal drugs as well, it has very much the same effect it has on them that it would do on people as well.
The reporter said: “But the fact that you’re finding it in them shows there’s… quite a high concentration of nasty stuff coming out of that pipe.”
The expert continued: “Yeah, most certainly, and obviously it’s all joined together, so these species don’t get exposed to just one of these compounds, they get exposed to all of them at the same time.”
Watch above on Good Morning Britain.
