Texas dolphins are high on fentanyl, study finds

Slightly more than 20% of dolphins swimming along the Texas Gulf Coast have been exposed to fentanyl, according to a study published last month by Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. Researchers from TAMU-CC, along with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and Precision Toxicology Consultancy, began testing dolphins along a stretch of Texas Gulf Coast between Redfish Bay and Laguna Madre in 2022 after a deceased cetacean was found to have had high levels of the synthetic opioid in its blubber. The study also included 12 historic dolphin tissue samples from the Mississippi Sound collected in 2013.