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Young salmon in a fish rearing facility in Kirchhundem-Albaum: Panic behavior
Photo: Landesumweltamt NRW / picture alliance / dpa
The strange behavior of young salmon in a fish rearing facility in the Sauerland may have a curious background: analysts from the State Environment Agency North Rhine-Westphalia (Lanuv) were able to detect the drug cocaine and a cocaine degradation product in one of the streams.
It was in June 2020 when a fish management foreman at the Lanuv location in Kirchhundem-Albaum observed an atypical behavior in the animals kept for a species protection project: "The salmon tried to jump out of the water in panic," reports Daniel Fey, head of the fishery ecology and aquaculture department. The behavior indicated a contamination of the inlet water, which the salmon intuitively wanted to avoid. "It was a response to a feeling of discomfort."
Water samples from the inlet water and the basin were taken and examined using a high-precision analyzer.
A few days later the result was available: Plant protection products from agriculture and pharmaceuticals from wastewater were found, all in small quantities.
However, two substances that had also been discovered drew the attention of the fish experts: cocaine and its breakdown product benzoylecgonine.
The analysts did not find the substances in the fish tank itself, but this could have been due to a high degree of dilution in the tank.
“There was no clear cause of the fish's behavior to be found.
However, a reaction to the cocaine detected in the stream water cannot be ruled out, "writes the State Environment Agency in its recently submitted annual report under the heading" Salmon on coke ".
But where could the cocaine have come from?
A little later, Lanuv employees found a direct, illegal sewage discharge at the stream and reported this to the authorities.
Even the police took on the matter - to no avail.
There were no concrete indications that the introduction came from a certain area, said a police spokesman for the Olpe district police.
And the salmon?
"The next day you showed typical behavior again," says Fey.
The animals also suffered no permanent damage.
The "Neue Rhein / Neue Ruhr Zeitung" (NRZ) had previously reported on the matter.
abl / dpa