Caffeine Level In Sea Causes Concern

DarkHand writes "Researchers at the Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU) have spent three years looking for trace remains of pharmaceuticals in drainage water and the sea near Tromsoe in northern Norway. The project has focused on 16 substances and a high concentration of caffeine was one of the surprising finds. Need a lift in the morning? Have a refreshing glass of seawater!"

Comments

Re:Caffeine is bad today

[ObviousGuy]

Not to me. I've been drinking a lot of coffee and pissing in the fjords.

Speaking for myself

[squiggleslash]

As a scuba diver, I'm somewhat concerned about this.

Contrary to popular myth, most sharks one comes across in the ocean are docile creatures who just want to be left alone and will occasionally stop resting in order to find something to eat - fish, generally, or surfers if they decide the surfers look a little too much like seals. (No, I'm not making this up.) I "swim with" sharks all the time (I put that in quotes, it's not exactly the same as, say, swimming with dolphins, but the point is man and shark can inhabit the same parts of the ocean without one trying to devour the other, or the need for shark cages, etc. Now, Great Whites are another matter, but I don't like off the coast of Australia.)

Now, if caffiene levels in the ocean rise, what's going to happen to the sharks? Are they going to ever be able to get any sleep? Is their judgement going to be further impaired - I mean, they already confuse surfers with seals, are they likely to confuse divers with some sort of fish? Are they going to be constantly tired, irritable, yet alert?

Or will the effects be even more dramatic: will I go diving only to see sharks outputing hundreds of lines of poorly written but amazingly creative C code, at two in the morning?