Florida
‘Cocaine sharks’ might be feasting on drugs dumped off Florida coast, scientists say

Sharks lurking off of Florida’s coast may be eating bundles of cocaine dumped in the ocean by US-bound drug smugglers — and scientists want to find out.
With the massive amounts of drugs washing up on beaches and being pulled out of the ocean by authorities each year, marine biologist Tom Hird wanted to investigate whether or not sharks had ingested cocaine as part of a new TV series “Cocaine Sharks” — which will premiere during Discovery Channel’s beloved “Shark Week” next week.
In the program, Hird and University of Florida environmental scientist Tracy Fanara conduct a number of experiments on sharks off the Florida Keys, where fishermen have reportedly told tales about drug-addicted fish.
“The deeper story here is the way that chemicals, pharmaceuticals and illicit drugs are entering our waterways — entering our oceans — and what effect that they then could go on to have on these delicate ocean ecosystems,” Hird told Live Science.

Hird and Fantana dove underwater and noticed some sharks acting strangely in the episode.
A hammerhead shark, a species that typically shies away from humans, darted right at them and appeared to be swimming askew.
At 60 feet below the surface, a sandbar shark was seen swimming in tight circles, appearing fixated on an object that was not there, according to the show.
Next, they tested how sharks reacted to the packages they dropped in the water which were similar in size and shape to cocaine bales.


In the experiment, they placed the fake bales next to dummy swans, and were shocked to watch sharks head directly for the bales and take bites out of them — with one shark even swimming away with one.
Hird and Fantana then attempted to ethically recreate the physical rush of cocaine with a highly-concentrated ball of fish powder to trigger a massive dopamine response from the sharks.
The sharks can be seen going wild, according to Live Science.
“I think we have got a potential scenario of what it may look like if you gave sharks cocaine,” Hird says on the program. “We gave them what I think is the next best thing. [It] set [their] brains aflame. It was crazy.”


For their final experiment, they dropped imitation bales of cocaine from an airplane to simulate how the drugs might actually get into the shark’s ecosystem.
Multiple shark species made a bee-line for the fakes, the scientists observed.
Hird said their experiments don’t prove that there are drug-addicted sharks consuming cocaine off Florida.
More experiments would have to be repeated and there could be a wide number of environmental reasons why the sharks responded in such a way.
“We have no idea what [cocaine] could do to the shark,” Hird told Live Science, adding that of the limited research that’s been done, different fish appear to react in different ways to the same chemical. “So we can’t even say well this is a baseline and go from here,” he said.

Florida
An unhappy Florida electorate finds few politicians willing to listen

Florida
Auburn vs. Florida odds: Current line, win probability, final score prediction, how to watch NCAA Tournament

For the first time since 2008, every team in the Final Four will be a 1-seed. On Saturday, 1-seed Auburn will square off against 1-seed Florida in the Final Four.
Auburn fell 90-81 when it met Florida earlier this season on Feb. 8. However, the Tigers have looked formidable in the NCAA Tournament. Auburn star Johni Broome has been particularly excellent. He’s leading the Tigers in points and rebounds this season.
Of course, Florida has no shortage of standouts, either. Senior guard Walter Clayton Jr. exploded for 30 points in the Gators’ comeback win over Texas Tech in the Elite Eight. With the performance, he became the first player in program history to have multiple 30-point NCAA Tournament games.
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Odds for Auburn vs. Florida
According to FanDuel, Florida is a 2.5-point favorite against Auburn. Additionally, the Gators boast -146 odds on the money line.
The over/under for the game is set at 163.5 points. For reference, Florida is averaging 85.4 points per game in comparison to Auburn’s 83.8 points per outing.
How to watch Auburn vs. Florida
Time: 6:09 p.m. ET, April 5
Channel: CBS
Location: Alamodome — San Antonio, TX
1-seeds Auburn and Florida will meet on Saturday, April 5, in the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, for a rematch in the Final Four. The winner will advance to the National Championship.
It is only Auburn’s second Final Four appearance in program history. The Tigers last reached the Final Four in 2019 but lost. Florida fans are much more familiar with the scenery. This will be the Gators’ seventh appearance in the Final Four. Florida will have a chance to compete for its third national title in program history.
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Florida
Florida Derby Results: Tappan Street Wins, Sovereignty Places, Neoequos Shows

2025 Florida Derby Winner Brad Cox: Brad H. Cox, second left, and Jockey Joel Rosario, second right, pose after winning the Breeders’ Cup Classic with their horse Knicks Go at Del Mar Race Track on November 06, 2021. (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)
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Coming off an eight-week break, the Brad Cox-trained Tappan Street, with Luis Saez in the irons, took command of the Florida Derby in the last furlong and never let go. Breezing with dispatch around the speedy Neoequos and Madaket Road, who had been a pacesetters up the backstretch, Tappan Street took his almost electrically precise stride well outside the fading duelists to lay down his burst of power. He hit the wire going away by a length-and-a-quarter with a time of 1:49:27 over the mile-and-an-eighth. Coming off an eight-week break, he was fresh, to say the very least, and at 2-1, paid $6.80 on a $2 bet.
After he, too, rounded Neoequos and Madaket Road, the deep-closing top favorite Sovereignty, who went off at 8-5, made a game bid at Tappan Street but discovered that he’d left himself what the British trainers call “too much to do” to get by the victor. The line was upon him; he flashed through it in place.
Needless to say, trainer Cox was pleased with his newly-minted Derby prospect, but remained tightly focused on the mechanical realities of the run.
Noting the far-outside post position from the 9-hole, Cox told the press: “When you give ’em nearly, I guess, what, eight weeks between starts, there’s always a concern. ‘Does he know enough?’ But he’s a very smart horse, he’s intelligent. I felt he would break very, very well today, just the way he has been training. And he did. I think that put him in the race and really put him in a great position.”
As for Sovereignty’s deep closing style both in his prior win in the Fountain of Youth and in Saturday’s race, trainer Bill Mott, ever the open book, said this before the race: “I think we had a good draw the last time (in the Fountain of Youth) that helped him win. As narrow as the margin of victory was, the post helped him because he was able to save some ground around the first turn.”
With his outside post position, Sovereignty didn’t lose much ground in the longer Florida Derby, but neither did he do anything different than attempt his ordinary deep close. But his last week was four weeks back, as opposed to Tappan Street’s eight, and the trackside chatter was that he wasn’t as much on his game. When it came Sovereignty’s moment to pounce on the frontrunners, the pounce sufficed to put away Madaket Road and Neoequos, as his 8-5 odds would declare that he well should have. But the effort wasn’t nearly enough to get past Tappan Street’s vastly superior last-furlong kick.
The Florida Derby functioned entirely as it should have as a major Kentucky Derby prep, distilling and simultaneously refining the top talent. Noting the eight weeks of rest that Tappan Street had, Winstar Farm’s CEO Elliott Walden, who knows a thing or two about racehorses, said after the race: “I thought (Tappan Street was) traveling better. But Sovereignty’s a very good horse. He’s going to be a tough foe at a mile-and-a- quarter. (Tappan Street) had eight weeks, (Sovereignty) had four weeks. We’re on even ground now, (the Derby) will be a good race.”
Tappan Street’s jockey Luis Saez was more ebullient, having just finished riding his rocket minutes before. “I saw (Sovereignty) and I let my horse go a little bit more,” Saez said, “and he gave me a good turn of foot. When he came to the top of the stretch, I knew (we were) going to be tough to catch.”
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