Thousands of sharks off Florida's coast may have ingested bales of cocaine left in the water by drug smugglers attempting to get their product into the United States.

Marine biologist Tom Hird wanted to examine whether the sharks have come into contact with the drug, which is the subject of a documentary that will premiere on Discovery Channel's Shark Week called Cocaine Sharks.

“It’s a catchy headline to shed light on a real problem, that everything we use, everything we manufacture, everything we put into our bodies, ends up in our wastewater streams and natural water bodies, and these aquatic life we depend on to survive are then exposed to that,” Dr Tracy Fanara, a Florida environmental engineer, told The Guardian.