Twenty-five packets of cocaine worth USD 1.1 million and weighing 70 lbs have been found by a boater in the Florida Keys.

The massive haul comes just a day after scientists said that sharks may be feasting on the drugs that end up in the sea when traffickers’ attempts to smuggle them into the US are foiled and they are dumped in the water.

The huge USD 1.1 million (GBP 857,153) haul was seized by US Border Patrol agents from the unnamed boater after being discovered in the water.

A photograph obtained from the US Border Patrol shows the 25 cocaine packages, featuring a butterfly logo on them.

Chief Patrol Agent Walter N. Slosar of the US Border Patrol’s Miami Sector on Monday, 24th July, saying: “Over the weekend, Border Patrol agents in the Miami Sector seized 70 lbs of cocaine that was discovered by a recreational boater in the Florida Keys.

“The drugs have an estimated street value of approx. USD 1.1 million dollars.”

The haul comes days before a documentary called ‘Cocaine Shark’ is set to air on Wednesday as part of Discovery’s Shark Week programme.

It features marine biologist Tom Hird who went to the Florida Keys to investigate how the drugs may have altered the sharks’ behaviour.

He told Live Science: “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 and Tracy Fanara, a University of Florida environmental scientist, conducted an experiment using fake cocaine packages and noted that sharks behaved in an agitated way around them.

They then used a concentrated fish powder to recreate the effects of cocaine and noted that the sharks became a lot more aggressive.

Hird says in the documentary: “I think we have got a potential scenario of what it may look like if you gave sharks cocaine.”

He added that it appears to set their “brains aflame”.