A biology professor has said that marine species swimming in waters off the UK are "full of cocaine".

Professor Alex Ford, a biology professor at Portsmouth University, was speaking after it was revealed the amount of sewage dumped in rivers and the sea more than doubled in 2023 compared to the previous year.

He told Good Morning Britain on Wednesday morning (March 27) that sewage from treatment plants is discharging drugs found in human waste into the sea, negatively affecting marine wildlife.

He said: “When the treatment plant can’t cope, it chucks waste straight into the water.

“In the marine life we’re finding they’re full of drugs, they’re full of contraceptive pills, anti-depressants, anti-anxiety medication, every single marine species we’ve looked at so far is full of cocaine.”

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When later questioned about the startling revelation, Alex added: “We’ve been looking at discharges across all of the south coast into the sea from Southern Water’s storm overflows.

“The drugs affect the wildlife in the same way that they do us.”

This comes after the Environment Agency revealed Southern Water accumulated 317,285 hours of sewage spills from monitored storm overflows in 2023, up from 146,819 hours the previous year.

Professor Ford went on to say: “If you give a fish a contraceptive pill it starts to feminise.

“If you give crabs anti-depressants, it changes their behaviour because these drugs were designed to change behaviour.”

Director for Wastewater Operations, John Penicud, said:  “Slashing the number of storm releases is top priority for us - and our customers. Last November we announced our £1.5 billion storm overflow reduction plan which will combine innovative engineering with nature-based solutions. 

“The past 18 months have been the rainiest since records began. The ground is utterly waterlogged in many areas, inundating our own sewers and customers’ drains and sewers. 

“We’re extensively relining sewers, to keep sewage in and rainwater out, and our storm release reduction pilot schemes have already proved that nature-based systems can have a real impact.”