{"id":35319,"date":"2024-08-20T14:14:38","date_gmt":"2024-08-20T18:14:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eng.ufl.edu\/newengineer\/?p=35319"},"modified":"2025-06-11T12:26:56","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T17:26:56","slug":"meet-dr-tracy-fanara-gator-graduate-makes-waves-with-cocaine-sharks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eng.ufl.edu\/news\/alumni-spotlight\/meet-dr-tracy-fanara-gator-graduate-makes-waves-with-cocaine-sharks\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Dr. Tracy Fanara: Gator graduate makes waves with cocaine sharks"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Tracy Fanara, known as Inspector Planet, also assists alligator trappers to relocate nuisance alligators before they are targeted by alligator hunters. (Photo courtesy of Tracy Fanara)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

When famed scientist Tracy Fanara \u2013 the triple Gator known as Inspector Planet \u2013 heard about the horror movie \u201cCocaine Bear,\u201d her reaction was simple: Oh, please. You think bears and cocaine are scary?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She studies sharks ingesting cocaine, and the \u201cscary\u201d part, Fanara said, is not stoned sharks \u201cbut rather the chemicals that are impacting us. That is scarier than a random bear in the forest finding a package of cocaine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cocaine sharks have been in the news of late, and Fanara\u2019s name surfaces in many of those reports. Outlets from NPR to Forbes have reported on sharks consuming cocaine dumped in the waters off Brazil, quoting Fanara as an environmental scientist at the University of Florida (she works for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration these days, but, as a diehard Gator, she does not mind the UF nod).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She appeared in the 2023 documentary \u201cCocaine Sharks\u201d \u2013 not to be confused with the 2023 horror movie \u201cCocaine Shark\u201d in which mutant sharks attack after a lab explosion. And Fanara just wrapped a TV special on cocaine sharks for HBO in Key West.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The recent shark headlines have been amusing (The New York Times: \u201cNot Afraid of Sharks? Well, Now They\u2019re on Cocaine\u201d), yet Fanara contends this is a serious threat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCocaine gets people interested,\u201d she told The Times. \u201cBut we have antibiotics, antidepressants, pharmaceuticals, sunscreen, insecticides, fertilizers \u2013 all of these chemicals are entering our ecosystem.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the media feeding frenzy over cocaine sharks started in 2023, Fanara has been quoted in NPR, Al Jazeera, Science magazine, CBS, The Guardian and National Geographic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But here\u2019s the thing: This diehard Gator has been a science rock star long before Brazilian sharks tested positive for cocaine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fanara is the coastal modeling manager for NOAA. She remains in her beloved Florida but travels to Washington, D.C., every other week. She is a science communicator and environmental warrior working to keep toxins out of our waterways and protect marine life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Inspector Planet, the Internet\/TV star explores science in fun ways that allow learning to sneak up on the viewers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI take an Earth-systems approach to all questions,\u201d she said in a recent Zoom interview, with a shark-tooth necklace around her neck.<\/p>\n\n\n

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As a little girl, Tracy Fanara wanted to be a veterinarian or an actress. (Photo courtesy of Tracy Fanara)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

What did Inspector Planet the Cocaine Shark expert want to be growing up?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAccording to my journals, I wanted to be an actress or a vet,\u201d she said. \u201cMy dream kind of became reality.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is to say, she is on television, hamming it up but delving deep into science. She works with animals, particularly marine life. She also is no stranger to alligators, bears and other carnivores who become putty in her presence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 She grew up in Buffalo, N.Y., playing every sport available and walking to school \u201cboth ways in the snow.\u201d After her first year at Hobart William Smith College in Geneva, NY, her parents moved to Sarasota, where they called often to crow about the warm weather. She knew about UF\u2019s reputation for academic excellence and research. It was a natural fit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She was working as a camp counselor when her mother called to tell her about the rejection letter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t get in?\u201d she recalled saying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, she did what all students do when being rejected by a university 1,100 miles from home. She trekked to UF and knocked on every door to appeal her case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She met Paul Chadik, Ph.D., who found a way to get her into UF; then she completed a five-year undergraduate program in three years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chadik said he does not remember Fanara arriving at his door with a rejection letter, but he certainly remembers Fanara. He\u2019s a fan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He recalls Fanara as smart \u2013 \u201ca good leader,\u201d he said. \u201cShe would always be positive and engaging.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These days, he contends her greatest accomplishment is trailblazing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWomen beget women in our department. Tracy is not only the spokesperson for environmental engineering, she\u2019s also the spokesperson for women in engineering,\u201d said Chadik, associate professor emeritus with UF\u2019s Engineering School of Sustainable Infrastructure and Environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe minute I got into environmental engineering, I realized they are the true superheroes,\u201d Fanara told Tampa Bay NBC affiliate WFLA in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During her undergraduate studies, she worked at UF\u2019s microbiology lab.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After graduate school, Fanara worked for a civil engineering company that specialized in land development. It was an interesting marriage, she said, because her interests and training were in protecting the land and waterways from the effects of development and other human-driven threats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI went back to school to find a better way,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She obtained her master\u2019s degree in 2010 and then \u2013 after securing her own research funding \u2013 became a triple Gator with a Ph.D. in hydrology, chemical transport and water treatment through sustainable design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While she was working on her Ph.D., she embarked on two other projects that would shape her career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She taught in Alachua County middle schools twice a week, leading hands-on experiments. That prepped her for holding attention in a short-clip society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Secondly, she and a friend created a video on contamination in UF\u2019s Lake Alice. It would become the first video in her Inspector Planet series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video examined contaminants in the gator-infested Lake Alice, noting a lack of regulation that allowed pollutants into a water body that was once a sinkhole and, thus, a direct conduit to the Floridan aquifer.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Tracy Fanara is shown on the set of MythBusters: The Search,\u201d where she competed on the series in 2017. (Photo from Discovery Channel)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Soon thereafter, the producers of the TV show \u201cMythBusters\u201d called, recruiting her for \u201cMythBusters: The Search.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis was a pipe dream,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On that season in 2017, Fanara helped build an ejection seat for car passengers, duplicating a scene from \u201cFast and Furious\u201d that concluded with the words \u201cEjecto seato, cuz!\u201d Fanara made it to the Top 10 before elimination on \u201cMythBusters: The Search.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2020, she was recruited by The Weather Channel to appear regularly in \u201cWeird Earth,\u201d a docuseries about odd weather phenomena. The show is now in its fourth season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her schedule is dizzying. To get a better idea of this Gator\u2019s resume and pace, consider the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fanara facts:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n