After making a final landfall on September 28, Hurricane Ian with 150-mph wind speed devastated Florida in US, leaving 2.4 million homes and businesses without electricity and causing floodwaters to surge inland. According to US President Joe Biden, at least 10 fatalities have been confirmed, and many more are anticipated, making it potentially the deadliest storm in Florida history.
Against this backdrop, an image showing a shark swimming in street is widely shared on social media linking it to the aftermath of Hurricane Ian in Florida.
The image is shared on Facebook with a caption: “SHARK! (Florida Highway)”
Here’s the link to the above post.
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile fact-checked the above claim, and found it to be FALSE.
Doing a simple Reverse Image Search, we found several tweets carrying the same viral image in 2011. This image has repeatedly surfaced, particularly during hurricanes or periods of intense rain in the US, from the time it was purportedly spotted in a Puerto Rican street during Hurricane Irene in August 2011 to an alleged sighting in New Jersey during Superstorm Sandy in October 2012. It also appeared in Houston, Texas, during Hurricane Harvey in August 2017.
We also found a news report, dated September 2, 2011, that debunked the viral image. The article reads: “The image was debunked when some noticed the shark seemed a little too familiar. It first appeared in an iconic photo snapped by Thomas P. Peschak in South Africa in 2003. That shot depicted a lone kayaker in beautiful blue water with the bull shark stalking just a few feet behind. It appeared in Africa Geographic, among other publications. Someone decided to Photoshop the shark onto a Puerto Rican street and see if people would fall for it.”
As a result of our keyword search for “Thomas P Peschak shark kayak” and “Africa Geographic shark viral,” which was inspired by the above-mentioned report, we were able to locate this image on the websites of both Africa Geographic and National Geographic.
The great white shark was reportedly photographed by National Geographic photographer Thomas Peschak in 2003 as the scientist Trey Snow was being followed by Peschak in a brightly coloured kayak off the coast of South Africa. According to the article, since then, individuals have added the shark via photo-editing software to create fictitious frightful images.
On his website, the photographer has also talked about his interactions with the image and the subsequent fake attempts. Peschak claimed that for more than 10 months, he had been collaborating with the White Shark Trust to provide fresh photographs of white sharks that would serve as illustrations for ongoing study. “On August 21, 2011, Hurricane Irene battered the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico and flooded many streets. I could never have imagined that my photograph would make an appearance in this context, except this time it was only the shark, minus the kayak. On August 24, the shark appeared on a social news website in the form of a photograph taken from the open window of a car driving along a flooded street. Next to the car was ‘my’ white shark swimming through the flooded streets of Puerto Rico. The image was then picked up and used in a TV bulletin on Channel 7 News Miami. A closer examination of the shark revealed that it was identical to the shark following the kayak in my photograph. It appears that a crafty Photoshop artist superimposed the shark into a scene of a flooded street,” Peschak wrote.
We then found out that the shark was also used to create a fake image in June 2012, when a number of Twitter users spread a picture of two sharks while falsely reporting that a tank had fallen at a Kuwaiti mall.
Thus, it is evident from the above information that an edited image is being shared again falsely linking it to Hurricane Ian in Florida. Therefore, the viral claim is false.
If you want to fact-check any story, WhatsApp it now on +91 11 7127 979l9
Error: Contact form not found.
Click here for Latest News updates and viral videos n our AI-powered smart news