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It has often happened that, during floods caused by strong hurricanes, photos and videos of alleged sharks appeared on social networks, swimming in very unusual places, such as flooded streets or subway stops in Australia, Florida or Puerto Rico. With some in-depth analysis it has always been discovered that all these images were not true, but created and then circulated on the internet more or less in good faith to warn of a possible danger, or to create some confusion.
Last week, after the devastating hurricane Ian, a video of this type circulated on social networks again, showing what appears to be a shark swimming in a flooded street in Florida, United States. This time, however, it turned out that the video is authentic, although it is not known whether the marine animal seen is actually a shark.
On the internet, the image of the shark swimming in the flooded streets is known as the “hurricane shark” or with the hashtag #streetshark. It began to circulate in 2011 during the passage of Hurricane Irene in Puerto Rico, the group of Caribbean islands that is part of the United States: in the following years it was resumed and used – identical or retouched – on many other occasions, for example with the Hurricane Sandy in 2012 or Hurricane Harvey in 2017. The “hurricane shark” essentially became a kind of memea digital content that spreads very quickly through the Internet, accompanied by humorous captions, often without knowing its origin or being certain of its authenticity.
Even the video of the shark swimming in Florida was initially viewed with some skepticism. But then let it be the site Storyful (which is responsible for verifying the news circulating on social networks) and Associated Press verified the authenticity of the images by examining the metadata of the video and identifying the person who had shot it: Dominic Cameratta, a builder from the Fort Myers area who had filmed it on Wednesday 28 September with his smartphone. The doubt that remains is whether what you see in the video is actually a shark or another marine animal: the fin sticking out of the water was not enough for the two shark experts heard by Associated Press to say for sure.
– Read also: Where the memes come from
