[imagesource: Twitter / @TruthsBeTolds]
Hurricane Ian is wreaking havoc in Florida.
As things stand, the BBC reports a death toll of at least 10 people. Officials fear the confirmed toll could rise considerably and a blackout is still affecting more than two million Florida homes and businesses.
At least the weather reporters are getting their chance to report from the front lines, come hell or high water.
Every time it floods in the US, and that happens relatively often, the same picture is repurposed and garners thousands of retweets.
Exhibits A and B:
only florida would have sharks swimming around on the freeway during a hurricane
pic.twitter.com/YlUBUA91gX
— juju
(@ayeejuju) September 28, 2022
you know you got a real hurricane when sharks are in the passing lane.. #florida #HurricaneIanupdate pic.twitter.com/5jnyiHoQbC
— 45acp (@45acpJohndibag) September 29, 2022
This stretches back years:
No, Hurricane Florence does not contain sharks https://t.co/bPid2QOCaP
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) September 13, 2018
In fact, it’s sort of morphed into a meme:
It gets even crazier, an Orca was just spotted swimming in downtown Miami.
Unreal. pic.twitter.com/7JVlHv3Hrk
— Barry (@BarryOnHere) September 28, 2022
Barry went on:
Well, finally, we may have an actual shark sighting in hurricane waters.
The storm surge is so powerful from #HurricaneIan that it has brought a shark into the city streets of Fort Myers.
@BradHabuda pic.twitter.com/RHY0kK5RHR
— Colin McCarthy (@US_Stormwatch) September 28, 2022
The relief amongst journalists who specialise in debunking hoaxes was palpable:
After over half a decade of debunking this hoax every time there was a flood or hurricane, I can’t believe I’m looking at an honest-to-god street shark.
Good to finally meet you, pal. https://t.co/hwMWX4Peqo
— Jane Lytvynenko (@JaneLytv) September 28, 2022
I say ‘may’ because there’s still an outside chance it could be a large fish. This via The Washington Post:
Dominic Cameratta, a local real estate developer, confirmed he filmed the clip from his back patio Wednesday morning when he saw something “flopping around” in his neighbor’s flooded yard.
“I didn’t know what it was — it just looked like a fish or something,” he told The Associated Press. “I zoomed in, and all my friends are like, ‘It’s like a shark, man!’ ”
What do the experts reckon?
George Burgess, former director of the Florida Museum of Natural History’s shark program, said in an email that it “appears to be a juvenile shark,” while Dr. Neil Hammerschlag, director of the University of Miami’s shark conservation program, wrote that “it’s pretty hard to tell.”
…Yannis Papastamatiou, a marine biologist who studies shark behavior at Florida International University, said that most sharks flee shallow bays ahead of hurricanes, possibly tipped off to their arrival by a change in barometric pressure. A shark could have accidentally swum up into the creek, he said, or been washed into it.
Papastamatiou guessed it was most likely a young bull shark that had been swept shoreward with the rising seas.
Cameratta said the animal he filmed was around four feet (1,2 metres) in length.
