The Hurricane Ian Street Shark Is RealReporting To YouSign In
The Hurricane Shark Is Real
After a decade of hoaxes, a shark has been spotted in the streets of Fort Myers, Florida, during Hurricane Ian.By by Ellie HallBuzzFeed News ReporterUpdated on September 30, 2022, 1:42 amPosted on September 30, 2022, 1:24 amTwitterFacebookLink Getty Images For more than a decade, whenever a massive storm or flood has hit some part of the world, you could be sure of one thing: Hurricane Shark would be there, swimming down that endless highway. Twitter / 2017 / Via buzzfeednews.com You can feel its presence as the fall breeze beckons. You know that it’s lying in wait, ready for a clout-chaser to propel its photoshopped form to social media once again. For the true power of Hurricane Shark is that some people will always believe in it, like a watery Santa Claus or Tooth Fairy with fins. Twitter / 2011 / Via buzzfeednews.com Reporters and fact-checkers greet the shark as a friend. There’s a calming sense of constancy to Hurricane Shark. Neither pandemics nor changes in presidents will stop its appearance. It is ever-present, waiting for the next water-filled weather disaster to strike so that it can reap the retweets and shares. The Washington Post @washingtonpost No, Hurricane Florence does not contain sharks https://t.co/bPid2QOCaP 11:52 AM - 13 Sep 2018 Reply Retweet Favorite Twitter: @washingtonpost Its appearance is welcomed with a familiar sigh and a roll of twinkling eyes. “This [redacted] shark again!?” jaded internet old-timers whisper, even as the naive and innocent — those lucky fools who have never heard of reverse-image search — marvel at its coming. Twitter / Via buzzfeednews.com Hurricane Shark, like its Mall Shark brethren, has always been a dream. Bill McCarthy @billdmccarthy This shark hoax is another Photoshopped image created years ago using a picture of flooding in Toronto. https://t.co/1dWG4UleAB 03:37 PM - 29 Sep 2022 Reply Retweet Favorite Twitter: @billdmccarthy But on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022, it became a meme-made manifestation. For the first time in known history, we have a Hurricane Shark. A Street Shark, as it were. A miracle akin to Moses’s parting of the Red Sea, but with more sharks. Jane Lytvynenko @JaneLytv 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 07:19 PM - 28 Sep 2022 Reply Retweet Favorite Twitter: @JaneLytv In a feat of journalism that will undoubtedly make them the frontrunner for this year’s Pulitzer Prize, the Associated Press has confirmed that the latest viral shark sighting — which had been shared by three Twitter accounts on Wednesday and garnered more than 12 million views — IS REAL. AP Fact Check @APFactCheck Not just another fish story: A video of a shark or other large fish thrashing around an inundated Fort Myers backyard amid Hurricane Ian is real, the AP has found. https://t.co/RTpnlT5Okp 11:27 PM - 29 Sep 2022 Reply Retweet Favorite Twitter: @APFactCheck Humankind owes a debt to Fort Myers, Florida, real estate developer Dominic Cameratta, who risked the fury of Hurricane Ian to film this priceless footage on Wednesday morning — a true game-changer for social media and storms. “I didn’t know what it was — it just looked like a fish or something,” Cameratta told the AP. “I zoomed in, and all my friends are like, ‘It’s like a shark, man!’ ” Wikimedia Commons, Twitter / Via Twitter: @TruthsBeTolds But is it a shark, man? According to the scientists consulted by the AP, the answer is…probably. It could be a big fish (Cameratta guessed the creature’s length to be approximately 4 feet). Twitter / Via Twitter: @TruthsBeTolds And yet, I ask you, what could this majestic, flopping creature of the deep be but a noble Carcharodon carcharias? This is the closest that humanity has come to an honest-to-god Hurricane Shark — and we choose to believe. Alex Heard @alexheard There are two kinds of people: those who have #faith that Hurricane Shark is real, and ... the Deplorables. https://t.co/644fmJLHTv 12:09 AM - 30 Sep 2022 Reply Retweet Favorite Twitter: @alexheard We salute you, Hurricane Shark. A meme no more. Free at last from internet purgatory, may you swim through suburban Florida and find your way back to the blue waters where you belong. View this photo on Instagram Instagram: @thomaspeschak This is the actual picture from which the original Hurricane Shark photoshop was made. You can read more about Hurricane Shark's history here at BuzzFeed News and/or over at Know Your Meme.
More on this
People Are Sharing Photoshopped Pics Of Sharks As A Tribute To Hurricane Shark Jane Lytvynenko · Sept. 11, 2017 Florida Residents Are Trapped In Their Homes As Officials Warn Of "A 500-Year Flood Event" From Hurricane Ian Clarissa-Jan Lim · Sept. 29, 2022 Hurricane Ian Has Made Landfall In Southwestern Florida Anna Betts · Sept. 28, 2022
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Natural Disasters Ellie HallBuzzFeed News Reporter Ellie Hall is a senior reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in Washington, DC. Contact Ellie Hall at
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