Hurricane Ian, which has plagued Florida residents in recent days with flooding and power outages, in addition to leaving scores of victims, pushed a shark onto the streets of Fort Myers. Last Wednesday (28), the scene went viral on social media after a network user posted photos of the animal struggling around a flooded grass.
The video shows a creature with a telltale dorsal fin rolling around a flooded property after a Category 4 storm has passed.
Users of the social network responded with a mixture of astonishment and disbelief to old rumors about sharks swimming in flood waters.
However, newspapers such as the New York Post, The New York Times, CBS News and Associated Press have confirmed that experts have guaranteed the authenticity of the photos.
Local real estate developer Dominic Camata, the creator of the footage, said he was filming a video this morning when he saw something “falling” in his neighbor’s flooded yard.
“I didn’t know what it was – it looked like a fish or something, I zoomed in and all my friends were like, ‘He’s like a shark, man!”‘ he told the news agency about the fish he appraised. It is approximately 4 feet (1.22 meters) tall.
But the Associated Press said that while the footage was confirmed, experts were divided over what type of fish was seen.
It “looks like a juvenile shark,” said George Burgess, former director of the shark program at the Florida Museum of Natural History. “Assuming the characteristics of the site and history are correct, it is likely that this shark was washed ashore as sea levels rose,” Burgess added.
Neil Hammerschlag, director of the University of Miami’s shark conservation program, told CBS News he was less convinced, saying “it’s very hard to tell.”
Most sharks escape from shallow bays before hurricanes, and one of them may have accidentally fallen into a creek, marine biologist and shark expert Yannis Papastamatu of Florida International University said.
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