A Viral Image Takes Hold
In August 2011, as Hurricane Irene swept through the Atlantic, a startling photo began circulating online. It appeared to show a shark swimming down a flooded street in Puerto Rico. News outlets, including the Miami Herald and a Fox affiliate in Miami, picked up the image.
Quickly, fact-checkers revealed it was a fabrication, combining a photo of a Puerto Rican street with a 2003 shark photograph taken by Thomas P. Peschak off South Africa. Despite being debunked, the image spread widely and reappeared with every major flood or hurricane in the years that followed.
Endless Reappearances of the Fake Shark
The “Hurricane Shark” resurfaced during Hurricane Sandy in 2012, Hurricane Matthew in 2016, Hurricane Harvey in 2017, and many other storms. Variations emerged as well: manipulated photos of sharks near Toronto’s Union Station in 2012, sharks on suburban streets during Sandy, and even fake TV alerts claiming hurricanes “now contain sharks.”
Journalists and fact-checkers became accustomed to debunking these images after every major storm. Snopes, The Washington Post, and the Toronto Star all documented the pattern, noting how the shark meme became a recurring part of disaster-related misinformation.
The Real Sightings in Australia
While most “street shark” sightings were hoaxes, Australia produced earlier reports of real sharks in floodwaters. In January 2011, after major flooding in Goodna, Queensland, butcher Steve Bateman reported seeing a six-foot shark swim past his shop.
Local politicians vouched for his credibility, and biologists noted that bull sharks were known to swim up the Bremer River to the town. Separately, a golf course in Logan City housed bull sharks in its lake from 1996 until 2013, after they became trapped there during a flood. These unusual but documented cases kept alive speculation about whether hurricane sharks were possible.
Hurricane Ian Brings a Breakthrough
In September 2022, Hurricane Ian struck Florida. Soon after, Fort Myers resident Dominic Cameratta filmed a large fish swimming in floodwaters near his home. The video quickly went viral, drawing over 12 million views in a single day. Skeptics initially assumed it was another hoax, but on September 29, the Associated Press verified the footage using metadata and an interview with Cameratta.
Experts disagreed on the fish’s identity: George H. Burgess said it appeared to be a juvenile shark, while Neil Hammerschlag said it was hard to tell. Others suggested it might have been another large fish. Regardless, the authenticity of the footage was confirmed, marking the first verified case of a “hurricane shark” in a flooded neighborhood.
For years, shark-in-street photos after storms were hoaxes.
In 2022, a Fort Myers flood clip changed the pattern when a verified video showed a large fish in a neighborhood after Hurricane Ian…🧵👇 pic.twitter.com/LsFzMaVUzE
— Fascinating True Stories (@FascinatingTrue) September 12, 2025