---
title: "Hurricane shark"
canonical: "https://openvibe.meme/m/hurricane-shark"
updated: null
---

# Hurricane shark

HTML: [Hurricane shark](https://openvibe.meme/m/hurricane-shark)

Internet meme · Classic

# Hurricane shark

Hurricane shark refers to claims of a live shark swimming in flooded urban areas after hurricanes, which were widely debunked for years until a verified video during Hurricane Ian in 2022 sparked renewed attention.

- First seen: 2011-08-01
- Last seen: 2026-10-31
- Uses cited: 2
- Revision: 1

## Where it started

Hurricane Shark and Street Shark are nicknames for several claimed instances of a live shark swimming in a flooded urban area, typically in the aftermath of a hurricane. For more than a decade (starting with Hurricane Irene in 2011), all media purporting to document such claims—most notably an image of a shark swimming on a flooded freeway—were debunked as fabrications. However, during Hurricane Ian in 2022, the Associated Press verified a video taken by Dominic Cameratta of a shark or other large fish swimming in flooded Fort Myers, Florida; one consulted expert concluded that the fish was "a juvenile shark" while another was unable to determine whether it was a shark. Both the re-emergence of the hoax in hurricane after hurricane and the eventual appearance of a plausible claim have been the subject of commentary and amusement; Daniel Victor of The New York Times described the Associated Press's findings as "like discovering Bigfoot is real".

## The use timeline

1. 2011-08-01

    

   Wikidata Q114342180: Hurricane Shark — Internet meme. First recorded: 2011-08-00T00:00:00Z.

## Examples

No example is attached yet.

 How was this page documented?

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