Does video show seal or manatee in Florida street after Hurricane Ian? Fact Check

ByCraig Haley

A video of what appears to be a large seal or manatee moving down a street is circulating social media along with the claim that it was filmed in Florida which at the time has been impacted by Hurricane Ian.

MISCAPTIONED

An instance of the video on Twitter can be seen below.

In the direct aftermath of violent storms and hurricanes that often impact North America, we often see certain types of misinformation spread on social media claiming to show the consequences of such weather.

More often than not this means we see the ubiquitous (and photoshopped) shark-travelling-down-flooded-freeway photos that nearly always make an appearance whenever a hurricane hits.

But with this case, the shark has been replaced by what appears to be a large seal or manatee travelling down a street at night. And in this case, the video is actually real, but it wasn’t taken in Florida, nor was it taken in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian.


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The animal is a large elephant seal, and it was taken in Puerto Cisnes, a coastal town in Chile, during the height of the country’s COVID-19 lockdowns in October 2020. That means that what this video likely shows is one of many examples that depict certain wildlife venturing into unusually urban areas as a probable consequence of the lack of human activity caused by COVID lockdowns.

The elephant seal apparently became disorientated after coming ashore and took an impromptu visit down a number of streets in Puerto Cisnes before eventually being ushered back to the beach by local residents, police and members of the Chilean Navy. You can read the full story here.

Because many users on social media are claiming that this video was taken in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian in Florida we rank it at miscaptioned.