Edited Video Created With Two Unrelated Footages Shared as a Shark Helping Humans in Rescuing a Sea Turtle

A video has gone viral on Twitter. The Twitter user who shared the video claims that a shark can be seen helping humans rescue a severely injured sea turtle.

However, upon investigating the video, we found that it was created by combining footage from two unrelated incidents. Here's the fact check.

Viral Video

An amazing scene captured at sea! A shark seek the help of humans to save a helpless turtle. 😍 pic.twitter.com/GpZVPUmMQr

— Alvin Foo (@alvinfoo) May 28, 2023

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In the above tweet, we can see a video of a sea turtle being chased by a shark as they approach a boat. The people on the boat express amazement at the scene. Then we cut to the scene where people on a boat can be seen cutting a rope strangulating a sea turtle and saving its life. The narration in the video says,

“Look, a shark is carrying a turtle on the sea! Riding the wind and waves after seeing human ships from afar. The shark worked hard to escort the turtle over. With the assistance of the shark, the turtle struggled to pounce on the steps of the ship. This incredible scene happened to be discovered by a boy on the ship. After confirming the discovery of the sea turtle by the humans, the shark turned around and left gracefully. The boy believes the turtle needs help, so he caught the turtle and pulled him out of the water.

Seeing the help from the humans, the helpless turtle left tears of emotion. Originally the turtle’s neck was tightly restrained by a thick rope. The warm-hearted boy carefully examined the turtle’s wound. Just lightly stroked the turtle’s neck. The turtle immediately began to struggle in pain. The boy first flipped the turtle upside down on all fours. It can be clearly seen that two ropes have been deeply embedded in the flesh. The turtle must be in great pain. It looked at the human beings in front of it with tears in its eyes. Seems to be asking for help quickly! The boy immediately took out the knife. Easily cut the first rope. After a moment, the second one was also smoothly cut open. A large amount of fresh air rushed into the turtle’s body in an instant.

It can finally breathe freely. I really don’t know how the turtle fairy passed through such hardships. Heart-warming girl quickly applied imported Yunan Baiyao to the turtle’s wound. Turtles are the long lived stars. Please light up the little red star. Everyone pray for oneself and family.”

However, many people pointed out that the video is edited and the two incidents seen in the video are unrelated. Let’s examine the reality of this video.

Fact Check

We examined the replies received to the tweet, and Twitter users pointed out that the video was actually created by combining two different incidents. In the first incident, the shark was not helping the sea turtle but attacking it.The video was uploaded by a Bahamian fisherman Kai Owen on his YouTube channel on 29 November 2020. The description of the video says, “Crazy Hot Action of a giant tiger shark eating a loggerhead turtle! Along with some duck shooting, wahoo fishing, and some ocean diving with a yellowfin tuna!”

The first part of our viral video is taken from this incident. We can clearly see the footage is the exact mirror image of Kai Owen’s video. Here is a comparison of one instance of the viral video with an instance from Owen’s video to understand better.

From the video, we understand the turtle was actually being attacked by a Tiger Shark in the seas of Bahamas when they were spotted by Owens and his friends. Owens and his friends later rescued the sea turtle. This incident was also reported by the Daily Mail. As per their report, ‘Kai Survance, from Green Turtle Cay, Bahamas, and his friend were sailing off the coast of Abaco when they came across the predator chasing the turtle in the water. They filmed the hair-raising encounter as the tiger shark grabs hold of the large turtle's back limbs and locks onto it with its razor sharp jaws.’

The second video was uploaded much earlier than Kai Owen's video, indicating that it is an older incident. The video was uploaded on a YouTube channel named Sea Turtle Biologist, owned by Marine Conservation Biologist Christine Figgener. She uploaded the video in 2016 when she came across a severely injured female Olive Ridley Turtle entangled in a fishnet around her neck in the seas of Costa Rica. In the footage, we can see Christine and her associates helping the turtle by cutting the fishnets and disinfecting the wound.

Parts of this video has been combined with Owen’s video to falsely claim that a shark helped rescue a turtle in distress. A comparison of instances of both videos is given below for further clarity.

Conclusion

Two different videos of humans rescuing a sea turtle have been combined together to falsely claim that a shark helped in saving the life of a sea turtle. In the first video, fishermen from Bahamas rescued a Sea Turtle being attacked by a Tiger Shark in 2020. Whereas, the second video is of a team of Marine Biologists saving a female Olive Ridley Turtle in the seas around Costa Rica in 2016.