This viral video is from 2023 and it has no connection to the recent earthquake in Russia.

It is commonly believed that animals can detect natural disasters before they occur. Stories about animals and birds sensing storms and earthquakes abound in the aftermath of natural disasters. Following the earthquakes in Russia videos purportedly depicting this phenomenon in action have gone viral on social media.

A powerful earthquake of magnitude 8.8 struck off Russia’s far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula on Wednesday, 30 July 2025, triggering a Pacific Ocean tsunami warning. 

Amidst this, a video going viral on online claims to show five beluga whales washed ashore on the Russian coast shortly before the earthquake. The claim implies a connection between the whale stranding and the earthquake, suggesting the whales sensed the impending disaster.

Let’s check the truth.

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Fact Check- 

We first looked to check if there had been any news about this in the media, but we could not discover any credible reports regarding this.

Then, we started our investigation with a reverse image search of key frames from the viral video, which led us to a Twitter post by RT News uploaded on 21 August, 2023 with the caption “Five beached beluga whales were rescued after being beached on the shores of Tigilsky, on the Kamchatka peninsula in eastern Russia”.

Moving forward, we found several news reports regarding this incident. According to them, local fishermen found a group of beluga whales beached on the shores of Tigilsky, northern Kamchatka in August 2023.

Another report states, a family of five beluga whales were rescued by fishermen in Tigilskiy, northern Kamchatka. The fishermen continued to pour water on the whales for several hours until the tide returned. The whales were seen lying side by side in the shallow area, making different sounds, and some had a tear-like liquid flowing from their eyes.

Taking account of all these evidences we can understand that an old video from Russia is falsely shared as whales warning people about the earthquake in Russia a day before it struck the country.

Conclusion- 

Fact Crescendo found the claim made along with the viral video to be False. This viral video is from 2023 and it has no connection to the recent earthquake in Russia.