Fact Check: Video showing jumbo whale destroying two ships is created digitally
A video showing two ships being destroyed due to an attack of a large jumbo whale is viral with a claim in Telugu: “*ఫ్లాష్ న్యూస్ జస్ట్* CNN ద్వారా నివేదించబడిన నిమిషాల ముందు -
A video showing two ships being destroyed due to an attack of a large jumbo whale is viral with a claim in Telugu: “*ఫ్లాష్ న్యూస్ జస్ట్* CNN ద్వారా నివేదించబడిన నిమిషాల ముందు - అట్లాంటిక్ మహాసముద్రం మధ్యలో ఉన్న రెండు నౌకలు యాంగ్రీ జంబో వేల్/షార్క్ చేత పూర్తిగా ధ్వంసమయ్యాయి”
When translated, it means “the video was telecast by CNN about an incident that occurred in the Atlantic Ocean where an angry jumbo whale destroyed 2 ships completely.”
The video is with English claims also. The claim goes as “*Whale attack video from Canada!!! Total destruction of a ship!!!”
Fact Check:
The claim is false. The video is a CGI-generated video.
The keyframes extracted from the video were used in Google reverse image search and we found a YouTube short uploaded on a channel named ‘Aleksey__n’. This short was uploaded on March 9, 2023 with the caption “Meg”.
https://www.youtube.com/
The YouTube channel has several videos which are digitally created.
When clicked on the linktr.ee link, we can see all the social media handles of the artist.
When clicked on the Twitter account @AlekseyN11, the bio says ‘3D artist or 3D Designer’.
The video was shared on all his social media accounts with hashtags #megalodon, #meg #animation #digitalart #CGI #3D. The video posted on Instagram has the hashtag #animation on it.
The comments on these posts show that the video is not real and is digitally created.
An article published in the Irish Sun website, thesun.ie states that the animated CGI video has over nine million likes on Tiktok and imagines how a giant megalodon-like shark would destroy a modern boat.
The megalodon shark is said to be the largest to ever grace Earth's oceans. It is believed to have gone extinct about 2.6 million years ago. A complete megalodon skeleton has never been found so it's trickier for scientists to determine how large they were. The general consensus is that the megalodon grew up to a staggering 60 feet in length.
However, the animated video posted by popular creator Aleksey (@aleksey__n) imagines a shark much larger than this. The video looks more similar to the giant shark featured in the movie The Meg, which is about a modern-day megalodon.
The article published by ladbible.com also states that the stomach-churning animation shows what a megalodon could have been capable of doing.
Hence, a CGI-generated video is going viral as a real whale/shark attacking boats in the Atlantic Ocean. The claim is false.