That viral 'shark spotted in Lake Michigan' post from last week turned out to be a 3-year-old hoax

I saw someone share a photo of a huge fin sticking out of the water near Chicago claiming it was a bull shark. Turns out the same image was debunked back in 2021 by the NOAA. I checked Snopes and they had it listed as fake with the original source being a movie set in Florida. Has anyone else noticed old hoaxes just recycling every summer?

3 comments

3 Comments

ben_lewis27d ago

Clicked on that thread thinking it was some fresh new monster-of-the-lake story, but nope, just the same tired old hoax that's been floating around since my uncle had a flip phone. I swear people just copy-paste that shark photo every July like clockwork and call it a day. Must be nice to have that little going on where you think a bull shark somehow survived the Great Lakes winter and the St. Lawrence Seaway locks. The NOAA probably has a bingo card at this point for how many times they have to tell people movie props aren't real.

phoenix_lewis27d ago

Huh, pretty sure bull sharks have been found in the Mississippi up to Illinois, not the locks though.

evan_cooper7327d ago

People really act like the Great Lakes are a tropical resort and not a frozen wasteland for half the year. That same grainy shark pic has been doing the rounds since dial-up was a thing, I'm surprised it hasn't been turned into a meme by now. NOAA probably has a drinking game where they take a shot every time someone slides into their DMs with "bro is this real??" during July. It takes a special kind of credulity to think a fish just swam through a series of industrial locks and decided Lake Erie felt like home. At this point the real monster of the lake is the sheer amount of times people have reposted that same fake story.