A chilling video has emerged that shows a shark swimming on a street in Florida as Hurricane Ian wreaked havoc on Wednesday. The video shows a juvenile shark swimming in the floodwaters on a street in Fort Myers. At first, it was thought that the footage was not real and that the clip wasn't truly shot during Hurricane Ian.
However, it later proved to be real as the shark tried to save itself from the storm and came ashore from the turbulent sea. Hurricane Ian made landfall in Florida on Wednesday, with wind speeds that could not be sustained at less than 240 kmph.
Chilling Scene
The Florida shore was hit by surges of about 12 feet in several locations due to the Category 4 hurricane, completely submerging streets, neighborhoods, and roads. Not only were humans trapped in their houses without electricity as a result of the rising water levels, but also aquatic creatures migrated to the flooded streets.
However, no one believed that this could also happen. As Hurricane Ian made landfall, unbelievable video footage emerged of a four-foot marine critter swimming in a Florida resident's submerged front yard.
The huge, dark-colored fish with pointed dorsal fins was seen making use of the floodwater in a backyard near Hendry Creek in Fort Myers, Florida. The shocking video, which has received more than 12 million views on Twitter in a single day, displayed the terrible damage Hurricane Ian's storm inflicted on the Florida environment.
A Twitter user, Armando Salguero, posted a 10-second clip which shows a fish thrashing the water. Along with the video, he wrote, "Sharks swimming through the streets of Fort Myers."
Initially, it was thought that the footage was fake and that the clip wasn't truly shot during Hurricane Ian. However, Dominic Cameratta, a local real estate developer, acknowledged that he shot the video on Wednesday morning from his back patio after spotting something "flopping around" in his neighbor's flooded yard.
"I didn´t know what it was - it just looked like a fish or something. I zoomed in, and all my friends are like, "it's like a shark, man!" he told the DailyMail.
Soon he realized that it was a shark, which was about 4-feet long.
The Force of Nature
Experts were perplexed as to what the animal actually was. Some thought it was a shark, while others speculated that it might have been another enormous fish. While Dr. Neil Hammerschlag, head of the University of Miami's shark conservation program, noted that "it's pretty hard to tell," George Burgess, a former director of the Florida Museum of Natural History's shark program, said that it "appears to be a juvenile shark."
However, some Twitter users gave the helpless fish the nickname "street shark."
As Hurricane Ian made landfall in Fort Myers on Wednesday, the surge got worse. According to reports, the residents were alerted by Florida officials about alligators, snakes, and bears sightings during Hurricane Ian. In a statement, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) said, "You may be more likely to see alligators, snakes, and bears, so remember to stay alert and give them space."
When the video of the shark was recorded, the flooding had barely started, according to Cameratta, but by Wednesday night, the water had reached "all the way up to our house." He said that the fish may have entered a retention pond from the neighboring Hendry Creek and then overflowed, spilling the animal onto his neighbor's backyard.
Florida is no stranger to cyclones and hurricanes. On average, one occurs there every three years, while smaller storms that are not hurricanes approach the coast almost every few months. Similar films and rumors of sharks being transported to flooded locations are therefore frequent. The theory also makes sense because bull sharks that swim up rivers reside in Florida.
