The 2018 photographs actually show a dead shark in the northern Philippines

The 12-photo montage, posted here on Facebook on June 22, 2019, where it has been shared 12,000 times, contains a series of images showing people looking at a large dead shark on a beach.

The caption, written in a Filipino language, translates as: “SHARK SEEN ON THE COAST OF MATINA APLAYA”.

Matina Aplaya is a village in the southern city of Davao as shown here on the city’s web page.  

Below is a screenshot of the misleading post: 

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Screenshot of Facebook post

The same photos were also published in this June 22, 2019 post, shared nearly 9,000 times, which claims the shark was found on a beach in Kidapawan.

Kidapawan is a city in the southern province of Cotabato. There is no beach in Kidapawan, which is inland.

Both the claims are false; the photos actually show a dead shark that was found in 2018 on a beach near the village of Lobbot, in the northern Philippines. This map shows the location of the village. 

Six of the photos used in the misleading post were taken from a January 2018 Facebook post by Eddie Fabrigas Rebueno, who according to the Philippines News Agency worked with the Dipaculao Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office. 

Below is Rebueno’s Facebook post of January 24, 2018:

The Filipino-language caption translates as: “Dead shark found in the beach of Lobbot village, in DIPACULAO, AURORA, it's 17 ft long”.

Three of the photos in the misleading post were published on January 23, 2018 in this article by CNN Philippines headlined: "LOOK: Great White Shark found dead in Dipaculao, Aurora". 

CNN Philippines said the photos were taken by the Provincial Fisheries Office of Aurora.

Below is a screenshot of the CNN Philippines article: 

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Screenshot of CNN article

A reverse image search traced the final three photos used in the misleading post to this January 24, 2018 Facebook post on a page called “Bayan Mo, Ipatrol Mo”. 

The page describes itself in English as the “community - and social services - focused citizen journalism project of the ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs.”

The January 2018 post is embedded below:

The caption reads “A 17-foot dead shark was washed ashore in Lobbot village, Dipaculao, Aurora, in the morning of Wednesday, January 24. According to Mayor Joanna Salamanca of Dipaculao, there was a bruise in its snout and it was missing a tooth, It was believed to be pregnant.”

A camera emoji at the end of the Filipino-language caption is followed by the phrase: “Bayan patroller Norlyn Baltazar”.

A phrase in white text at the bottom of the central photo gives additional information for the source and location of the images: “Bayan Patroller Norlyn Baltazar Brgy. Lobbot, Dipaculao, Aurora January 24, 2018”

Brgy means “barangay” and translates as village.