Footage of dolphin 'stampede' predates Tropical Storm Hilary

  • This article is more than one year old.
  • Published on August 22, 2023 at 16:09
  • 2 min read
  • By Bill MCCARTHY, AFP USA

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Social media users are claiming a video shared across platforms shows a pod of dolphins swimming along the coast of California shortly before Tropical Storm Hilary barrelled into the US state. This is false; the footage dates to October 2022 and was filmed during a whale watch.

"Dolphins off the coast of San Diego swimming away from Hurricane Hilary's path," says text over an August 20, 2023 TikTok post sharing the clip.

Screenshot from TikTok taken August 22, 2023

Another post on Twitter, which is being rebranded as "X," says: "This dolphin stampede was spotted along the coast in #californiahurricane."

Screenshot from Twitter, which is being rebranded as "X," taken August 21, 2023

Similar posts spread across platforms as Tropical Storm Hilary soaked Southern California with record rainfall, triggering landslides and flooding and shuttering schools, roads and businesses.

The footage shared online does show dolphins off the coast of San Diego. But it is unrelated to the August 2023 storm, which registered at its peak as a Category 4 hurricane before crossing into the United States.

Reverse image and keyword searches revealed Legacy Whale Watch, a San Diego company, posted the original video October 5, 2022 on Instagram (archived here).

"Today we witnessed a 'stampede' from a very large pod of long beaked common dolphins and it was nothing short of incredible!" the caption says.

The company credited the film to a photographer who also posted it on Instagram days later (archived here).

Legacy Whale Watch confirmed to AFP that the dolphins were spotted during one of its excursions off San Diego's coast.

"This footage was completely unrelated to the tropical storm," the company said in an Instagram direct message.

Common dolphins often travel in herds numbering in the hundreds or thousands, according to the American Cetacean Society. Such pods allow the mammals to socialize, keep safe from predators and hunt together, the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation says on its website.

AFP has debunked other misinformation about the environment here.

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