Video of dead fish in Texas falsely linked to Fukushima wastewater discharge

This article is more than one year old.
Published on October 2, 2023 at 05:58
3 min read
By Tommy WANG, AFP Hong Kong

Chinese-language social media posts have repeatedly shared a clip showing scores of dead fish floating at a beach, falsely linking it to the release of treated wastewater from Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant. The video has circulated months before wastewater was first released from the nuclear plant in August 2023, in news reports about thousands of fish that died from a lack of oxygen washing up on the coast of the US state of Texas.

"Masses of dead fish by the sea and the consequence of Japan's nuclear wastewater discharge," reads the Chinese caption of a clip uploaded on the short-video platform Douyin on July 25, 2023.

It shows a massive number of dead fish floating in a stretch of water.

A screenshot of the false post on Douyin, taken on October 2, 2023

The post circulated after Japan's planned discharge of accumulated water from the Fukushima nuclear facility -- crippled by a tsunami in 2011 -- was approved by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as meeting global standards.

The first phase of wastewater release ran from August 24 to September 11, with a second batch of wastewater to be released from October 5.

Tokyo insists the discharge is safe but China has since banned all seafood imports from its neighbour, accusing it of treating the sea like a "sewer".

Japan's move has unleashed a wave of misinformation in China and neighbouring Korea.

Posts featuring the video of the dead fish continued to be shared on social media through September, such as on Weibo, Douyin and here on X -- formerly Twitter -- alongside similar false claims linking the incident to Fukushima.

Texas 'fish kill'

A combination of reverse image and keyword searches on Google found the clip corresponds to a Facebook video posted on June 9 (archived link).

The post's location was tagged as Freeport, Texas.

Its caption says the video was taken the morning of June 9 and reads in part: "The sunrise was gorgeous!! The aftermath of oxygen depleted water not so much!!

"Thousands of dead fish from the mouth of the Brazos River down the entire shoreline for miles headed east on Bryan and Quintana Beach!!"

Below are screenshot comparisons between the clip shared in the false posts (left) and the Facebook video (right):

Screenshot comparisons between the clip shared in false posts (left) and the Facebook video (right)

Multiple US news organisations reported about the incident and shared corresponding footage and images, including CBS News, NBC and USA Today (archived links here, here and here).

Tens of thousands of dead fish washed up on the Texas Gulf Coast on June 9 and 10, CBS News reported.

According to a post on Facebook by the Quintana Beach County Park, biologists determined low levels of oxygen in the water were to blame (archived link).

The statement says in part: "The fish kill was investigated and it was determined to have been caused by a low dissolved oxygen event.

"There was NO evidence of a chemical release of any kind, so please put those theories to rest and and do not spread misinformation."

AFP has debunked other false claims about the release of wastewater from Fukushima, including here, here, here, here and here.

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