Video shows sardines beaching in the Philippines, not Indonesia
- Published on September 27, 2024 at 05:04
- 3 min read
- By AFP Indonesia
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"Happened last night at Leato Beach in Gorontalo Province. I hope it does not indicate a mega earthquake will soon happen. Protect me, O God. Amen," read the caption of a Facebook post published on September 13, 2024.
It also shared a video that shows fish jumping out of the sea near a shoreline while a group of people collect them with buckets.
The false claim circulated after the Indonesian Meteorological and Geophysical Agency (BMKG) said on August 19 that the earthquake in Japan earlier that month was a reminder of potential quakes in the Sunda Strait and Mentawai-Siberut "megathrust zones."
No jolts have been recorded in either area in decades (archived link).
BMKG said it had not warned of imminent earthquakes, but the public should be aware of the risks.
Similar videos with the same false claim were also shared on Facebook here, here and here, racking up more than 9,400 views.
However, the video was not filmed in Indonesia.
Phenomenon in the Philippines
A keyword search found the same video uploaded by a TikTok user on January 7, 2024 (archived link).
The post's caption said it showed an incident that morning in the southern Philippine province of Sarangani.
"There are so many fish, promise. First time!" remarks in Visayan, a language spoken in the Philippines, could also be heard in the clip.
Below is a screenshot comparison between the video in the false post (left) and on TikTok in its original context (right):
Philippine media outlet Rappler reported on January 8 that tons of juvenile sardines -- known locally as lupoy or tamban -- beached on the shorelines of the Maasim town in the province (archived link).
The outlet also published a slideshow of locals collecting the fish.
Photos show several people can be seen in the same clothes as those in the falsely shared video, as seen in the screenshot comparison below with similarities highlighted by AFP:
Rappler quoted Zenaida A. Dangkalan, a local fishery officer, who gave several possible reasons for the beaching.
"First, this might be linked to the current lupoy season," she said. "Another could be that a bigger species of fish was chasing after them, causing them to swim toward the shoreline since bigger fish can’t go to shallow portions. And third, the lights from the beach resort might have attracted them."
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) says that earthquakes cannot be predicted and that although anecdotes exist of bizarre animal behaviour before seismic activity, no scientific mechanism can explain the connection (archived link).
The same video was published on the verified Facebook account of the local news organisation SunStar Cebu.
AFP has previously debunked misinformation about animal behaviour and earthquakes here.
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