Post falsely claims discovery of dead bodies forced NASA to stop underwater exploration
- Published on November 27, 2024 at 15:12
- 4 min read
- By Samad UTHMAN, AFP Nigeria
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“3 reasons why NASA Stopped Exploring The Ocean. This will shock you,” reads an X post published as a part of a thread on November 14, 2024.
It claims the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, known worldwide as NASA, ended ocean exploration when they found thousands of people dįed “at the very depth of the oceans (sic)”.
The thread, retweeted more than 4,600 times, comprises five posts. The first has two photos, while the second features a minute-long video.
The photos show what looks like two men – one standing, the other prostrate – with a sea plant in the background. The video, meanwhile, pans to an underwater environment, revealing more of the humanlike figures.
The claim is emphasised in the third and fourth posts while the last post offers discounted gadgets from the global smart-accessory brand Oraimo.
Founded in July 1958, NASA “leads studying Earth science, including climate, our Sun, solar system, and the larger universe” (archived here).
While its main focus is aeronautics and space exploration, it also collects and analyses “long-term ocean data from satellites”.
However, the claim that the agency stopped studying the oceans because it discovered corpses underwater is false.
Underwater art
AFP Fact Check traced the source of the photos and video to a TikTok account called “exploracao.subaquatica” whose name appears in the X post.
The TikTok account published the video on October 28, 2024, with the hashtags “#underwater #scubadivng #ocean #scary” as the caption, adding the actions in the footage “are performed or supervised by professionals”.
AFP then took screenshots from the video and conducted a reverse image search.
We found a similar video published on Shutterstock, a photo and video-sharing website, on December 10, 2021 (archived here).
Several similar clips showing the same scene were also published on the platform.
The caption explains that the footage showed the “Museum of Underwater Sculpture Ayia Napa” created by sculptor Jason deCaires Taylor.
The site is located at Pernera Beach in Ayia Napa, Cyprus (archived here).
A visual analysis of the Shutterstock clips and the one in the video shows the same features.
For instance, the sculpture seen at the beginning of the clip in the claim is also present in the Shutterstock clip, along with the distinctive spiky tree.
Another Shutterstock clip shows an assembly of sculptures, matching another part of the clip in the false claim.
A keyword search for “Jason deCaires Taylor” leads to his Instagram account, which includes a link to his website and another named “underwatersculptor.com” (archived here).
AFP Fact Check has debunked other false claims attributed to the artist’s work (here and here).
NASA ocean exploration
BBC reported in January 2022 that NASA was exploring the “deepest part of the ocean” called the Hadal Zone to “explore and probe the limits of life on Earth,” in partnership with Massachusetts-based Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) (archived here).
“The Hadal Zone is the deepest part of the ocean—from 20,000 to 36,000 feet. It is also the least explored place on Earth,” reads a message on the website dedicated to the exploration (archived here).
In addition to its oceanography work, NASA launched its Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) satellite in February 2024. According to a press release on its website, the US agency said “PACE will study microscopic life in the oceans and microscopic particles in the atmosphere”.
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