Fact check: Shark photos were taken in Cape Canaveral, not Lake Erie
The claim: Sharks were seen in Lake Erie
The vast majority of sharks cannot survive without salt water, according to Mike Heithaus a marine ecologist specializing in sharks at Florida International University.
That fact didn't stop social media users from sharing a June 23 Facebook post captioned "Sharks in Lake Erie be careful." The post received 500 shares in a week.
But the images were taken by a Cape Canaveral resident who confirmed to Paste BN he took the photos in Southeast Florida.
The user who shared the post told Paste BN, "Just was posting to have a good laugh is all."
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This photo is not from Lake Erie
The three images come from Cape Canaveral, Florida, not Lake Erie.
Danny Whittington told Paste BN in a phone interview, that he took the images seen in the Facebook post. He snapped the photos after spotting the sharks in the Atlantic Ocean on Feb. 12.
"I’ve never seen Lake Erie much less taken pictures there,” Whittington said.
Before the photos were shared in connection with Lake Erie, they appeared in numerous posts from users in Cape Canaveral, all of whom credited Whittington.
Stephanie O’Grady, a spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, confirmed there have been no recent reports of sharks in Lake Erie.
"You're not feasibly going to get sharks in Lake Erie, and even if you did they're not going to make it very long," Heithaus told Paste BN. "They can't take the freshwater nor the temperature."
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Our rating: False
Based on our research, we rate FALSE the claim that sharks were seen in Lake Erie. Whittington, who took the original photos, confirmed they were taken in Florida. A marine ecologist told Paste BN a shark could not practically reach Lake Erie let alone survive the fresh water.
Our fact-check sources:
- Stephanie O’Grady, June 27, Email exchange with Paste BN
- Matt Devitt, June 28, Email exchange with Paste BN
- Danny Whittington, June 30, Phone interview with Paste BN
- Mike Heithaus, July 6, Phone interview with Paste BN
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