Fact check: Video shows elephant seal in streets of Chile, not Florida

Ana Faguy, USA TODAY
·2 min read

The claim: Video shows a seal in Florida streets after Hurricane Ian

In the aftermath of Hurricane Ian, a Category 4 storm that struck the west coast of Florida on Sept. 28, social media users have been sharing videos and images purporting to show the effects of the storm.

One such video, shared in a Sept. 29 Instagram post that garnered more than 6,000 likes in four days, claims to show a seal moving its way up a residential street in the wake of the hurricane.

"Florida just outta control right now SEAL gets spotted in the streets after Hurricane Ian," reads text included in the video.

But the video is not from the aftermath of Hurricane Ian. It's from Chile in 2020.

USA TODAY reached out to the user who shared the post for comment.

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The seal was seen traveling through the streets of Puerto Cisnes, Chile before the Chilean Navy directed a rescue operation to take it back to sea.
The seal was seen traveling through the streets of Puerto Cisnes, Chile before the Chilean Navy directed a rescue operation to take it back to sea.

Video is from 2020

The video in the social media post is from October 2020, when an elephant seal became stranded on the streets of Puerto Cisnes, Chile, as USA TODAY reported at the time. The video has nothing to do with Hurricane Ian.

The Guardian reported in 2020 that the elephant seal became disoriented after coming ashore. Local residents and the military reportedly helped guide the seal back to the water.

Fact check: Viral image is digital art, not a picture of Hurricane Ian

Our rating: False

Based on our research, we rate FALSE the claim that a video shows a seal in the streets of Florida after Hurricane Ian. The video shows an elephant seal that was temporarily stranded in Chile in 2020.

Our fact-check sources:

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Video shows elephant seal in streets of Chile, not Florida

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