If you've been paying attention to your news feed today, you've most likely seen the story about a Japanese whaling crew falling victim to a pod of savage orcas. As the story continues on its seemingly viral trajectory, this is a great time to remind ourselves that not everything we read on the web is true.
" ... The swimming crew members were ... ferociously attacked by a school of killer whales, that decimated a large number of the crew within moments," reports World News Daily. "The water was red with blood, there were bodies everywhere."
Whalers killed by whales ... if a story seems too ironic to be true, it most likley is. But you don't need to go far from the source to myth-bust this case ... World News Daily is a satire site, and has made this clear in a public disclaimer:
"World News Daily Report is a news and political satire web publication, which may or may not use real names, often in semi-real or mostly fictitious ways. All news articles contained within worldnewsdailyreport.com are fiction, and presumably fake news. Any resemblance to the truth is purely coincidental, except for all references to politicians and/or celebrities, in which case they are based on real people, but still based almost entirely in fiction."
Sorry guys ... this one's a spoof. Unfortunately, the tall tale has already made its way into the hands of various news outlets and is now being treated as a true story (facepalm).
So, if this little gem pops up in your Facebook feed, at least now you've got a handy response.
Top header image: Chase Dekker/Flickr
Conservation
Sharks
Myths and Legends
