A 4-foot 'shark' was filmed swimming in a flooded backyard after Hurricane Ian pummeled southwest Florida — and yes, the video was deemed real

• A shark is seen in a flooded Florida backyard in a video that has been viewed more than one million times.

• People were skeptical if the video was real.

• The video's authenticity was confirmed by the AP.

After Hurricane Ian wreaked havoc in southwest Florida, a sea creature flopped in a backyard.

A decade of previous "hurricane shark" hoaxes where people edited sharks onto flooded highways and subway stations made people doubt the video was real.

The Associated Press analyzed the video and confirmed that it was not doctored, and that it was taken as Ian made his way through Florida.

The Florida resident who took the video said it looked like a fish. All my friends are like, "It's like a shark, man!""

—Brad Habuda (@BradHabuda) September 28, 2022

Cameratta estimated the marine animal to be four feet in length and swam from the ocean to a nearby retention pond. By the time he took the video, the pond was full of water from the flooding caused by the storm.

George, the former director of the Florida Museum of Natural History's shark program, told the AP that the animal appeared to be a shark, even though experts are hesitant to call it one.

Young bull sharks can be seen in videos in FL water bodies connected to the sea such as coastal canals and ponds. It is likely that this shark was swept shoreward with the rising seas.

The experts weren't sure if the animal was a shark or not. The director of the shark program at the University of Miami told the Associated Press that it was difficult to tell if the video was real.

She told the AP in an email that it made sense from a flooding perspective. How would a shark travel from the Gulf of Mexico to a pond?

The shark was compelled to swim up the creek to the retention pond because of the change in barometric pressure.

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