Story:
64-Foot Megalodon Shark Swimming Behind Nazi U-Boats Near Cape Town, South Africa on 18th December 1942.
Other Versions
Giant Megalodon Shark Swimming Past German Submarines in the 1940s
Fact Check:
An old black and white photograph popular online purports to show a 64-Foot Megalodon Shark Swimming behind Nazi U-Boats. It actually claims to show 64-foot tail to dorsal fin span of the Giant Shark spotted behind German Submarines near Cape Town, South Africa on 18th December 1942. The story garnered significance because Discovery Channel aired the photograph in one of its documentary claiming the Giant Carcharodon Megalodon still exists. However, the 64-Foot Megalodon Shark appearing in the photograph is not real.
About the 64-Foot Megalodon Shark Photograph
In a documentary called “Megalodon: The Monster Shark Lives,” Discovery Channel mentioned the photograph of the giant shark swimming past German submarines. The documentary aired in August 2013 showed it as a new photographic evidence uncovered from Nazi archives. It also showed some other photographs, videos and scientists’ views suggesting the prehistoric shark could be still alive. Shown below is a clip related to the documentary:
The old photograph of 64-Foot Megalodon Shark still appears online because it came from Discovery Channel. The fact of the matter, however, is the “Megalodon: The Monster Shark Lives” is a pseudo-documentary about possible survival of the prehistoric shark. The ‘scientists’ in the documentary are in fact actors pretending to be hunting for a live 67-foot-long Megalodon terrorizing humans and their boats off the coast of South Africa. The docufiction also showed disclaimers suggesting certain events and characters in the film were dramatized. The photograph was created for the Discovery Channel’s annual program “Shark Week“. For the same program, in 2013 also Discovery Channel staged a dramatized incident showing a Shark snatching and killing a Seal called Snuffy.
http://142.93.220.71/pranks/snuffy-the-seal-snatched-and-killed-by-a-shark-hoax-analysis.html
Surprisingly, the sepia-toned photograph of ‘Megalodon’ had the watermark of a Swastika on top right. The alleged Megalodon in the background is certainly fake – it is a photograph doctored for the Discovery Channel show. So, the claim of 64-Foot Megalodon Shark swimming behind German Submarines is a hoax. With the help of his viewers, Guardian columnist George Monbiot found the original photograph – from a footage of an archival U-boat film.
Update 26th May 2020:
Twitter page Fake History Hunter shared the old footage of the archival U-boat film. Likewise, it does not show presence of any such large creature, forget about Megalodon.
Ahem.
Here is the footage this screenshot comes from.
Surprise surprise, no Megalodon, not even Flipper. pic.twitter.com/HM1Qi5KmmX— Fake History Hunter (@fakehistoryhunt) May 24, 2020
Hoax or Fact:
Hoax.
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