A video allegedly depicting the tragic incident spread on Russian-language social networks in the spring of 2025. We have checked its accuracy.
The video is compiled from several videos and photographs. They show a man trying to drag a shark that had swum into shallow water to the depths. At the end, the shark suddenly dives, dragging the savior along with it. Viewers watch splashes for a few seconds, indicating an underwater fight, then the waves subside and the video ends. The caption for the video states that the man died trying to save the shark's life. At the same time, the authors of some publications specified that the victim of the incident was a tourist from Russia. The location where the tragedy occurred was not specified. This video clip popular in "VKontakte" - one of the publications on this social network dialed 6 million views. In addition, the video was posted on entertainment websites.
Using reverse image search, we found out that this video was originally distributed in English-speaking Internet - with approximately the same caption as in the Russian language (except for the mention of a Russian tourist): “A man died saving the life of a shark.”
However, the earliest publication Verified could find tells the story very differently. June 23, 2024 Instagram user maggieandmum_ki from Australia posted this video and wrote: “Does anyone else have a completely crazy uncle? Well... I bet not as crazy as mine! The other day, my Uncle Tridda decided it would be a great idea to fulfill his lifelong dream of swimming with a shark, holding onto its fin while it drags it along with it. He's like a cat with nine lives! And this is just one of the many completely crazy things he did in his life. He somehow always manages to get out of all troubles unharmed, so that he can talk about them later.”
Later that day she posted recording reportage about this event from the program news release 7 news, which is published in the Australian city of Adelaide. The report states that the event took place on Kangaroo Island near Adelaide, where the hero of the viral video, Tristan Turner, was fishing with his children. One of his sons accidentally caught a narrowtooth shark, and the father jumped into the water to unhook it and release it back into the ocean. However, at the last moment he could not resist the temptation and decided to take a little ride, holding on to the fin of the fish - according to him, he had long dreamed of this. “My son was really scared when I did this, but the narrowtooth sharks are pretty friendly,” Turner told reporters. The report shows the continuation of the video, which was not posted on social networks, in which Turner emerges safely and swims back to the shore. Publications about this incident also appeared in British press.
Thus, the viral video shows not a Russian tourist, but an Australian Tristan Turner. He really saved the shark that was hooked, but he didn’t die, he just had fun and enjoyed it. This happened back in 2024.
Cover photo: Unsplash
Read on topic:
- Is it true that sharks can sense blood in the water a kilometer away?
- Is it true that sharks don't eat people?
- Is it true that piranhas attack people and eat them alive?
If you find a spelling or grammatical error, please let us know by highlighting the error text and clicking Ctrl+Enter.
