At the end of July 2025, after a major earthquake in the Far East, a video showing beached whales went viral. We have verified the accuracy of such publications.
The video shows beluga whales stuck at the water's edge and people pouring sea water on them. The voice-over (apparently this is the person who is filming the video) says: “Beluga whales washed ashore. We came to help in any way we can. Heavy... The whole family.” It is alleged that the video was recently filmed in Kamchatka. Telegram channels published it with similar captions “KB"(238,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), "News"(45,000), Full-Time Trading (40,000), "Media talk"(39,000), etc. The video was posted on YouTube by the TV channel "Moscow 24", it is also wide sold out V Instagram.
On July 30, an earthquake of magnitude 8.8 occurred in Kamchatka - the strongest in the last 70 years. After this, it was announced in Japan, the USA and some other countries tsunami threat. More than 2 million people were evacuated, but the earthquake and tsunami didn't bring it There was no significant damage and no one was killed.
Using a reverse image search, Verified found that a video of beluga whales has been circulating on social media for a couple of years. The earliest publication we could find was dated August 13, 2023, when the video was posted on a regional news site "Kamchatka-inform" The article said that due to a strong low tide, five beluga whales (including one calf) were stuck on the western shore of the peninsula at the mouth of the Tigil River. Local fishermen came to their aid, watering the animals with sea water and feeding them fish for several hours. Then the tide began to rise, and the belugas were able to swim into the Sea of Okhotsk.
On the day of the earthquake in Kamchatka, the Japanese press wrotethat the day before, July 29, four whales washed ashore in Chiba Prefecture. Experts note that cases of whales washing ashore on the eve of large earthquakes have been recorded previously (for example, in 2011 in New Zealand), but a reliable connection between seismic activity and the unusual behavior of marine mammals has not yet been established.
There have been no other reported cases of whales stranding in the region immediately before or immediately after the recent Kamchatka earthquake.
Thus, the authors of the viral video captured a real scene of the rescue of beluga whales stuck on the shore, but it has nothing to do with the earthquake in Kamchatka in July 2025. The video was filmed two years earlier when several marine mammals were stranded on the beach by a high tide.
Cover photo: screenshot of a viral video
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