That is not a shark: Video shows bird carrying large fish over Myrtle Beach

Friday, July 3, 2020
That is not a shark: Video shows bird carrying large fish over Myrtle Beach
There's been a video circulating on social media showing what users are saying is a bird carrying a shark through the sky over Myrtle Beach. But is that what really happened?

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. -- There's been a video circulating on social media showing what users are saying is a bird carrying a shark through the sky over Myrtle Beach.

But is that what really happened?

While the sea creature might be large, Ed Piotrowski, chief meteorologist with local media outlet WPDE, said it's actually a large Spanish mackerel being carried by an osprey.

Footage shot by Tennessee native Ashley White from the 17th floor of an apartment building where she was staying on vacation shows the fish wriggling around trying to escape capture as the bird carries it high above the beach.

The bird had grabbed the fish with its talons on June 22.

Osprey birds are, according to the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, "locally known as fish hawks or fish eagles."