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Video of oil tanker being tossed about at sea due to Hurricane Idalia is actually from 2021

Many such fake photos and videos, claiming to be of Hurricane Idalia, are being widely shared across social media

FLORIDA: A purported video of an oil tanker in choppy waters during Hurricane Idalia in August was actually a video from 2021.  

Hurricane Idalia, a hazardous Category 3 storm, made landfall on Florida's Gulf Coast on Wednesday, August 30. There are many videos and photos online showing the destruction caused by the hurricane. 

News Center Maine deemed the video to be false.

True story behind video showing oil tanker during Hurricane Idalia

False and misleading pictures and videos about the storm are being shared on social media amid the hurricane.

One of these videos, which was published on X on August 30, showed an oil tanker negotiating a violent storm. It received 125 likes and 9,132 views.

The post caption reads, "Oil Tanker Caught in Tropical Storm Idalia on 8/28 - Surprisingly, it remained stable."

This post's 16-second video had the caption, "Oil Tanker Nearly Gets Flipped," and the date August 28, 2023 on it.

Another version of the post, which includes an 11-second clip of the oil tanker, reads, "#BREAKING #USA #Florida Oil Tanker almost flips after being caught in tropical storm Idalia off the coast of Florida."

The video, which was shot in 2021, does not, however, depict a ship traveling through Hurricane Idalia in August.

After reviewing the footage, Logically Facts discovered that it was uploaded by Getty Images in 2021 with the caption, "Oil Tanker Caught In Horrible Storm In the North Sea."

The Getty Images video lasts 46 seconds, however, the widely shared viral video is a cropped version that lasts less than 16 seconds.

When the alignment of the ship's bow at the 0:01 timestamp in the viral video is compared to the 0:25 timestamp in the Getty Images video, it is clear that the viral clip has nothing to do with Hurricane Idalia.

Both ships are equipped with the same yellow item.

"An Oil Tanker navigating through an immense tempest on August 16, 2021, in the expanse of the North Sea," said the description of the video on Getty Images. Thomas A.D./Licet Studio is given credit for the video.

How did the oil tanker video go viral?

With the aid of Google Lens, VERIFY was able to establish that the video of the sizable oil tanker navigating stormy seas was not shot during or in the course of Hurricane Idalia.

Additionally, on August 16, 2021, Newsflare, an online video news portal, uploaded a 45-second video with the following caption, "Astonishing Captain's View of an Oil Tanker Battling Heavy Seas During a Storm Near Denmark."

The same video clip, which showed a ship stranded in a tumultuous storm during Cyclone Biparjoy, was widely distributed and quickly became popular online in June. The claim was refuted at the time by Logical Facts.

The tanker was experiencing winds of 70 to 80 knots (approximately 80 mph) on August 16, 2021, in a storm off the coast of Aalborg, Denmark, according to NewsFlare.

At that time, the video was picked up by a number of news outlets.