Was a fish with a human face caught in Japan? Fact Check

ByCraig Haley

A video appearing to show a fish with a human face is spreading via social media and video sharing websites such as YouTube.

FALSE

An instance of the video can be seen below –

A number of instances of the video have popped up, many simply attributing the caption “Weird Fish”, while others claim the fish was captured in Japan. One of the first instances of the video on Chinese social media platform WeChat simply named the fish the “The Lakeside Surprise Fish”

As many have no doubt concluded, the fish isn’t real. The video has been uploaded a number of times across the Internet, yet no instances of it have included verifiable details as to the location of where the video was taken or the identities of the people behind the video, which is usually a red flag that the video itself isn’t what it appears to be.

Of course if the fish was real, it would have no doubt have garnered much media attention by now, just like the fish “with a human face” which was spotted in South Korea in 2009. In comparison, the 2009 fish’s “human face” credentials are far less impressive than the one in the video above.


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The source of the video is yet unknown, but we did speak to a special effects advisor familiar with digital video editing software such as Adobe After Effects who confirmed to us that the video has all the “tell-tale signs” of computer generated imagery.

It’s absolutely CGI [computer generated imagery.] There are always tell-tale signs when creating these sorts of “low level” projects. Specifically the texture of the creation and the way the light appears to reflect (bounce) from it. This isn’t a real animal. This has been generated using video software.

If the source of the video comes to light we’ll update the article. In the interim, however, we can conclude that the video is still clearly not real.

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