Claim: A video shows millions of bilih fish emerging from Lake Singkarak in West Sumatra, Indonesia, allowing people to catch them by hand.
Rating: FALSE
Why we fact-checked this: The claim gained 894 likes, 266 comments, and 534 shares on social media platforms such as Threads, where Indonesian users shared the video with the suggestion that it depicted a natural phenomenon in Lake Singkarak.
“Wahhh, fenomena apa ini?? Jutaan ikan khas Singkarak, ikan Bilih, muncul ke permukaan ke tepian Danau Singkarak,” the caption reads.
(Wow, what phenomenon is it? Millions of Singkarak fish, bilih fish, emerge from the waters of Lake Singkarak).
A similar post was also shared on Facebook. The uploader, based in Padang City, West Sumatra, provided the following information: “Katanya di Danau Singkarak (People said it happened in Singkarak Lake).”
The same video was used in another post claiming that the incident took place in a different region of Indonesia, with the following caption: “Viral fenomena gerombolan ikan yang terjadi di wilayah Leato, Gorontalo (The viral phenomenon of a school of fish in Leato, Gorontalo).”
The facts: The incident depicted in the video did not occur at Indonesia’s Lake Singkarak, but on the shorelines of a Philippine beach resort in Barangay Tinoto, Maasim, Sarangani province. The fish seen in the video are sardines (locally called lupoy), not bilih fish (Mystacoleucus padangensis) native to Lake Singkarak.
A user in the Philippines uploaded the video showing the incident, including its original audio, to TikTok on January 7, 2024. The uploader wrote: “It happened early this morning in Sarangani province sa isa sa mga beach resort sa Maasim (at one of the beach resorts in Maasim).”
‘A blessing’: Residents of Tinoto and beach resort guests rushed to the shore to sweep up tons of young sardines using their bare hands and buckets. One of the residents, Jenad Maulani, told Rappler that he considered the event a blessing.
“We received information at around 3 am, and when we arrived at the location, I felt nervous because I saw so many fish washed up on the shore. So, we decided to help because we consider it a blessing,” he said, adding that his group alone hauled in about 500 kilograms of lupoy.
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Normal phenomenon: The Philippine News Agency (PNA) said that the beaching of tons of sardines was a natural phenomenon and common in coastal areas like Sarangani.
The PNA report cited Cirilo Lagnason Jr., a researcher from the Philippine Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Soccsksargen Region, who said the mass appearance of sardines was due to “upwelling,” a process in which nutrient-rich water is pushed towards the ocean surface, attracting juvenile fish to shallower areas.
He said this phenomenon is also common in the provinces of Zamboanga, Masbate, and Maguindanao del Norte. – Rappler.com
Artika Farmita is a journalist and fact-checker for Tempo.co, based in Surabaya, Indonesia. She is one of Rappler’s #FactsMatter Fellows for 2024.