Overview

• A magnitude 8.8 tremor off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula on July 30 triggered tsunami watches across the Pacific Ocean.
• Alerts prompted evacuations along Japan’s Pacific coast, including the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, and U.S. West Coast communities.
• Social media posts claimed five belugas beached in Kamchatka were a natural forewarning of the disaster.
• Fact checks by India Today and Lead Stories used reverse image searches and transcript analysis to link the clip to an August 2023 beluga rescue near the Tigil River.
• Experts note that wildlife footage often circulates without verification following major natural disasters.