Video Of Whales Swimming In Indonesia Viral As Bombay High

Many have questioned the authenticity of the video on Twitter as well. View an archive of the tweet here.

The clip has also been shared on YouTube with the caption, "Animals coming out while humans are locked down - Whales spotted at Bombay High Oil Rig Part 4"

Furthermore, an article by India TV's web desk erroneously identified the location as Bombay High as well. The article is headlined as, "Whale-Like creature spotted in Bombay High Waters." The article however states that the ONGC has clarified that it is not the oilfield. Click here to see the archived report.

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Fact Check

BOOM reverse searched the frames of the clip and found a longer video of the same footage on YouTube that was uploaded on August, 2019.

According to the caption, the video is from Nusa Penida, an island located in the southeast region of Indonesia's Bali.

Upon further keyword searches, we found another video that was tweeted by BBC Indonesia on August 29, 2019.

The caption, when translated to English, reads, "Video, A group of humpback whales are seen crossing the Karimunjawa sea, even though Indonesian waters are not part of their annual migration path."

We further compared the frames from both the video uploaded by BBC News Indonesia and the viral clip.

An excerpt from the BBC feature, when translated to English, reads, "A bunch of humpback whales, caught on camera crossing the Sea of Karimunjawa. The humpback whale commonly migrates from the Seltan hemisphere to the north for breeding. However, Indonesian waters are not part of the humpback whale migration path, which is more commonly found in Australian waters. It is also their annual migration path. Humpback whales generally migrate up to 10,000 km every year from cold waters in Antarctica into warmer waters in Asutralia."

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Furthermore, in an official statement to Hindustan Times, ONGC spokesperson clarified, "It's heartening to see marine life thriving. However, mobiles are not allowed in ONGC offshore installations. Therefore, this video has not been shot at/near any ONGC offshore installation."