A viral social media clip claiming to show a marine trainer named Jessica Radcliffe being attacked and killed by an orca whale during a live performance has been confirmed as a fabrication. The video, which first gained traction on TikTok and later spread to Facebook, has amassed millions of views and has prompted intense debates online.
Depicting an incident that had taken place at a supposed facility called Pacific Blue Marine Park, the footage shows Radcliffe, the trainer, being attacked while performing with the whale in front of an audience. Some viewers expressed shock and sympathy, while others questioned the lack of intervention. However, investigations that have been conducted by several outlets have found no record of a trainer named Jessica Radcliffe, the marine park, or any such incident having taken place. Official marine safety reports, employment records, and credible news archives also yielded no results when searched.
Experts in digital forensics have pointed out several signs that indicate the clip was AI-generated, including visual inconsistencies, such as a whale’s fin briefly morphing into a human leg, as well as the staff member moving in unnatural unison. They also noted that an event of this nature would likely have received significant coverage from both national and international news outlets.
The clip appears to incorporate elements from tragedies that had actually taken place in the recent past, involving marine trainers and captive orcas, notably the death of Dawn Brancheau at SeaWorld in Florida in 2010 and the death of Alexis Martínez in Tenerife, which took place in 2009. Researchers have warned that the blending of such truth with fiction can make stories more convincing, especially when they mimic widely reported events.
Various psychologists have noted that false content tends to spread faster, with repeated exposure to misinformation adding ammunition to false beliefs—a phenomenon known as the “illusory truth” effect. Guidance provided by verification experts stresses the importance of checking whether an event has been addressed by reputable news outlets, using reverse image or video searches to confirm origins, and watching for signs of manipulation such as mismatched audio, unnatural shadows, or glitches around the face and body.
