Fact Check

Was a Japanese Whaling Crew Eaten Alive by Killer Whales?

Online reports held that a school of killer whales attacked and ate 16 crew members of a Japanese whaling boat.

Published Aug. 5, 2014

Claim:
A school of killer whales attacked and ate 16 crew members of a Japanese whaling boat.

On 28 July 2014, the World News Daily Report (WNDR) web site published an article positing that a school of killer whales attacked, killed, and ate 16 crew members of a Japanese whaling boat:

A Japanese whaling crew has fallen victim to a dramatic full on assault by a school of killer whales, killing no less then 16 crew members and injuring 12, has reported the Japanese Government this morning.

The crew of the MV Nisshin Maru, Japan’s primary whaling vessel and the world’s only whaler factory ship, was forced to leave the deck temporarily as a gas leak was detected within the ship’s processing factory that resulted in the ship being temporarily disabled all while continuing to carry approximately 1,000 tons of oil.

Soon afterwards links and excerpts referencing this item were being circulated via social media, with many of those who encountered it mistaking it for a genuine news article. However, that article was just another spoof from World News Daily Report, a fake news web site whose stock in trade is publishing fantastically fictional stories. The site's disclaimer page states that:

World News Daily Report is a news and political satire web publication, which may or may not use real names, often in semi-real or mostly fictitious ways. All news articles contained within worldnewsdailyreport.com are fiction, and presumably fake news. Any resemblance to the truth is purely coincidental, except for all references to politicians and/or celebrities, in which case they are based on real people, but still based almost entirely in fiction.

David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.