Social media users have recently circulated videos featuring very loud terrifying sounds heard off the coasts of Egypt’s Marsa Matrouh and Damietta, as well as a number of Libyan cities including Tripoli, Benghazi, and Sirte.
The videos went viral across social media platforms, causing a state of controversy.
Blue whales are the reason
Some attributed the cause of those sounds to the “Blue whales“, a matter which caused a state of fear among citizens.
Moreover, other people claimed to see a group of whales swimming close to the shore in the coastal city of Damietta.
It is known that blue whales always make such sounds during their migration from the northwest to the southeast in the warm equatorial regions, thus their sounds represent an alert for the rest of the whales to follow them.
Baseless rumors
Head of Dabaa city in Marsa Matrouh governorate Major General Hani Youssef dismissed all these baseless rumors about the existence of blue whales in a number of coastal cities in Egypt, stressing that all those videos are fake.
In press statements, he added that over the past three days, he inspected the shores, and villages in the city, noting that, no sounds were heard.
In addition, a senior official in Ezbet El Borg city, Damietta, denied what has been circulated on social media networks, affirming that fishermen are performing their work normally without any obstacles.
Blue whale
It is difficult to imagine the size of the blue whale, the largest animal inhabiting the earth.
They are about the length of three school buses and the heart alone is the size of a small car.
The average weight for an adult is 200,000 to 300,000 pounds (100-150 tons). Blue whales are an overall blue-gray color, mottled with light gray.
