Sunday, March 09, 2014

The Pig Fish... The Truth, The Whole Truth, and Nothing But The Truth



The reaction from around the world continues to be shocking.  The pig fish has gone viral in every sense of the definition.  In every foreign language imaginable,  I'm getting bombarded by messages and comments.

As of Sunday morning, the original pig fish photo has been shared more than 220 thousand times on facebook.  It has more than 300 thousand likes and more than 31 thousand comments.  Also, as of Sunday morning, my facebook reach is up to 16 million!  Unreal!!!!

Here's the story behind the famous pig fish photo as I know it.

In February of 2013, I received an email from a viewer with the picture.  I never produced or edited the photo myself.  I immediately knew it was not real, but thought it was funny. To this day, I still have no idea who sent it to me.  I wish I didn't delete the original email.  I posted it on facebook and my status update said, "Amazing new fish discovered in Arkansas :) ".  I obviously connected it to the Arkansas Razorbacks.  I even put a little smiley face at the end to hint it was a joke, at least in my mind."  The picture went viral and after a few days, it stopped.  I thought it was over and we all had a good laugh.  The story does not end there.

Just a few days ago, I started receiving messages on facebook again asking if the fish was real.  I have no idea how, but the original picture went viral once again.  I have posted several times it's not real, but I'm still getting asked if it is real.

Fishing legend, Jimmy Houston even posted it on his facebook page, but I'm sure he knows it's not real.

I'll have to admit, whoever photoshopped it did a fantastic job.  The first clue it's not real, there are no gills. Well, it has been a good laugh and I bet it goes viral again in about a year, but now you know the story.

Websites from around the world are picking up the story.  Here are a couple.

http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/animalkingdom/ss/Pig-Fish-Photo-Hoax.htm

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/550928-pigfish-or-hogfish-in-texas-arkansas-rivers-wild-pig-nose-fish-is-a-hoax/

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