Social media users are spreading a theory originally posted to TikTok that the missing OceanGate Titan submersible can be located with a shark tracking app. According to the theory, the sub was mistaken for sharks tracked as part of a scientific experiment after two sharks associated with the study suddenly pinged near the Titanic wreck. The organization behind the app responded that their system only has the ability to ping the sharks it tracks, not other objects in the sea.
The individual behind the TikTok account @sqayl is theorizing that a shark tracking app called Ocearch may have inadvertently come across the location of OceanGate’s Titan submersible, which is still lost at sea, presumably somewhere near the Titanic wreckage.
“I may or may not have just found the missing submarine,” @sqayl began in his video posted to TikTok on Wednesday.
He goes on to explain that two sharks being tracked triggered pings on the app at locations that did not match their expected patterns.\
“These two sharks pinged this morning,” the TikToker said. “The two sharks are Andromache and Simon. Every living creature has patterns in their behavior, and this is not a pattern.”
“This will inevitably get deleted by Ocearch,” he added, explaining that the sharks were unlikely to have gone to the location they were pinged at, and therefore, the shark tracking app will likely delete the pings, assuming they are glitches.
“The statistical likelihood of both of these sharks swimming to the exact same location where the Titanic sunk and Titan, the missing submarine, is located, is an imaginary number that doesn’t exist,” @sqayl claimed in his video.
The TikToker goes on to beg “Whoever is looking for the crew in the submarine” to “contact Ocearch instantaneously and ask them for the coordinates before they delete them.”
“Ocearch, if you see this video, please stop removing the pings that you consider glitches, they are not glitches,” he added.
Some social media users took to the TikToker’s comment section to debate whether or not the app accidentally stumbled upon the Titan.
“Wow, that ping stopped at -226 ft too. Crazy as hell man, you might be onto something,” one user commented.
“When I first saw you I thought you we kinda crazy but this is seeming kinda real,” another wrote.
But not everyone agreed with @sqayl’s theory.
“You, in fact, did not find the missing sub,” one TikToker asserted.
“Remember in the beginning when you said you ‘may or may not have found’ yeah, you didn’t,” another echoed.
@sqayl then took to the comment section of his video to clarify his theory.
“To everyone confused: The sharks did not swim to the location. My belief is the shark tracking APP accidentally pinged the submarine somehow,” he explained.
The two pings near the Titanic wreckage ended up being removed from the shark tracking app.
Ocearch then took to @sqayl’s comment section to insist that “The deactivated pings from our 2 sharks are unrelated to the lost submarine as our system only has the ability to track our sharks’ tags.”
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.