You see it all the time on social media after big floods or hurricanes.
Someone invariably pulls out a fake meme of a shark swimming up the street, in the subway, or some such thing.
Except sometimes, perhaps, memes can come true.
That seems to be the case after the nor'easter hit southern New Jersey. My colleague Sister Toldjah covered some of the big issues that hit up and down the Eastern Seaboard.
There was a lot of flooding in the area of Surf City, New Jersey, with the flooding approaching four feet high in some areas.
But one resident saw a surprising sight as she looked at what was swimming up the street to her house.
A dogfish shark was spotted swimming through floodwaters in Surf City, New Jersey, heading up a resident's driveway and then toward Barnegat Bay on Saturday. https://t.co/bz1DkvPDni pic.twitter.com/2tzTVQbhYV
— ABC News (@ABC) September 27, 2026
This gives you a broader view, but it was Surf City, not Atlantic City.
Shark 🦈 on the Streets of Atlantic City New Jersey 😳 pic.twitter.com/vtMFT6OZt6
— Wake Up NJ 🇺🇸 New Jersey (@wakeupnj) September 27, 2026
A local resident captured a shark swimming through the greyish floodwater on Saturday, with the shark almost blending into the water as he patrolled the town of about 1,300 people.
“Is that a little shark?” a woman could be heard saying in a clip obtained by ABC News. “Oh my God, he’s coming this way.”
The shark even swam up the resident's driveway before departing and heading off toward Barnegat Bay.
But fortunately, there was no "Jaws" or "Sharknado" moment in the offing and no real danger to the residents.
Dr. Greg Skomal, a white shark researcher who works with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, told ABC News it was a smooth dogfish, “Which is a very small, harmless shark that is common in those waters.”
That was a humorous moment in an otherwise problematic storm that caused a lot of trouble.
On a more serious note, the nor’easter storm has been knocking over trees with its mighty winds and making it next to impossible for many to travel, with thousands of flights canceled and delayed. Wind gusts of 50 mph have swept through New York City — and reached 74 MPH in Surf City — while about 4-6 inches of rain have poured down in states like Rhode Island and Massachusetts. One 56-year-old NYC housing worker was killed by a falling tree caused by the storm on Saturday.