A picture of a 'shark' in Marsamxett which went viral on Facebook is a doctored copy of a Great White sighting elsewhere.
The photo was uploaded by a team from TVM programme Skjetti to show how many take items uploaded on social media at face value.
"So many fell for the joke. A picture which took five minutes to edit was shared by so many. It shows how people just disseminate content without checking the source. It shows that not everything shared on Facebook is reality," show presenter Quinton Scerri told Times of Malta.
It shows how people just disseminate content without checking the source
The joke was made ahead of the February 3 edition of Skjetti which will be tackling the issue of journalism and social media.
Alex 'Sharkman' Buttigieg had instantly dismissed the picture as a fake, as he provided the link to a picture of a Great White shark website.
But the picture uploaded on Facebook once again triggered off a discussion about the possibility of sharks swimming in the seas around us.
Marine biologist Alan Deidun said that sharks have declined drastically in the Mediterranean. He said it is also rare for sharks to venture so close to land and within harbours.
Sharks, like marine mammals, are also easily scared by underwater noise generated by vessels.
Greg Nowell from Shark Lab had also said there is reasonable doubt about the picture supposedly taken off Valletta, even if the presence of juvenile white sharks in the east of Malta are not uncommon.
I would love to believe it's a genuine picture, at least it proves that we haven't killed off all sharks from the Mediterranean
However, he said a video which emerged last year of a Great White shark about a mile off Grand Harbour had appeared to be genuine. This time of year there is also a lot of mackerel travelling along the Maltese coastline and that could draw sharks.
"I would love to believe it's a genuine picture, at least it proves that we haven't killed off all sharks from the Mediterranean. There's always a genuine fear of sharks - but when you get to know them a bit better you realise there's so much more to these species," Mr Nowell told Times of Malta.