Nature program Blue Planet II has received both criticism and support online for dumping hundreds of rubber ducks into the ocean in order to highlight the global problem of plastic pollution in the ocean. The stunt was carried out in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Costa Rica.
David Attenborough can even make rubber ducks sound epic and haunting.
— Eggnog Grundy (@GrundyOxford) November 19, 2017
🌏 ❤️#BluePlanet2 pic.twitter.com/UzDsvgpH0z
The effect was intended to recall the case of some 7000 rubber ducks being dumped into the Arctic Sea when a shipping container fell from a cargo vessel in 1992 — but some observers on Twitter accused the program of deliberately trying to mislead viewers into thinking they were seeing the aftermath of the original event, rather than a restaging of it. Others questioned whether all of the ducks were retrieved from the water after the filming.
FAKE VIEWS!
— TONYINBHAM (@TT0121) December 3, 2017
The BBC Has Admitted That It Forged Scenes In #BluePlanet2 By Planting Hundreds Of Plastic Ducks In The Water, With Sir Richard Attenborough Claiming They Were Washed Over From A Cargo Ship 25 Years Ago. It Was A Clumsy Attempt At Highlighting Pollution At Sea. pic.twitter.com/Tpyu08cTy9
Blue Planet II crew admit planting rubber ducks in ocean https://t.co/7Hlnf9ciE0 via @MailOnline
— Bo Snerdley (@BoSnerdley) December 3, 2017
More #FakeNews about pollution from the left. If it’s so bad, why do they need to lie about it? https://t.co/VDHBMYilX9
— Andrew Marcus (@ImAndrewMarcus) December 3, 2017
Others were more sympathetic, mocking those who mistook the footage for the original event, and supporting the stunt as a way of illustrating the scale of plastic pollution of the world's oceans.
https://t.co/dNvo2sbuG6
— Sam Vimes (@SamVimes6) December 4, 2017
Is this really where we are now?
It has to be explained to people that the footage of something that happened 25 years ago might not be *actual* live footage?
ffs.#BluePlanet2 #ducks
#shocker NOT! Did anyone actually think that they did???? Of course a film crew just happened to be there in 1992 to film a crate falling in the sea & a load of rubber ducks floating away!!! Honestly 🙄 #BluePlanet2 https://t.co/HvTBeK3Y2n
— Amanda (@A_J_Edwards) December 3, 2017
I don't know why people thought these ducks were from the real incident, #DavidAttenborough DID say "ducks like these…" Stupid people 🙄😒 #BluePlanet2 https://t.co/eOZ0p5EfKP
— Demon 😈 (@DemonTraitor) December 4, 2017
How the #BluePlanet2 team re-enacted the release of Bath ducks to illustrate Ocean currents & accounted for them all https://t.co/RtykU3mOvM
— March For Science UK (@ScienceMarchUK) December 1, 2017
According to the Plastic Oceans organization, 8 million tons of plastic are dumped into the oceans every year, trapping and poisoning marine life.
