IN THE WILD OR ARTIFICIALLY CONTROLLED?

A few eyebrows were raised when The Guardian revealed that some of the scenes had been produced in controlled conditions.

For example the monstrous fangtooth, which has the largest teeth relative to its size for any fish, was filmed aboard a ship in a special chamber.

David Attenborough was quick to defend the use of these techniques. “To say we’re distorting natural history would be absurd,” he said. “We’re being very, very meticulous to be correct and not in any way misleading.”

The overwhelming majority of the series was filmed in the wild, according to the BBC, but sometimes “macrofilming” – which is done on location, on boats or by the coast – is necessary. “Sometimes we have to film in controlled conditions to protect the welfare of the animals,” Attenborough explains in a BBC report. For example in one episode, rock pools were filmed in a marine lab because filming in the wild would have been too disruptive so producers worked closely with scientists to recreate rock pool conditions. The fangtooth would have been nearinvisible in its natural environment so filming took place aboard a ship in dark refrigeration chambers using ultra-low lighting.