Plastic DIDN’T kill Blue Planet whale (... says the plastics industry)

PLASTIC makers hit back at the BBC yesterday, saying that ‘alarmist’ images of a dead baby whale in Blue Planet II were linked to plastics ‘with absolutely no supporting evidence’.

The moving scenes of a mother pilot whale holding on to her dead calf were watched by nearly 11million people in Britain.

Environment Secretary Michael Gove said he had been left ‘haunted’ by the documentary – and vowed to take tough action on plastics.

But the British Plastics Federation criticised Sunday’s programme, presented by Sir David Attenborough.

‘The BPF was disappointed that the saddening images of a dead baby pilot whale in Blue Planet II were linked to plastics with absolutely no supporting evidence,’ the industry body said. ‘Plastics themselves are not a major source of toxins, persistent organic pollutants nor heavy metals found in oceans.

‘The harmful chemicals that are present in the sea are not there because of plastics. They are often present due to historical practices, with many of these practices and chemicals now banned.

‘The executive producer of the programme has stated in the Press that no autopsy was done on the baby whale. To heavily insinuate it was killed by plastics is wrong.

‘Falsely linking toxins in the ocean with plastics and the death of a baby whale is alarmist. Plastics are completely safe: they simply need to be disposed of responsibly.’

The BBC defended the documentary. It said the show did not state that ‘plastics killed the baby whale’, rather that chemical contamination was the cause, and plastics may have played a role in the contamination.

A spokesman said the dead calf could have been poisoned by its mother’s milk due to chemical pollution. ‘It’s well documented that pollutants accumulate on microplastics and that micro-plastics are consumed by a wide variety of sea creatures,’ he added.