IMAGE: Facebook / Namibia Fact Check
A viral social media post falsely claims a man is sailing the world to collect animals in his ark because the world is coming to an end soon
A post which surfaced on 7 April 2024 claims that a Dutch Christian carpenter is travelling the world and collecting animals like the biblical Noah did because, it is claimed, the end of the world is near.
The post (image below) was forwarded to Namibia Fact Check for verification on 7 April 2024, just 10 hours after it was posted on Facebook by Afromambo, an entertainment page with over one million followers.
The post was also shared on the Instagram and Twitter / X profiles of Mike Sonko, a Kenyan politician, where it attracted almost 400,000 views and hundreds of shares .
The post reads (image below):
“END TIMES. This man rebuilt Noah’s Ark to exact biblical measurements and has been sailing around the world collecting animals just like Noah, when asked why he was doing it he said the world is about to come to an end.”
THE FACTS
A reverse image search on Google reveals that the images are not recent and that several articles since 2012 are associated with the images in the viral post.
The man in the images is identified as Johan Huibers, a Dutch Christian contractor / carpenter.
In the picture, Huibers poses in front of an ark-like structure that he says he built over the course of 4 years.
The floating structure has become a tourist attraction that can host up to 3,000 people a day, however, the ark is not sailing around the world collecting animals as stated in the viral post.
The act claimed in the viral post would require the ark structure to be transported, as stated in an article published online on 10 December 2012 by CBC News:
“Huibers said he’s considering where to take the floating attraction next, including European ports or even across the Atlantic – though the latter would require transport aboard an even bigger ship.”
The Times of Israel, a Jerusalem-based online newspaper, explained that the ark-like structure does not contain living animals, quoting Huibers;
“Huibers said he does not intend to place living animals in the ark for now, “only to show they could fit.”