My name's Jeremy Wade.
I'm a biologist with a passion for dangerous fish.
The big, the bad and the ugly.
What a monster this thing is!
Now I'm after a predator that's invading America.
Watch your pets. Watch your children.
It has spawned horror movies,
and stands accused of homicide.
These fish have reportedly attacked humans.
Allegedly, it can even breathe air and crawl on land.
But how much of this can I actually believe?
I intend to separate fact from fiction,
and to find out first hand if this beast really does attack people.
Does its bite... match the hype?
And could these so-called Franken-fish take over?
Ripped By mstoll
I've been investigating dangerous freshwater fish for over 20 years.
But I've never come across an animal quite like this before.
According to this website, they hunt in packs.
It says here that they have a poisonous bite.
Cannibalistic.
Eats everything in its path.
Breathes air and walks on land.
Some of these reports make it sound like some kind of primeval throwback.
A creature from before the dinosaurs,
when fish were first starting to crawl out of the swamps.
There's a story here from Malaysia of a man, apparently, who was castrated.
And another story here from Thailand.
Apparently somebody killed.
To find out if these horrific reports are true,
I'll be heading to Southeast Asia.
As well as finding eyewitnesses, I want to track down the monster that stands accused.
The snakehead is a fish born with a taste for flesh.
A beauty that turns into a beast.
This seems like a fish that punches well above its weight.
If just half of what I'm reading is true,
then the snakehead really is a beast to be reckoned with.
I want to meet this fish in the flesh and find out what it is truly capable of.
Can they really breathe air and crawl across land?
Is it true that they are spreading like a virus, devouring everything in their path?
And are they really aggressive enough to attack and kill a human?
My search for this alleged killer begins in a place where it doesn't belong.
I'm in south Florida,
pursuing an animal that's travelled halfway round the world,
and is now busy invading new territory far from its natural home.
When Bob Newland pulled a weird-looking creature from a Miami backwater in 2000,
he took it to Florida's Exotic Fish lab,
to find out what it was.
When I got it there, I just dropped it right on the floor and I said, "OK, Paul, what is this?"
And he just looked at me and said, "I don't know."
And then he got a big book and looked in the book and then he said,
"This is what it is. It's a snakehead."
He wanted to know where I caught it. I said, "On a golf course in Tamarac."
He said, "No, I need to know what hole you found it on."
Government scientist Paul Shafland had to act fast.
What we had hoped was that they would only be in one pond.
And if they were in one pond, we could go in and eradicate.
But when his team checked the surrounding canals, it was bad news.
Snakehead. 583.
The invaders were already on the move.
South Florida is a maze of interconnected canals.
We couldn't have created a more ideal habitat for snakeheads.
Shafland is up against the Bullseye Snakehead.
But this is just one member of a much larger gang.
Snakeheads are, in fact, a group of almost 30 different species
that range in size from a small flick knife
to a four-foot torpedo.
They're ambush predators, with long, camouflaged bodies,
ripping teeth,
and a reputation for extreme aggression.
Their global empire already stretches from tropical Africa to the Far East,
including Russia.
And they seem to be spreading.
Soon after Newlands' discovery, a second species surfaced in Maryland,
just 20 miles from Washington, DC.
The Northern Snakehead is built to survive cold Siberian winters.
And its presence set off alarm bells in the government and the media.
These fish are top-level predators
that will eat anything in their path.
They can travel across land and live out of water for three days.
Snakeheads reportedly even attacked humans...
(Echoing)... attacked humans.
- Argh! - Dad!
This just sort of took off and exploded with the media.
People said, "Do we have to worry about our children being attacked on the way to school?
Can we leave our pets in the yard or will the snakeheads eat them?"
Meanwhile, scientists from the Fish and Wildlife Department
feared that these snakeheads could unleash ecological havoc.
And in a bid to wipe them out, they poisoned an entire pond,
killing every last fish.
Yet despite efforts to exterminate them,
Northern Snakeheads are now established in five states across the eastern US.
Media hype is one thing.
But when a government is spending millions of dollars to fight a fish,
you know you've got a serious problem.
I never expected that I'd be fishing in a quiet residential area
for fish that have been branded "worse than piranhas".
I'm in south Florida,
just a few miles from where snakeheads first showed up.
To catch one of these alien invaders,
I'm using a lure that imitates live prey.
Most baits and lures, you've got the hook exposed.
But here, if a fish grabs it,
that's what happens.
I hook up with local guide Alan Zaremba, an experienced snakehead angler.
Very nice.
Look at that. Oh!
Oh...
First cast and...
The frog had a huge...
a huge lump of salad with it, as well,
and the fish went for meat and veg,
but didn't hook up.
- Ah. That was a hit and a miss. - Another snakehead.
The problem with the snakeheads is you get one shot at 'em.
They don't come back for a second shot.
What do they eat? It's not just fish.
Anything that's moving that they can ambush.
The adults, at least, appear to be lone hunters.
They're not swarming in packs like piranhas.
But as I work the banks,
it's clear that these canals are crawling with snakeheads.
Oh, yes!
- That was a hit. - That was a hit.
Take a long cast up that way. Maybe he's got some amigos here.
Great shot.
Are these fish are still part of the first wave, I wonder?
Or has an invasion already become an occupation?
They're here and you're not gonna stop 'em. You're not gonna stop these fish.
They seem to love these shallow areas, especially if you get some weeds.
- Did you see that? - Let it drop.
Set the hook.
That is a fish on. That one came out right from the side, didn't it?
That came out four or five feet, its wake just arrowing out.
I've hooked my first snakehead.
And what it lacks in size, it more than makes up for with attitude.
Here we go. That's it.
A Bullseye Snakehead.
Now I've got my hands on one of these things, I can see why it's called a snakehead.
A very long, thin, muscular fish.
I think very often, fish which are long and quite snakelike
do give quite a strong fight.
This particular one is called a Bullseye Snakehead because of this eyespot on the tail.
Have a look inside the mouth. There we go.
That's definitely the mouth of a predator.
All those teeth there.
And it's not just smaller fish that it eats. It eats frogs, I was using an imitation frog.
Also things like lizards, rats, even small ducks.
These fish are clearly carnivorous.
But do they deserve their reputation for extreme aggression?
It's very easy to go on the internet, and in a matter of a few minutes, you find stuff like this.
These are clips put up by people who keep pet snakeheads.
This is what happens when they feed them live fish.
Just like pet snakes, these predatory fish prefer their food alive.
When they strike, it just happens too fast to see.
It's certainly too fast for the small fish to take any avoiding action.
People always talk about predators being aggressive.
Most predators kill for a reason. They need food.
But these fish just seem to kill as a reflex - bite something in half and then just leave it to die.
I'm used to fishing for predators, but seeing the moment of the strike close up is gruesome.
They really do seem to be natural born killers.
These pet snakeheads are mere minnows.
Just imagine what a 40-pounder could do to a child or a dog.
Looking at these clips really begs the question,
who set these violent offenders loose in America, and why?
Lieutenant Pat Reynolds keeps a close eye on the illegal wildlife trade in south Florida,
and was called in to investigate.
I think they're getting a delivery of salt water products here.
The guy has a game fish in the back of his truck,
and you cannot sell it.
When this fish was first found in the waterways here, what was your involvement?
I was alerted by our fishery biologists.
They suspected very strongly that these were released...
particularly in the um...
Oriental trade, or the Asian trade.
Quite frankly, the first store I went into had 'em.
And we tracked them back to New York City.
They were coming in through New York,
brought down here, by an Oriental wholesaler
who was distributing them to the market.
I inspected the airport in Miami and yes, they did come in.
We made arrests and we seized the fish.
Possessing a live snakehead can now land you in jail.
But you're allowed to catch and even sell these fish if you put them on ice.
Snakeheads are highly prized by many Asian-Americans, not just since they taste good.
How much do they go for?
Oh, 15 or 20 each?
Helps the healing process.
Yes. Yeah.
We believe they were intentionally released
with the idea that they could...
that an entrepreneur or businessman
was gonna go catch 'em and sell 'em into this trade.
Not keeping one in a tank and it's too big, or they get bored and put it in the water?
No. Somebody intentionally put 'em out there so they could harvest 'em later.
And they wouldn't have to import it from New York.
Here's what we tell everybody.
If you catch 'em, cos they are good eating, don't throw it back.
Put it on ice, take it home and eat it.
Lieutenant Reynolds never did catch the entrepreneur
who dropped the Bullseye Snakehead into Florida.
And since it first turned up in 2000, the invader has continued to spread inland.
I'm now at the very edge of the canal network,
where it borders on the Everglades National Park.
Could snakeheads have come this far?
You landed right on top of something there.
I hit it. That was a peacock, wasn't it?
If this was a snakehead, that would be it, but this is a Peacock Bass. Territorial.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
The Peacock Bass is also a non-native predator.
But it was brought in officially, as a biological control,
to eat invasive species like Tilapia.
Its intolerance to cold water prevents it from spreading.
This is another fish that is a long way away from home.
This is a native of the Amazon - the Peacock Bass.
They call it a Butterfly Peacock Bass. It's a smaller variety of those.
Definitely a predator.
Big mouth, but not as toothy as the snakehead.
But very capacious mouth there.
And one thing that's interesting about this - it's also got an eyespot.
That's why they call this the Peacock Bass.
So, it's similar, in that respect, to the snakehead.
But one noticeable difference
between this and the snakehead is the body shape.
This one is flattened... that way, laterally.
If this was to fall on the ground, it would flop around in the same position.
The snakehead is flattened that way.
If that falls on the ground and flaps around, it's actually going to move.
The snakehead can wriggle its way overland and find a new home.
That's why they worry about them here.
Soon after they arrived here, snakeheads caught the imagination of filmmakers.
The alien invaders were cast as slithering assassins...
as super fish, that could somehow crawl out of the water and attack dogs,
or unsuspecting humans.
It's easy to dismiss this movie monster as pure fantasy,
and yet, remarkably,
much of it is based on fact.
Some of the traits that the media picked up on are true.
The fish can survive out of water.
Some of them can move overland.
They do have high levels of aggression.
Does this mean that snakeheads could, under certain conditions,
become the backyard predators of our nightmares?
Fish biologist Ray Waldner has studied snakeheads in detail.
It is an air breather.
It can use atmospheric oxygen.
You'll see the fish come up to the surface, lift its head up a little bit,
grab a mouthful of air and then submerge again.
Snakeheads have a special chamber above the gills that acts as a simple lung.
When it gulps air, oxygen diffuses into an encircling mesh of blood vessels.
If they're in a very stagnant area,
where the oxygen levels in the water are very, very low,
the fish is still able to survive.
So, they can survive under conditions that would definitely kill other fishes.
But it also allows the fish to live out of the water.
So far, so Hollywood.
But are snakeheads mobile enough to threaten anyone on land?
A few years ago, Paul Shafland brought some back to his lab,
and put them to the test.
He's moving, OK?
But he's not making a real directional movement.
Most of the time, they sat like this,
with a little bit of flipping.
But the snakehead has just soft pectorals.
It doesn't have a way to support itself.
They seem to burn out pretty quick.
Experts agree that some snakeheads do travel across land.
In areas with seasonal flooding,
it enables them to spread into new lakes and rivers.
The patio-prowling monster, however,
looks suspiciously like a myth.
In their element, I've seen that snakeheads hit fast and hit hard.
They are very aggressive. Anything that comes close, they will tear into.
Leaving aside any possible threat to people,
I'm starting to wonder what happens to other animals
when the fish equivalent of Special Forces suddenly turns up.
I don't think there's much around that they probably wouldn't go after.
Undoubtedly, snakeheads are feeding on these native fishes such as Bass and Sunfish.
The Crappies that we have here, the Golden Shiners,
all of those are fair game, and there are numerous others, as well.
If there's anything that's a little bit different about the Bullseye Snakehead's feeding habits,
it's the breadth of foods that it will take.
If something is close enough to it, and it can get it in its mouth, it'll eat it.
This is a stomach from a Bullseye Snakehead,
this is a Tilapia.
They'll also eat native fish.
There's two Mosquitofish in there.
This is a Crayfish that was in a stomach.
This is the Marine Toad.
They've even had a snake.
And as you can see, the whole snake was eaten.
This is actually a cannibalistic snakehead.
This is a juvenile snakehead.
There have even been some turtles.
The breadth is very interesting.
Snakeheads are starting to sound like eco-monsters,
invaders with the power to mow down everything in their path.
We've got a fish that could be potentially devastating.
The danger is to the native fishes, native aquatic species.
That's where the problem lies.
Snakeheads, it seems, hold all the aces.
Not only can they thrive in stagnant water,
but females are able to produce 100,000 young per year.
And it gets worse.
My main concern comes because snakeheads show very extreme parental care.
They vehemently, aggressively guard their spawn,
and will voraciously attack anything that comes close to them, anything that poses a threat.
With such fertile and protective parents,
snakeheads have the potential to multiply rapidly.
What's more, few native predators are willing to take on an adult snakehead,
so there's little to keep them in check.
But it wasn't always like this.
80 years ago, the US had a home-grown monster that outgunned any snakehead.
The monstrous Alligator Gar can grow up to ten feet long
and weight in at over 300lb.
Its jaws bristle with rows of dagger-like teeth,
and it is protected by a prehistoric-looking armoured coat.
But accused of savage attacks on humans,
this super predator has been wiped out across most of its natural range,
leaving a continent-wide ecological vacuum,
virgin hunting grounds for an opportunistic hunter like a snakehead.
Nothing more than an earth bank now stands between Florida's snakehead infestation
and the Everglades National Park,
a vital refuge for endangered wildlife.
Despite its Jack the Ripper reputation,
the Bullseye Snakehead is, in one sense,
just another addition to Florida's existing roll call of exotic wildlife.
Every year, some 200 million live animals are brought into the US,
to supply a pet trade worth billions of dollars.
In Florida, many of these foreign imports have escaped and become permanent residents.
To get an idea of how many exotic fish there are here,
and to put the snakehead invasion into some kind of context,
I join a Fish and Wildlife team on the canals.
Bursts of electricity from the boat's electrodes leave any nearby fish temporarily stunned,
allowing us to scoop them out and drop them into a holding tank for later inspection.
That's a Florida gar. First one I've seen out of the water.
Native species like this will be returned to the water.
But any non-natives, like snakeheads,
will be put on ice and killed.
I'm amazed to discover such a rich mix of native and exotic species
living cheek by jowl in a single small canal.
After an hour, we pull over to examine our catch.
Bluegill.
202.
What's that? That's 140.
OK, this is a Bluegill. That's a native species, so that goes... back in the water.
This is a bit like a fairground lucky dip.
Spider tilapia, 129.
60 grams.
That's an exotic, so, this one, not such good news. This one goes in the box.
Peacock. That's a Peacock Bass.
362. Peacock.
And that is...
750 grams.
And this is a Peacock Bass.
Although this is from South America, from the Amazon,
this was one introduced officially, this one has got a visa.
This is not an illegal immigrant. This one can go in the water.
Bullseye Snakehead.
691.
OK. So, that is... 215.
Unfortunately for this one, it's in the box.
So, it really is a melting pot.
I've seen fish from Africa,
Southeast Asia, Central America...
They're all here in North America.
Florida currently has 32 kinds of resident exotic fish.
And out of these, snakeheads are said to be the best eating.
Local angler Martin Arostegui has offered to cook one up.
Well, guys, here's the snakehead.
- Wonderful. - All ready.
Moment of truth. I've heard this is very good. It smells very good.
- Put a little sauce on it. - A bit of both?
Either one.
OK. Nice and white.
That's very nice.
It's really nice.
I'm glad you liked it.
Though I can't swear to the snakehead's medicinal powers,
I can confirm that this fish is excellent eating.
With such large and tasty fillets,
it's a wonder there aren't more people catching them for dinner.
As well as providing good sport, this would also help keep these unwanted predators in check.
Just how far these intruders will spread is hard to predict.
But America already has another alien invader
that could perhaps show me where the snakehead story is heading.
My destination is the Illinois River.
Skipper and research scientist Greg Sass isn't taking any chances.
What's the idea behind the net?
This gives a little defence for the driver, trying to protect himself.
And what happened there?
Occasionally, we get such large ones that come up into the net with such force
that they blow a hole right through it.
40 years ago, catfish farmers in the south imported a fish from China,
to clean up waste from the breeding ponds.
Before long, some escaped into the wild,
and began spreading north through the Mississippi river system.
Like snakeheads today, they weren't an obvious problem at first.
Then, almost overnight, they became a plague.
Just absolutely full of fish down here.
Nice flat, calm surface.
But there's loads of them down there.
Quite a fish soup, in fact.
It's not until Greg accelerates, though, that the show begins.
These are silver carp.
And at up to 40 pounds, they're a serious danger to anyone in an open boat.
Quite literally, they've smashed people's ribs and knocked people overboard.
Oh! Blimey. Seeing these as dots on the sonar is one thing,
but the noise of our motor provokes this mass escape response.
There's up to 13 tons of these fish for every mile in the river.
And that hundreds of miles. They go all the way down to the mouth of the Mississippi.
Just ten years ago, the carp were virtually unknown here.
Now they've all but taken over.
Agh!
Absolutely stiff with fish.
Look at this. There's more silver than green in the water there.
I actually feel the boat being buffeted as they bang into it.
Oops.
So, who needs a rod when these things just jump into the boat?
The real key to the success of this fish... is in here.
There's the red of the gill filaments, and then in front of that, that is basically a filter,
and nothing really gets through that.
That filters down to objects the size of four microns.
That's a speck of dust.
It's a bit like us feeding every time we breathe, basically.
That's why they're putting on weight.
By removing everything from the water, they leave nothing for the native species,
like Buffalo, also filter feeders, but not as good at it as these chaps.
So, the native species are gradually losing weight,
and if they get too thin, they're not able to breed,
and that's why these things are taking over.
As they put the squeeze on native fishes,
the carp are also knocking out an entire fishing industry.
If a filter feeder can cause such damage,
then what about a hardcore predator?
Are snakeheads, like these silver carp,
also destined to explode out of control?
My guess is we're going to see some real problems arise
in the next several years from snakeheads,
both competing with and preying upon our native fishes.
The fish have the potential to absolutely take over.
Between them, the Bullseye and Northern Snakeheads
have what it takes to overrun most of North America.
If they do, then fisheries worth over $30 billion to the economy
could take a massive hit.
And it doesn't end here.
A third, much larger member of the gang, has been turning up sporadically
from Maine down to Arkansas.
The Giant Snakehead is a beast that can weigh as much as a five-year-old child.
And it comes with a nasty reputation.
I've heard stories of the Giant Snakehead attacking humans,
and even a case of one individual being killed by a Giant Snakehead.
To track down this would-be invader,
and find out if it really is as dangerous as people say,
I must travel to the far side of the world.
I'm in Thailand, and I waste no time heading upcountry.
My destination is a place called Khao Laem,
a remote dam on the upper reaches of the River Kwai,
close to the Burmese border.
This is prime snakehead habitat,
and I've come here in the middle of the monsoon,
just when the fish are at their most aggressive.
It's their breeding season, and they're said to attack anything
that comes close to their fry, including people.
Yet the Giant Snakehead is also a popular food fish.
Many people here farm them to sell.
Snakehead really do lend themselves to this type of business, this type of culture.
They are really tolerant to low oxygen levels in the water.
You can see they're coming up to the air, blowing out spent air and taking another gulp.
And also they look very pretty when they're small.
You can absolutely understand why people would want those in their aquarium in Florida.
Even in these cramped conditions,
the Giant Snakehead fry are thriving.
By one month, they've doubled in size,
and are growing ever more hungry... for flesh.
Breakfast is pulped fish.
But this ravenous swarm has never been hand-fed.
So, it's going to be a test of nerve for them,
as well as for me.
I've watched snakeheads not much bigger than these rip into finger-sized fish.
There's one or two pecking.
Agh.
Right up to late juvenile stage,
these snakeheads school and feed together.
The stories I've read of voracious packs are starting to make sense.
I've come to Thailand to find out if the Giant Snakehead really does attack people.
All the reports of snakehead attacks on humans concern just one species -
the Giant Snakehead.
Like many here, Sombat lives by the water and often encounters these aggressive fish.
What happened was that he needed to swim underneath his raft
to replace some of the bamboo, it gets a bit rotten.
It's as he's fixing his raft that Sombat senses something behind him.
With nowhere to hide, he's face to face with a Giant Snakehead.
It put its fins out, a bit like an elephant threatening to charge.
Before Sombat can move, the fish has savaged his foot.
It was bleeding so bad that he went to the hospital.
They didn't believe a fish was responsible.
They thought it was a dog and ended up giving him rabies jabs.
So, what we've got here is a very dramatic example
of what appears to be a completely unprovoked attack.
Sombat's story proves to me that a Giant Snakehead
will attack something far bigger than itself.
It seems to be a fish that really does punch well above its weight.
Like its cousin the Bullseye, the Giant Snakehead is an ambush predator,
that favours areas with plenty of cover.
For several hours, I work the banks and shallow bays of the dam,
without getting so much as a nibble.
Fishing for snakeheads here is a world away from Florida,
where the hits came thick and fast.
With Sombat's story still fresh in my mind,
I send a lure towards an abandoned raft.
Oh, yes!
Whee! A Giant Snakehead.
Whoo.
This fish is only one-tenth the size of a full-grown adult.
But it's certainly got some attitude.
Very toothy. I wonder if I can just get my hand in there.
Its snakelike appearance has led to the belief, in some places,
that this fish has a poisonous bite.
Fortunately, this simply isn't true.
That is... yeah, that is a bit of a toothy critter.
Although it's got a fierce reputation, quite a beautiful fish, really.
I've hand-fed the carnivorous fry,
and been snapped at by a bolshie juvenile.
But everyone here tells me that if I want to catch the daddy,
then I must first pay a visit to the man who knows how.
To find this snakehead guru,
I travel deeper into Khao Laem's muddy backwaters.
Khun Da is the master hunter.
Over the past 20 years, he's gained an unrivalled knowledge of his quarry.
Forget nets or rods.
For Da, catching a Giant Snakehead is more like armed combat.
And his weapon of choice is the spear gun.
The problem with this spear gun is that it takes a long time to reload.
So, Khun Da's actually invented his own rapid reload spear,
which is much simpler, but much more effective.
The key feature of Da's home-made gun is that he can re-arm it quickly.
As he explains, this is crucial when you're hunting a fish that defends in pairs.
Unusually for a fish, snakeheads fiercely guard their young.
But Da's own close-quarter observations add a further twist to the story.
While the father corrals the cluster of fry,
the mother patrols at a distance,
primed to attack anything that looks like a threat to her offspring.
What's interesting is that this is coming from somebody
who is observing these creatures closer than any scientist,
and the reason is that not only his livelihood, but possibly his life, depends on it.
Da knows that if he shoots one snakehead,
he still has to watch his back.
Stories of people being mauled by snakeheads are not uncommon around here.
But now I picked up a more disturbing lead.
I crossed to the far side of Khao Laem Dam, just 12 miles from Burma.
People sometimes slip across the border to fish here for a day or two,
then melt back into the jungle with their catch.
I'm used to tall tales, but the story I'm about to hear is so freakish
that no-one could possibly have made it up.
Thai fishermen Khun Lang vividly recalls the Burmese couple
that came here three years ago to hunt snakeheads.
So, what actually happened was that the fisherman was underwater with his spear gun,
shot the snakehead head-on,
and actually scored a direct hit.
The fish then just kept on coming,
and shoved the rear end of the metal spear through the fisherman's mask and into his face.
The fish was just panicking so much it was thrashing.
The fish doesn't have a reverse gear. It just kept flapping.
Apparently, the spear actually came out the back of the man's head.
The wife was still sitting in the boat, dived down into the water, and found the fisherman dead.
I actually came here doubting these stories,
doubting this fish has been responsible for any fatalities,
and here we have a very graphic case
of a snakehead causing a human fatality.
I've deliberately timed my trip here to coincide with the Giant Snakehead's breeding season.
This is when the fish are at their most aggressive,
as they guard their young against all comers.
A fleeting ripple shows me where the fry have just surfaced to gulp air.
By dropping my lure right on top of them,
I'm trying to provoke a strike from one of the parents.
But it seems that these canny adults know all about fishing lures.
The only snakehead that has a go is a ten-inch juvenile.
Small snakehead.
With the rain beating down,
it soon becomes impossible to spot the fry as they surface,
let alone get the attention of the parents.
I'm trying to create a disturbance on the surface to wind the fish up.
When the water is calm, you've got no competition. It's the only thing making a noise.
When you've got rain falling on the water, the signal's very confused.
You've got to land that bait much closer to the fish to get them to notice it.
The weather isn't about to let up.
But worse than this, and for reasons that aren't made clear,
I've just been told that I'm not allowed to fish here any more.
So, if I'm ever going to get face to face with this monster,
I'm going to have to pack away my rods and do it another way.
I return to Khun Da, the master hunter.
My plan is to dive with him,
as he goes after the Giant Snakehead
with nothing more than a pair of old goggles and the home-made spear gun.
In these choppy conditions, I'm straining to spot the surfacing fry.
Yet Khun Da's predatory eye picks out the slight ripple that gives them away.
Ready? I follow?
And with our target pinpointed, the hunt can begin.
I'm getting a bit nervous.
It is totally another world down there.
By diving with a small camera, I hope to capture the entire drama as it unfolds.
Everything has to happen on a single breath.
So, before going under, we edge as close as we can to our target.
But when Da suddenly slips in and vanishes without trace,
he leaves me scrambling to catch up.
Bad weather has churned the water into a murky soup.
And with Da gone, I feel a stab of panic.
I could easily wind up getting harpooned by mistake.
The poor visibility is even hampering Da.
It's murky down there. It's murky.
I'm having second thoughts about this.
I'm starting to feel like human bait.
But it's too late to pull out now.
Da is a man on a mission.
When the fry break the surface, barely a boat-length away, we launch again.
But our quarry has vanished into the murk,
leaving Da to hunt on instinct.
Da loads. I can sense we're close.
Suddenly we're in the heart of the swarm.
I think we've got one. I'm going to keep out of the way.
With a single well-aimed shot,
Da has caught a Giant Snakehead.
Sitting in a boat, dangling a line over the edge, believe me, is easy in comparison.
Despite taking a direct hit,
the fish simply seems to shrug it off.
Doesn't like that.
Having listened to accounts of its aggressive behaviour,
and seen for myself the scars on Sombat's foot,
I'm well aware of what this river monster is capable of.
So, there we go.
That wonderful black and white colouration.
That is very much something that the fry will identify with. Bright colour. It's calling to them.
I expected this fish to end up as dinner.
Yet in a strange twist of fate, it's almost unharmed.
Da's spear has pierced the muscle of its back, but missed its vital organs.
We're releasing this fish. This is catch-and-release spear fishing.
This is going to go back and it is going to recover.
I'm just hoping it doesn't double back and have a go at me as a last farewell.
She is actually free now. She can go if she wants.
There she goes.
It's actually gone back into the lake, to be reunited with the young.
Really good to see. You don't expect to see that from a fish caught on a spear.
Of all the encounters I've had with dangerous fish, this had to be one of the most unnerving.
Down in that murky water, I could hardly see anything.
I didn't know if I was going to be attacked by the fish
or maybe end up myself on the end of the spear.
But over the course of my journey, a clearer picture of the snakehead has emerged.
The two species that have reached America pose no direct threat to humans,
although, in the eyes of many,
their presence is an unfolding environmental disaster.
But in Southeast Asia, I have found a fish that does deserve to be called a monster.
The word made flesh.
This animal is already knocking on America's door.
If the Giant Snakehead ever gains a foothold in America,
then you really would have to think twice about getting in the water.
Ripped By mstoll