My name is jeremy wade...
Aah!
Biologist and freshwater detective.
I've spent years trying to make sense
Of deadly encounters in lakes and rivers...
You see it, you see it, you see it?
Identifying not only the perpetrators...
This is the fish that is responsible for killing people.
But also their true intentions.
These were fish used to grabbing morsels in the water.
Now, from a sun-Kissed paradise
Come perplexing stories of attacks.
The question is, what is causing the damage?
Aah!
Could be a quite intense experience,
Hooking anything in this place.
And were the victims
Simply in the wrong place at the wrong time,
Or were they the target?
— captions by vitac — www.Vitac.Com
Captions paid for by discovery communications
For more than 30 years,
My search for freshwater killers
Has been a continental affair —
Asia...
Africa...
South america.
Virtually all the beasts i've tracked down
Come from land masses
Where there are big lakes or seriously large rivers.
Small, remote islands are not normally on my radar,
But recent reports of freshwater attacks
From a tiny speck of land in the south pacific
Are making me think again.
Fiji.
With its alluring mix of idyllic coastlines
And laid-Back island culture, it's a mecca for tourists.
Beyond the postcard beaches, though,
There have been disturbing incidents.
In a reservoir in the mountains far inland,
A commercial diver is apparently attacked
By something from the depths.
They say that when his body is found,
His face is covered with strange circular abrasions.
Because of this, some locals blame an octopus,
But this makes absolutely no sense in fresh water.
A bit more digging
Revealed a second, equally mysterious death.
Nearer the coast, aminiasi naituyaga,
One of fiji's top young rugby players,
Is training with teammates on the banks of a river.
When they decide to swim across, the water is calm.
But inexplicably, aminiasi vanishes.
His body is never found.
By all accounts, he was a strong swimmer,
And everybody else had crossed without a problem.
But in an instant, he just disappeared.
These two tragedies are by no means isolated incidents.
There appear to be multiple cases
Of people being attacked in fresh water.
From the other side of the world,
There's no way of telling
Whether or not all these stories are connected,
Which means it's time to head to the south pacific
To find out.
What's causing trouble in paradise?
Fiji is made up of well over 300 islands,
But the stories that have brought me here
Come from just one, viti levu.
The population is a mixture of indigenous islanders
And the descendants of laborers
Brought in from india during british colonial rule.
I need to get an idea
Of what fish could be stalking the rivers.
But not surprisingly,
Most fishermen are catching their fish out at sea.
And you've got what, balloon fish?
Very tasty, yeah.
Okay to have a look at these? Yeah?
You don't have to be a professor of biology
To work out that that's a predatory fish.
Big eyes, teeth.
This is a spanish mackerel.
So, like the mackerel that i'm familiar with,
Only scaled up somewhat.
None of the marine fish i've seen so far
Seems like a plausible suspect behind a freshwater attack.
Is there any — any of these fish from the river,
Or everything from the sea?
Okay.
I recognize these as tilapia.
They were introduced to fiji as a food fish
And are clearly no river monster.
This one the only river fish here?
That's it as far as freshwater fish goes.
So far, i can see nothing dangerous
Resident in the rivers.
Could the killer be sneaking in from the sea?
Some sea fish are known to come in to freshwater.
Maybe there's fish that i don't know about
That somehow is coming to freshwater.
Or maybe the culprit behind the attacks
Is not a fish at all.
Saltwater crocodiles are known to move into rivers,
And fiji does lie within the known range
Of these deadly reptiles.
In sigatoka,
Close to where rugby player aminiasi mysteriously vanished,
I pay a visit to the police station.
Sergeant mesu knows about aminiasi's disappearance,
But it's not the only one.
Have there been other cases in the river?
Yes.
According to the policemen, these two women
Were gathering freshwater mussels from the riverbed
To sell at the market.
Then, just like aminiasi,
One of the women simply disappears without a sound.
But this time, her corpse washes up.
Do you have any idea what might have caused them?
Okay.
And they come up the river?
The only man-Eating shark that swims up rivers
Is the bull shark.
But anyone grabbed by a shark...
Or for that matter, a crocodile,
Would surely scream and create a disturbance
Before going down.
You wouldn't expect them to die without making a sound.
And sharks and crocodiles leave bite marks...
Not bruises.
With little to go on, i'm eager to get a line in the water.
And where better to start
Than at the river mouth where aminiasi disappeared
And the woman's body was found?
Today, the river is anything but calm.
Fiji's cyclone season is cranking up.
The bait seems to be holding about 100 yards out.
I keep feeling these strong pulls on the line,
But they're slow pulls.
Eventually, they release,
And i think that's just the surge of the water.
So what i'm waiting for is something that pulls
But which actually feels as if it's something alive
That's got hold of the bait.
What's going on? Wait a minute. Wait, wait, wait, wait.
Ah!
In fiji in the south pacific,
There have been a series of freshwater attacks...
And my investigation
Has honed in on two mysterious deaths.
One victim simply vanished as he swam with his friends
Towards the far bank in quiet water.
The other, a woman collecting mussels from the riverbed,
Appears to have been struck by something
Big enough to leave visible marks on her body.
At the site of these deadly incidents,
With a storm whipping up,
I'm hoping to hook a possible culprit.
Oh, what's going on?
Wait a minute. Wait, wait, wait, wait.
Ah!
Something's — what happened there?
I thought i was snagged up.
Well, i think i was snagged up, but i felt a bump on the line,
And then something ripped out a little bit of line.
And i think it was something bumping in.
I think something did actually just hit that.
Yeah.
So, something took that bait,
And then the main line just cut on something out there.
It felt...
It felt fairly sizable.
Whatever grabbed my bait was in mid-Channel,
About 40 yards from the bank.
To target this deeper water more effectively
And circumvent the waves, i need to get out on a boat.
Despite the worsening weather, a fisherman named john
Agrees to take me back out towards the river mouth.
He's fished here before
And will have some idea of what could be lurking in the water.
So, what fish do you find at the river mouth?
They'll grow quite big?
Sharks are off my suspect list,
As there were no bite marks on the victim's body,
But this other fish has me intrigued.
The giant trevally,
What kind of size do they get caught at the river mouth?
So, they come right inside —
The giant trevally is not a fish i've met before.
They are formidable saltwater predators
Weighing up to 180 pounds.
That's as big as me.
If such a fish is invading these rivers,
It could spell trouble.
Do you think trevally would ever hit a person?
Suppose somebody's in the water splashing around?
I'm curious to see one of these bruisers for myself,
And the mob of seagulls ahead
Is a clear sign that there's activity in the water.
Perhaps the smaller fish
Are being chased by something big.
While john quickly anchors the boat,
I race to bait my hook on 100-Pound braided line.
But with a storm brewing, time is not on our side.
All right.
And when our mooring snaps...
I'm forced to retreat.
Okay.
Change of plan.
We now have no anchor.
That basically broke off.
In the relative calm inside the river mouth,
I can finally get my line in the water.
This is quite a serious place, this river mouth.
I mean, never mind what might be under the water.
Just the water itself is quite scary.
According to john, predators use the tide
To move in and out of the river.
But now the tide has been retreating for hours.
I suspect the monsters have already gone.
I get the feeling that what little activity there was
Has kind of tailed off.
For now, my best option
Is to withdraw and prepare to try again tomorrow.
In the meantime,
I'm keen to find out more about the giant trevally,
And i soon discover
That this is a fish with quite a reputation.
It may lack large teeth,
But the giant trevally is an underwater battering ram.
Stripping away its outer layer reveals its secret weapon —
A bony blade in its forehead
That it uses to smash into and stun its prey.
Scientists have even seen them ramming sharks.
According to one report, a giant trevally
Battered the gills of a 7-Foot blacktip reef shark
With such force, the shark died from internal bleeding.
And it's not just fish that come under attack.
In bali, a diver reportedly suffered broken ribs
After being struck by one of these fish.
This is clearly a beast that can land a knockout punch.
Although they have been spotted up rivers,
My best chance of seeing one of these bruisers
Is just 100 yards offshore on the coral reef.
The place where i'm most likely to see one
Is actually right on the edge of the reef,
So where the shallow water plunges away into deeper water.
You could imagine those predators down below
Looking up through the clear water, ready to nail something.
Fishing over coral, though, is an angler's nightmare.
Lines are so easily cut on these jagged edges.
Anything that hits in that place
Is gonna instantly try and head for the refuge of the reef,
So i'm gonna have to hang on
To keep anything out of all that sharp coral.
So, it could be a quite intense experience,
Hooking anything in this place.
To provoke a strike from any lurking predator,
I'm using a brightly colored lure that imitates a baitfish.
Where the waves are breaking over the reef,
Smaller fish are likely to get tumbled around
And find themselves a target,
And it's their struggling movements
That i'm trying to mimic.
This is actually really tiring physical fishing.
Jerking the lure like this,
My arm feels as if it's about to drop off.
I launch cast after cast into the surf.
Ah. Right.
Something powerful has grabbed my bait.
Trying to get clear of the motors. There we go.
I saw that fish take.
I saw it take.
I can't let this fish cut my line on the reef,
But that makes for a brutal, exhausting fight.
Right, let's try and get some line in.
I'm hoping it's clear of all coral,
And what i'm doing now, i'm just —
Aah!
In fiji's tropical waters, i'm searching for a predator
That could have battered at least two people to death.
My only suspect so far is the giant trevally...
Okay.
An aquatic sledgehammer known to kill sharks.
And i think i've got one of these bruisers on my line.
Almost heart-Attack material.
There were several hits, several hits.
It wasn't as if it was a clean take.
It was a knock, a hit.
I thought i'd missed it,
And then suddenly i'm connected to...
A heavy weight here.
It's pulling down.
Pulling down, pulling down, pulling down.
Pound for pound, the giant trevally
Is one of the most powerful fish in the sea.
Here it is. Coming to the surface, coming to the surface.
Oof. I don't think i've ever felt such strength.
I saw it grab, and then —
It almost pulled me out of the back of the boat when it took off.
It has crushing teeth in its throat,
Which i can't see, but i can certainly hear them.
It's making a sort of a crunching noise.
They don't have particularly big teeth,
But they are very predatory.
The modus operandi of this fish
Is to ram its prey with its head before engulfing it.
Driven by powerful muscles, it's scythe-Like tail
Gives it the attack speed it needs to stun its prey.
The impact force is concentrated
Through its narrow, bony head.
A top-Speed underwater strike from one of these beasts
Could even hit harder than an arapaima,
The fish that once knocked me off my feet.
So, it's power, rather than the teeth,
That we're talking about here.
And i can just imagine, one of these,
If it were to ram you in the water —
With the power this has got, that is gonna hurt.
And it could even be fatal.
Giant trevally probably attack sharks out of self-Defense
When they feel under threat.
I wonder if this extreme approach to self-Preservation
Could explain ramming attacks on people.
Did they unwittingly stray too close
To one of these powerful fish?
It's got the size, it's got the strength,
It's got the aggression.
All we'd need to be talking about is a chance in a million,
Just the wrong place at the wrong time,
And that would be enough.
If this fish slams someone in the chest,
They could inhale a lungful of water, and without a sound,
They'd sink and be swept away by the current.
But there's one problem with this theory —
This fish can't be behind all the attacks in fiji's rivers.
There are many incidents,
Including the case of the diver who died in the reservoir
That happened miles inland.
These attacks in the mountainous heartland
Are way beyond the reach of a giant trevally.
Lurking in these remote highland waters,
There must be something else,
Another creature capable of attacking people.
This sparsely populated interior is a world away
From the palm trees and postcard beaches of the coast.
It wasn't long ago when these jungles were home to cannibals
Who regularly cooked and ate their enemies.
Even in the 20th century,
There were still people living here
Who knew the taste of human flesh.
Four hours in from the coast,
And i finally arrive at the reservoir where the diver died.
The monasavu dam was created
To supply a hydroelectric power plant.
It's now a near-Deserted, six-Mile-Long stretch of water.
It's quite spooky here.
Is there really a beast living here
With the power and aggression to take down a human?
According to fijian myth,
If he had eaten 1,000, he would have become immortal.
In fiji in the south pacific,
Bruising attacks at a rivermouth
Could be the work of an aquatic battering ram,
But giant trevally can't swim up waterfalls,
So a tragic death in a high mountain reservoir
Deep in the interior
Must be down to something else.
A commercial diver has been employed to check the dam wall.
When is body is found,
His face is covered with mysterious circular marks,
Leading some perplexed locals
To suggest the culprit is an octopus.
This is the monasavu dam,
Nearly 2,500 feet above sea level.
Except for a few maintenance staff and security guards,
This place is a near ghost town.
These are the abandoned huts
Of the men who constructed the dam.
The incident that brings me here
Calls to mind a case i investigated in new zealand...
Where a diver was pursued by a pack of gigantic eels.
Further investigation revealed the long-Fin eel
To be a bold beast with an aggressive attitude.
Aah! Look at that!
Look at that, look at that, look at that, look at that!
Aah!
In fiji, there are no long-Fins,
But there is another kind of eel that lives here.
The marbled eel is a mysterious beast
Little studied by science.
Born somewhere in the pacific, they then swim inland,
Where they spend decades hunting in the rivers.
But could an eel reach such remote mountainous terrain,
Let alone grow big enough to threaten a human?
The only way to find out is to get a bait in the water.
I begin my search for a prime fishing spot.
It's quite spooky here,
All these dead trees just poking up out of the water.
I'm just trying to get an idea
Of what the landscape is like under the water.
Oh, this is interesting.
There's coloring of the water here.
There's clearly a waterfall or something around the side.
It's the kind of feature that could attract fish.
Let's have a look at this.
Incoming streams
Could be bringing in food and drawing in predators.
Large eels hide in the deep,
So if there's a good depth of water,
This could be a perfect monster hangout.
Oh, this is promising. This is promising.
Ooh, ooh.
End of this line. It's 50 feet.
We've got more than 50 feet of water.
These loose rocks are gonna give lots of hidey holes for eels.
And that bank there is absolutely fishable.
Yeah, this place is very interesting.
Lots of fish — small fish in the margin.
Loads, loads, loads. This is good.
Eels use their incredible sense of smell to find food,
And a pungent bait of smoked sausage and fresh liver
Will quickly create an enticing cloud of scent.
Smells good to me.
When fishing for eels in new zealand,
I never had to wait long.
But here, six hours drip by
Without even a twitch on the line.
Well, it's just been sitting there,
And some small fish might have nibbled about,
Nothing has taken it as such.
I reset a strong-Smelling bait for the night shift.
Many eels are nocturnal hunters.
But these eerie waters are not ready to reveal their secrets.
This deserted, six-Mile-Long reservoir
Could be home to monster eels,
But after such a quiet night,
I have to consider other possibilities.
So far, the only freshwater fish i've seen in fiji
Is the tilapia, introduced here in the 1950s.
Maybe they're not the only foreign import.
I know from experience
That introduced species can wreak havoc.
The south american pacu
Now terrorizes rivers in papua new guinea,
Where it is known as the bull cutter.
This thing really does look like a giant piranha,
And i think you'd certainly know about this when this bit you.
And notoriously aggressive snake heads from asia
Have now spread far beyond their native range.
While in spain, introduced wels catfish
Are reaching man-Eating proportions.
If that grabbed hold of your leg but decided not to let go
And you were swimming, you'd be history.
Could fiji also be hiding a monstrous foreign predator?
There's no one here to ask,
But there are reports of people being attacked downstream.
Some incidents
Happened right next to the village of naseuvou.
Somebody here must have an idea
Of what beast stalks the waters.
Few outsiders ever venture this far off the beaten track,
And english isn't widely spoken.
But i'm eventually directed to the chief's wife,
Carolina.
I've heard some stories
About something in the river biting people.
So, the line is stuck?
Yeah.
Before he can free his hook,
Something strikes him hard in the stomach...
It was a bad bite?
Before disappearing into the murk.
But this is no one-Off attack.
Any other story here?
Perhaps the abrasions i heard about on the diver
Were, in fact, some kind of bite marks.
When i ask what attacked the people here,
She gives me a name which i don't recognize.
Tautambale.
What does it look like?
Her description could be an eel,
Or maybe a catfish.
Both are capable of inflicting abrasive wounds.
So, what is this beast they call the tautambale?
Whatever it is, it has a fearsome reputation.
And to find it...
I'm going to have to get in deep.
I'm in fiji in the south pacific
I'm on the trail of an aquatic beast
That's stalking the island's mountainous interior.
My number-One suspect
Is a creature they call the tautambale.
Yet, revealing its identity has hit a stumbling block.
Near traditional villages,
The rivers are protected by the community.
No outsider can fish here
Without permission from the chief.
Until the elders consider my request,
I can't get a line in the water.
Yet, word of my interest in the tautambale is spreading.
Some fishermen assure me they know where it lives.
So it's actually under this rock?
Cut the line?
And always here? This is its house, this rock here?
I'm told that under this cliff,
There's a deep underwater cave.
It's the perfect place
Just to sit and wait for food coming down the current,
And it sounds like they've hooked something big here,
But it just breaks the line.
They've seen it down here.
And it feels like a really good, positive lead.
It's a prime spot for something big.
But hooking this monster without the chief's blessing
Is strictly forbidden.
However, there's nothing stopping me
From attempting a face-To-Face encounter.
My best bet of actually seeing this thing
Is to confront it under the water.
With no scuba gear,
I can only last underwater as long as i can hold my breath —
About a minute at the most in these conditions.
The cave entrance is seven feet down.
I just hope i see the creature before it sees me.
It really is quite spooky down there.
What's very important when you're breath-Hold diving
Is to relax physically and also mentally.
But when you've got this mental picture
Of something that might lunge out at you at the shadows,
It's quite hard to sort of cultivate that inner calmness.
Pushing deeper, i discover this is no small cave,
It's a dangerous labyrinth.
No, there's no — there's no actual back to the cave.
It's just — there's boulders
Which then just fall away into another space,
And i can't see — i can't get through that gap.
And this won't illuminate,
But it does look like a perfect hidey hole.
I've not seen anything myself today.
All my hopes of progressing this investigation
Now rest with the village chief.
The elders are considering my request to fish in their river.
A ceremonial drink
Of kava root mixed with river water is prepared.
It's time for me to prove my worth
By downing a bowl
Of this bitter, intoxicating concoction.
With the ritual complete, i'm given permission to fish.
And i'm told that tautambale is so unafraid
That i might find one
Near some rocks right next to the village.
I'm still not sure what i'm looking for,
But a chunk of dead tilapia
Should attract any large predator,
Be it an eel, a catfish, or something else.
Once again, the hours slip by...
And the mysterious tautambale
Refuses to reveal itself.
Then, deep into the night,
The sound i've been waiting for.
Something's on.
Something on. Something's on.
Finally, something has hit my bait.
In fiji's mountainous interior,
I'm hooked into something powerful.
Something's on.
Could this be the tautambale?
There's something on.
I must net this writhing beast quickly
And not give it any chance to escape.
Is it in the net? No, it's not.
Now it is. Now it is.
The monster i've caught is a huge marbled eel.
What i'm trying to do is not grip it too tight
Because with eels, if you fight with them, they fight back.
The villagers confirm that this is a tautambale.
This fish has really given me the runaround,
And finally, here i am, middle of the night, covered in slime,
And i finally have it.
Just getting a bit of look at the business end of this,
And that is a big mouth.
And it's got powerful musculature
Operating those jaws.
And when it opens its mouth,
I can see very clearly that it's got lots of teeth,
Very, very sharp teeth.
When they clamp down, that's gonna cause a bit of an injury.
This nearly 5-Foot-Long marbled eel
Could maul a person.
What's more, when eels feed,
They sometimes spin, causing circular wounds.
Maybe this is where the octopus theory came from.
Now that i'm actually seeing a live one of these
And handling it,
I'm pretty certain that those incidents i've heard about
From the interior of the island,
This has to be the culprit.
I came here looking for a possible perpetrator
Behind a series of attacks.
And i've found two —
Both aquatic predators capable of inflicting serious damage.
The marbled eel stalks the remote interior,
While the giant trevally
Comes into the rivers from just offshore.
I don't believe that these fish hunt for human flesh,
But stumble into either one by accident,
And this idyllic south pacific paradise
Could become the scene of your worst nightmare.