My name is jeremy wade, biologist and underwater detective.
Fish on! Fish on!
Using a rod as my line of inquiry, for more than 30 years,
I've pushed the envelope of aquatic understanding.
This thing really is a river monster.
Aah!
Now i'm hearing reports from one of the most remote places on earth...
A land of fire and folklore, where an ancient fishing community
Is being rocked by a series of vicious attacks
By an unidentified underwater assailant.
Victims are left maimed, stamped with mysterious bite marks.
The injury was so bad that he might even bleed to death.
What is behind this eruption of violence?
What is the identity of the fish that is terrorizing these volcanic islands?
I'm regularly sent reports about attacks happening in waters
All over the world.
From these, i extract the extraordinary from the easily explained.
And recently, one remarkable case leapt to my attention.
It comes from a fishing community on a remote volcanic island
That's part of papua new guinea in the south pacific.
It concerns a spate of underwater attacks
That has left a trail of bloodied victims along the coast.
The assailant strikes quickly and seemingly at random,
Leaving behind large puncture wounds but no other clue to its identity.
The locals are baffled and afraid
Because they depend on the sea for their survival.
With the collective knowledge built up over centuries,
They know everything in their waters... Or thought they did.
Could a blood-Thirsty alien have migrated from elsewhere?
Could this be a native species gone bad?
Or in this remote corner of the world,
Could there be a completely new kind of monster?
Not just new to the locals, but new to me, new to all of us.
The remote island where the report originated is called new britain.
It's one of the least explored places on earth
And somewhere i've never set foot.
Named in the 17th century by an english explorer,
It's mountainous, covered in rainforest, and about the size of maryland.
Forged by volcanoes millions of years ago,
New britain sits on the pacific ring of fire.
The island is still rocked by volcanic activity.
Eruptions and earthquakes strike without warning and with devastating effect.
An ancient fishing community under attack by something new in the water
Is a scenario i can't resist investigating.
But all i know for certain is that the incidents
Happened along a particular stretch of coast
Where dozens of coral islands lie just offshore.
I've managed to find a boatman named john who has agreed to take me
To some of the isolated communities, where i can start my investigation.
Everywhere you look on the water, you've got canoes,
And you've got people actually in the water themselves.
It's almost as if they spend more time immersed than they do on land.
And it's all about fishing because these people,
They have to fish every single day just to feed themselves.
I want to start collecting information about the recent attacks,
And john has suggested this market island,
Where people gather to exchange and barter goods.
These isolated fishing communities
Have little or no contact with the rest of the world and rarely see outsiders.
I expect them to be suspicious of a stranger like me,
But a catch being unloaded gives me an opportunity
To talk about fishing, our common ground.
You have a lot of fish?
In a throwback to colonial times, most people here speak a version of creole
Called tok pisin, and some speak a little english.
Yes. So all spear this, these fish. So okay.
So you're going down very deep, or someone is going down.
- Yeah. - Is this you?
- These two men. - So you go like 30, 40 meters?
- Yeah. - So like 100 feet.
More than, yeah, more than 100 feet.
- Wow. - Yeah.
The idyllic waters conceal an arms race beneath the surface.
The fish are bristling with weaponry, including things i've never seen before.
He's just telling me you've got to be very careful with the tail.
- Yeah. - There is a spine, which is actually pointing forward.
So i'm glad they pointed it out to me because i could've hurt myself.
These fish can all inflict some injury,
But i'm told none of them get big enough to be a serious threat to humans.
The locals soon warm to a fellow fisherman,
And i turn the conversation towards the attacks.
Are there any big fish here that bite people that you hear about?
They tell me that because of the recent incidents,
Everybody is now wary in the water.
Nobody on this island has been attacked, but they know about a spearfisherman
Who encountered a large, toothy fish he'd never seen before,
And they think it could be the culprit.
Yes, but actually, i remember him as older man named george.
They tell me this man's name is george, and he lives...
I believe it's the island right on the horizon there.
So i need to go and to try and get some more details from him.
As a spearfisherman, george will know these waters well,
So he could be a valuable first witness in my investigation.
These people encounter fish on a daily basis,
And because being actually under the water
And spearfishing is such a big part of that, their familiarity
With those fish and their behavior possibly surpasses
That of fishermen anywhere else in the world.
So for an experienced spearfisherman to see something that he can't identify,
If that's true, that is hugely significant.
On the way to george's island, i spot a lot of activity...
A sign that fish are feeding.
There's a chance to get my line in the water and catch potential suspects.
I'm hoping that pulling a bright lure behind the boat
Will call out to anything predatory nearby.
This diving vein here, that will send it down deep.
I'm expecting this to work fairly close to the bottom
In this coastal bit of water here.
There's also a little bit of a rattle there.
So this is actually working on different channels.
It's sending out visual cues, but also, there's vibration in the water.
Floating down, floating, floating, floating, and then down it goes.
It's not long before something takes my lure.
Yep.
It's interesting.
This is sort of heavy, but it's not really running.
Ah, it's coming in.
Just a flash. There it is.
There it is. There it is.
It's going down again.
It's a golden snapper, and it's pretty well-Armed.
This is a very spiky fish.
It's all a beautiful fish. What a lovely coloration.
Big eyes... Suggest a sight predator.
Big mouth.
Well, that just confirms that it's a hunter.
It is a predator.
Teeth in there. They're not very big teeth.
But that's basically... If they grab something,
Whatever it is, it's not gonna get away.
It's a fearsome predator, but they only grow to a couple of feet,
And their teeth are too small to inflict
The life-Threatening puncture wounds i'm investigating.
Back on trail of witnesses, i arrive at the island where george lives.
And i'm greeted by an inquisitive crowd.
George isn't amongst them, so i head into the village,
Where there are carvings everywhere,
Including what appear to be ritualistic totems.
Lots of fish carvings, which you'd sort of expect.
I mean, the people live right on the water.
Here it's very, very rich in art and representation.
Some of these things are clearly imaginary or mythical,
And there are some real creatures here, as well.
It's a rogues' gallery with mugshots
Of all the well-Known lethal predators in the area.
But i'm looking for something underwater and unknown,
And i'm hoping george the spearfisherman can help.
He tells me he was out fishing on a nearby reef.
At first, there wasn't much around, but then he spotted a school of fish
And dived down after them.
He didn't notice a large, mysterious fish coming straight for him
Until it was inches from his face.
This was a dark-Colored fish.
Not excessively long, he says, you know, a pretty long fish.
But the main thing about it, very deep-Bodied,
A big head with what looked like big teeth.
Was this the first time you had seen this fish?
Yeah.
In over 30 years of spearfishing in these waters,
George had never seen a fish like this before.
So it's a suspect i have to take seriously.
John and i have headed out to the reef where george's encounter happened
In the hope of catching the fish that went after him.
Instead of fishing a single spot, i start trawling,
Allowing me to cover much more of the reef.
Oh, ahead, ahead.
The fish are on the hunt.
They're definitely on the hunt.
The birds are coming down to grab any confused, injured bait fish.
Yeah, it's really kicking off here now.
And this activity is a sign unseen predators are on the hunt.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Here we go. Fish on.
I'm off a remote island in papua new guinea, investigating an unseen attacker
That's been terrorizing locals.
I'm at the scene of a mysterious recent encounter... Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And i've got a fish on.
That's really going.
This is a powerful fish.
Oh, i can see color. Here we go.
Going to get slowly nearer to the surface.
Oh, we got a super fish.
It's a giant trevally.
Excellent.
Big eye, that goes with being a sight predator hunting down prey by sight.
As i discovered in fiji, giant trevally can be lethal,
Using their head as a battering ram.
But i'm looking for an aggressive biter.
They got teeth.
There's a couple of canines in the middle of the lower jaw.
You know, that could inflict some damage.
But not the life-Threatening wounds i'm investigating.
And there's another thing...
An experienced fisherman like george would recognize it.
These are very familiar fish.
If somebody saw a giant trevally, they'd know it was a giant trevally.
So we're talking about something else.
Back on the trail of the mystery assailant,
My boatman, john, and i carry on trawling to see what other big predators
Can be enticed from the depths.
Every now and again, this gives a real hit on the rod.
Well, it seems quite close now.
I can see... That's quite a long fish.
What's that? That's a barracuda.
Okay. Here we go.
This fish has the hardware to cause some serious injury.
Those teeth are almost like daggers.
The mouth doesn't really even need to close.
It just swims at speed with its mouth open and leaves a long cut.
The teeth are so sharp that in florida,
Just a glancing blow was enough to slice a man's arm to the bone.
Although dangerous, this fish doesn't make my suspect list, either.
The shape and everything is all wrong, for a start,
But everybody knows what a barracuda is around here.
The spearfisherman described a dark, full-Bodied creature with a big head,
So definitely not this fish.
I'm starting to rack up the species, and certainly lots of predators here.
But nothing so far that's at all out of the ordinary.
At the moment, there's no firm link between the fish that went after george
And what's responsible for the more serious incidents i'm here to investigate.
To get closer to that culprit, i need to find more witnesses.
But that's easier said than done.
These communities are spread along miles of coast
And over dozens of small islands, and communications are limited.
But in one village, i'm told about a man named andrew,
Who, some years ago, was bitten by something unknown.
Can you tell me what happened?
This large fish, yeah.
Net.
We throw nets out.
Andrew tells me how he and a friend went fishing one day,
Wading into chest-Deep water on the reef.
They were using a long gillnet to make a circular trap.
So what happened to andrew was he's deployed the net.
He's gathering it in, and there's something in there which is big.
And because it's enclosed, it's wanting to escape.
And what happened is it bit his leg.
The assailant left a bloody puncture wound in andrew's calf.
It then escaped, but not before he got a good look at it.
- Is this a big fish? - Very big fish.
How big is... About this big.
- Black fish? - Black fish.
Mean-Old looking fish.
It's a strikingly similar description
To the mystery fish that went for george the spearfisherman.
This one?
But there's more.
This time, it left behind physical evidence, a scar on andrew's leg.
One hole, one tooth?
One hole. One hole.
So a sharp tooth.
The scar is interesting because he said this is a fish with big teeth.
They're sort of pointed teeth, and it made one hole in his leg.
On the basis of what i just heard, it's sounding very likely
That the mystery fish on the reef
And this fish that bit andrew, they could be one and the same.
And the other thing that was very interesting was the scar on his leg.
A single hole, it's very characteristic, but at the same time,
I've got no idea at the moment what that could be.
As there was only one mark on andrew's leg,
It's clear that the culprit's teeth are quite far apart,
So this is the dental profile i need to be looking for.
Andrew has told me where he was attacked,
And i've waded out to the scene of the crime.
But fishing without the protection of a boat leaves me feeling vulnerable
To whatever might be out here.
I'm standing on nice, shallow water here, but right here, it plunges away.
It's dark.
I can't see what's there, but anything that's there can very clearly see me.
So it's a little bit more adrenaline,
Perhaps, than normal involved in this fishing.
Ah, yes!
This is a strong fish.
If i'm not careful, it could pull me over the edge.
Leader in sight. Leader in sight.
On a remote island off papua new guinea,
I'm on the trail of a mystery attacker that's terrorizing the local community.
I'm fishing on the very edge of the reef, and i've hooked into something big.
Ah, yes!
I'm taking it away from the coral.
It's a strong fish, and i'm struggling to keep my footing.
Leader in sight. Leader in sight.
Aah!
That was 10 feet from where i'm standing when that came off.
It was just around the edge of the lip of the coral here.
It was something dark against a dark background because here is light.
That is all dark water there.
The stealthy attacker i'm after is a big, dark fish.
So this could have been it.
So that was a sizable fish, and i just... I just wish i'd seen it, at least.
You know, even if i didn't get it in, just a glimpse, but no glimpse.
Some predatory fish are seriously territorial, and it could come back for more.
But although i keep casting, it doesn't fall for the same trick twice.
The fish aren't biting, so i carry on up the coast
In search of other attack victims.
At the next village, i hear about an incident
That's very similar to the ones i'm investigating,
But with an interesting, new detail.
The attacks, which i thought were recent, may have begun decades ago.
One of the witnesses is now 70 years old.
Jim was just a boy when the attack took place,
But every detail from that day is seared into his memory.
He was with a group of family and friends at a river mouth near their village.
It was a hot day, so jim and a friend ran into the water to cool off.
Just as they were about to jump off a log, jim spotted something.
They saw movement in the water.
They saw, first of all, it was bubbles.
They thought it was a crocodile.
But then they saw a dark shape, and they realized that it was a fish.
Thinking this large fish would make an easy meal for the family,
Jim called over his older brother to spear it.
His brother hit it first time, but the fish thrashed free... And attacked.
It sank its teeth into his brother's leg and started to drag him away.
Hearing screams, the adults raced into the water.
Jim says but if people hadn't come to help, he would've been pulled away.
A tug-Of-War ensued, and the fish finally let go.
They were able to get jim's brother back to shore.
The assailant had left behind two big puncture wounds.
And it's bleeding so profusely
That they're really worried that he could be in danger.
He could maybe even bleed to death.
They made a makeshift tourniquet out of vines and hoped for the best.
Despite his injuries, jim's brother survived the attack.
It's all starting to add up.
The large puncture wounds sound very similar to andrew's... About this big.
- Black fish? - Black fish.
And jim's description of the fish matches
All the others i've heard, size, shape and color.
So although the attacks are 60 years apart,
I believe the same type of fish is responsible,
And jim has a name for the assailant.
Mogillo.
It's not a name i recognize.
Linking all these attacks is a major step forward,
But i still have no idea of the perpetrator's identity.
Jim's story does give me one other piece of information, though.
The recent incidents were all in the ocean, but jim's brother was attacked
In the brackish waters of a river mouth.
My boatman, john, knows the spot.
Estuaries can be very interesting places
Because this boundary between fresh and salt, it's almost like a barrier.
Most saltwater species, you know, they can't go up the river.
Most river species can't continue to the sea,
But you get a certain amount of mixing.
You get a certain amount of mixing of the water,
And also a certain amount of mixing of species.
So it's the kind of place where you can sometimes find a surprise.
This location could be a breakthrough because it's possible that
What i'm after isn't just a marine fish.
Because i'm after a carnivore, i'm going to be using a dead fish.
Quite smelly, this one.
The thing is, when i put it in the water,
The current is going to take out a nice trail.
Unweighted, the bait would get washed away by the current.
So i'm using a big lump of dead coral to hold it on the bottom,
Where there's a much better chance of getting a strike.
I'm tying the weight onto the main line with weak monofilament
So that when something takes the bait, it will snap off,
And i won't have to haul in the rock, as well.
No need to cast this.
I'm just gonna lower it off the back of the boat,
And the current will take it down some way.
I've barely set my rig when there's a bite.
Oh, here we go. Here we go. Here we go.
Yes. Yes, yes, yes.
Here we go. Fish on.
I'm in papua new guinea, hunting down an assailant
That's been terrorizing remote fishing communities.
My prime suspect is a fish known locally as the mogillo.
And my investigation has revealed that in addition to attacks in the ocean,
It has struck in a river mouth where salt and fresh water mix.
Oh, here we go. Here we go. Here we go.
Yes.
Here we go.
Fish on.
It's here. It's this side.
It's about five feet long.
Whatever it is, it's about five feet long.
There it is.
An unmistakable fin breaks the surface.
It's a juvenile bull shark at home in salt water but also comfortable
In the brackish water of a river mouth.
I'm going to get him in the boat, have a slightly closer look at it.
So if i just lift up, here john's going to get the tail.
We're good to go.
There it is.
We have to be careful.
The shark's highly flexible cartilage skeleton allows it
To bend back on itself in ways that bony fish can't.
The thing with this is, you know, just, half-A-Second lack of concentration,
You've got a hole in your arm, and you're... Okay.
This is about the right size for the fish that bit jim's brother,
But look at the teeth.
I've seen the mark of this beast before.
Normally hidden by gums, its teeth, like almost all sharks,
Leave behind a distinctive crescent-Shaped bite.
So sharks aren't on my suspect list.
The jaws just don't match the puncture wounds i'm investigating.
So interesting to see what's in these waters in the way of predators.
I think it's still alive.
I think it's time to put this over the side.
Although it's a biter... This one's just tried to take a chunk out of me...
This isn't the mogillo that jim talked about.
Off it goes.
I've been invited to a gathering at the village of attack victim andrew,
The man who sports a scar from the mystery assailant.
It's a celebration called a sing-Sing, where tribespeople meet to share music,
Dance, and stories.
For me, any event like this is a chance
To meet potential witnesses and uncover more information.
I can also bring andrew up to speed with my investigation.
I tell him that i've widened my search for his attacker to the river mouth,
And it's then that he gives me a tantalizing clue.
Down in the water.
You okay.
This large fish, and oblong fish, it's oblong, moves through water.
But not going to stop in the same place.
- Move where? - Yeah. Move up the river.
This is a very interesting extra piece of information.
He's saying he has seen a large fish moving from the estuary up the river.
Andrew knows it wasn't a shark, but he says it was large and dark.
So now i have reports of unidentified dark-Colored fish
In three different places... Ocean, estuary, and upriver.
And i'm wondering whether they're all the same fish.
So what could it be?
What is this fish that old jim called mogillo?
One thing is for sure... If i'm going to find it,
I need to take this investigation somewhere i never thought i'd have to.
I think i've just seen something that's actually been staring me
In the face for a while.
I've checked out the reef.
I've checked out the estuary, and i thought i'd run into a bit of a dead end.
But after what andrew has just told me, there is, of course, one other place
That i just must go investigate.
If this fish can straddle the salt and freshwater divide and go up rivers,
It's part of a very select club
Whose other members include not just bull sharks, but sturgeons and salmon,
Neither of which live here.
This is suddenly feeling a lot more of, like, familiar territory for me.
Moving up into freshwater, there's wonderful, wild jungly river.
And what gets me particularly excited about this place is,
By all accounts, this is unexplored.
My boatman, john, tells me that the few tribes
That have pushed this far into the jungle lead isolated lives
And have little contact with the world beyond the forest.
Visitors are rare, but he has heard of one other outsider
Who has been given permission to be here.
Any local knowledge is a good thing, so we're on the lookout for his camp.
Exploring the river upstream, we spot some signs.
How are you?
His name is riccard, and it turns out he's a field researcher
For an australian university.
As part of his studies, he's investigating
What species inhabit this river system.
I use small underwater cameras, and we position them in areas
Where i think the fish are congregating, like the snags
And like those weed beds out there.
Riccard has an amazing setup for a place so remote,
And he's built up quite an archive of what's in the river.
See, every now and then, we get the small fish.
I've got a lot of good footage of some, what i think, could be new species.
The camera gives me a window on what conditions are like under the water here.
I'm instantly thinking fishing, and you're just asking
To get sort of hung up on all this stuff under here.
I mean, there's a lot of dead wood and stuff under the water.
As we scroll through more footage, something huge comes into view.
So what is that?
That is what the locals call the mogillo.
- That's the mogillo? - That's the mogillo.
Finally, my elusive suspect is revealed.
I've zeroed in on my prime suspect for a spate of attacks in a remote,
Coastal region of papua new guinea.
The locals call it mogillo, and a researcher has just shown me film of one
Taken far up an uncharted river.
- That's the mogillo? - That's the mogillo.
This is totally unexpected.
I recognize it as the papuan black bass,
A fish i've always thought of as a freshwater species,
So i never considered it for the attacks in open ocean.
I thought the same, that they're freshwater fish.
But in actual fact, we're starting to discover now
That they do move into the saltwater.
That's actually really interesting because until this point,
Everything was not making a lot of sense, but that bit of information,
I mean, suddenly, everything that i've been hearing up
Until now just falls into place. Yep.
It all starts to make sense.
Riccard captured the images of black bass an hour upstream from his camp,
So that's where john and i are heading.
The papuan black bass is renowned for its power and aggression.
I've never caught one, so i'm excited about the prospect
Of going up against this jungle-River gladiator.
And by catching one, i'll be able to see for myself
Whether it has the hardware capable
Of causing the attack wounds i'm investigating.
The tribes living in the jungle own all of the rivers.
And to fish here, i must have their permission.
What's up, jeremy?
In papua new guinea, it's customary for visitors to present a gift
When they enter a tribe's territory.
So i give them some of our rice.
I'm possibly the first westerner they've ever seen.
But once john has explained my mission,
They're happy to grant me permission to fish.
So, it's okay for me to fish... Fish here?
It's not a problem for... For you?
Before i head off, the villagers recount their own experiences
With the black bass, or mogillo.
Okay.
So, the little ones, you catch and eat... Eat them?
But the big one?
Big one... No.
Always... Always break.
They say that they do fish for mogillo.
The big ones, they say, break the line.
And if it weren't to break the line, apparently, if a big one gets close,
It could go for them.
Thank you. It was great.
One man has told me that the best place to find them is a bit further upstream.
I've actually anchored here for a reason.
This is a confluence, and it's a bit like a miniature version
Of the famous meeting of the waters in the amazon.
You've got the cloudy water with the dark sort of
Tea- Or coffee-Stained water coming in.
So you get this very clear boundary between the two,
And then for a long way downstream, you've got an area of mixing,
And it's a classic place for predators to hang out,
Particularly in the cloudy water and pouncing out into the clear water
To grab unsuspecting prey fish.
My game plan for getting a black bass
Is to cast where the clear and cloudy waters meet,
Then work my lure along the boundary.
Something goes for it almost straight away.
Yes, that's a good-Sized fish. That's a good fish, a good fish.
Oh, and it's off.
It's off. It's off.
But it's left something behind.
We've got some tooth marks. I've got one, two, three.
They're quite widely spaced pointed teeth by the look of it,
And one here is actually gone in quite a long way,
Which makes me think of that scar on andrew's leg, that single hole.
And here we've got something that's made quite a deep hole in...
This is actually hard plastic.
I'm clearly in the right place, but time looks like it might be against me.
That doesn't sound good.
Black bass are sight predators, and the muddy runoff from the banks
Means they won't be able to see my lure.
Carrying on in this is futile.
The river has transformed overnight with whole trees being washed downstream,
And the water has completely clouded up.
This has happened very, very quickly.
The thing is, for this to get back to normal is going to take several days.
That's if it doesn't rain again.
If it does rain again, it's going to stay like this.
It's going to possibly even get worse.
My only realistic option of catching a black bass now
Is to head back downstream...
To the river mouth.
Swapping the confined space of a river for a bigger expanse of water
Would normally make catching one even more of a lottery.
But as the river widens, it slows.
The sediment starts to settle, and the water mixes with the ocean,
Making it clearer.
Better conditions for sight predators like black bass.
This looks like quite a nice spot here.
There's the main current flowing down to the estuary just there.
But there's a little slack there.
I think we can tuck in there.
We can be in a bit of a little bit of shade, which is always nice.
I'm going to use a different tactic.
I'm ditching the lures and going with bait.
And i cast out to the edge of the deep channel.
This could be my final chance to do battle with the elusive black bass.
Oh. Here we go.
There's something on there.
I'm in papua new guinea, fishing for a black bass,
A possible culprit for a string of vicious attacks
Spanning 60 years and 3 kinds of water.
I've been washed out upriver, and my only hope of catching one now
Is in the river mouth.
And it looks like i've got something on the end of my line.
Oh, here we go. That's something on there.
Let's go out this way a bit. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. Yes. Yes. Yes. That's a fish.
Motoring over to where the fish is at the moment.
It looks like it is well clear of the bank,
But the problem is there could well be sunken snags down here.
Shortening the line. Shortening the line.
Yeah, just keep coming this way into this clear bit.
It's a big fish.
Could you maybe stop the motor? Stop.
Yeah. This is good.
This is good.
There we go.
Oh, there's the leader. There's the leader.
I can see it now. It's on the surface.
There it is. It's a big bass.
Net in the water.
Net. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
Yes. Wow.
Well, this is a big new guinea black bass.
This battle-Scarred specimen is large, but they can grow to twice this weight.
I think all the pieces finally fall into place.
It has the coloration that matches george's story
Of that mystery fish on the reef.
It has the teeth that could've inflicted that bite wound that i saw on andrew.
And having felt this on the end of a line, no doubt about it,
The power, if this thing grabbed hold of your leg
And started pulling, i think you'd go with it.
You'd go under the water.
This is the fish that i'm looking for.
This is the fish behind those stories.
When i set out to investigate these attacks,
I thought i was searching for a saltwater predator.
Turns out i was only half right.
These attacks are part of growing evidence
That black bass are able to straddle the worlds of both fresh and saltwater.
It's an amazing adaptation that scientists are only starting to understand.
And for me, it's encouraging proof
That new monster mysteries are still out there waiting to be uncovered.
I'm jeremy wade, and i hope you enjoyed watching "volcanic island terror."
This time, i'm the one on the hook.
I've got a bunch of questions from "river monsters" viewers,
And i'll answer as many as i can in the few minutes that we've got.
Here we go.
First one... Shoopalucy, if that's the right pronunciation, on instagram asked,
"what's the longest time you've had a fish on the line, and did you land it?"
The answer to that question was that big stingray in argentina,
Which took me 3 hours and 50 minutes, but while filming this new season,
I had a yellowfin tuna.
This was when i was in ascension island, and i think that took 41/2 hours.
Yes, i did land it, and you know what?
I don't think that's even in the program.
There were just so many fish that we were catching then.
Leonard k., facebook... "other than malaria,
What other tropical diseases or parasites have you had?"
I had one that was pretty gross.
It was called barber's rash.
It started off as a spot on my nose, which didn't heal,
And then it spread to all these, like, sort of weeping sores all over my face.
And i went and got treated by this rather short-Sighted doctor,
Who got these cotton buds, which he dipped in something called gentian violet,
Which is bright purple, and he dobbed these all over my face.
And it then dripped down, so i ended up with a purple and white striped face.
That's the most memorable exotic disease i've had.
Emily m., facebook... "what are the most beautiful fish you've ever catched?"
Don't you mean caught, emily?
"p.S., love the show."
Sorry, it's the teacher in me coming out.
There's something called a peacock bass in south america.
Lovely looking thing.
They're just wonderfully pretty and luminous.
Silver spoon, instagram... "what's the worst injury from fishing?"
Do you know what?
I've actually... Well, i was gonna say, "lucky."
It's not luck... It's paying attention, it's being careful.
I've still got all my fingers and toes.
The worst injury, though, by far was... Some of you might've seen this...
I was hit in the chest by an arapaima,
And okay, that's not teeth, it's a blow.
But i was... Honestly, i could still feel that after six weeks.
Naim e., facebook... "did you ever regret anything?"
Um...
I don't know.
I mean, maybe for a while, i regretted... When i was young,
I sort of dropped out of the whole normal-Career thing,
And i spent a lot of time being not very successful in normal terms.
I spent a lot of time traveling on not very much money,
And part of me was perfectly happy with that.
But part of me was thinking, "well, maybe this wasn't a good move,"
But then suddenly, it all came right.
And i ended up doing what i'm doing on tv.
I'm getting paid for it, so from this particular viewpoint, no.
But a few years back, i might've regretted that.
Ava rose, instagram... "what would you think
The most dangerous river monster is in the united states?"
Um...
Gosh, that's hard. I think... Well... Uh...
I was possibly gonna say some of the bull sharks that you've got.
If you go down to florida, maybe you've got bull sharks
Swimming around off the coast and even into fresh water,
And generally, with most of the fish that i deal with...
And it's true in the case of bull sharks, as well...
It's normally the fault of the person
Putting themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time
Through not understanding what's in the water.
The number of incidents is very small.
It's not the fault of the fish.
Max p., facebook... "what non-Fishing activity
Will you be spending your time on after this season?"
Um...
I don't know. I mean, i used to do a bit of rock climbing.
In england, where i live, it's not a great activity
Because it's raining all the time,
And you can't really go climbing when there are rocks slippery.
That completely came to a hault when "river monsters" started.
Maybe i'll do a bit of that. I don't know.
And i'm afraid that's all we've got time for tonight,
But thank you very much for watching this and for watching "river monsters."
Fish on.