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  • 4 months ago
River.Monsters.S09E05
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00:00my name is Jeremy Wade biologist and underwater detective
00:07using a rod as my line of inquiry for more than 30 years I've pushed the envelope of
00:16aquatic understanding now I'm hearing reports from one of the most remote places on earth
00:27a land of fire and folklore where an ancient fishing community is being rocked by a series
00:37of vicious attacks by an unidentified underwater assailant victims are left maimed stamped with
00:45mysterious bite marks the injury was so bad that he might even bleed to death what is behind this
00:52eruption of violence what is the identity of the fish that is terrorizing these volcanic islands
01:22I'm regularly sent reports about attacks happening in waters all over the world from these I extract
01:33the extraordinary from the easily explained and recently one remarkable case leapt to my attention
01:43it comes from a fishing community on a remote volcanic island that's part of Papua New Guinea
01:52in the South Pacific it concerns a spate of underwater attacks that has left a trail of bloodied victims
02:01along the coast the assailant strikes quickly and seemingly at random leaving behind large puncture
02:09wounds but no other clue to its identity the locals are baffled and afraid because they depend on the sea
02:17for their survival with the collective knowledge built up over centuries they know everything in
02:23their waters or thought they did could a bloodthirsty alien have migrated from elsewhere could this be a
02:32native species gone bad or in this remote corner of the world could there be a completely new kind of
02:40monster not just new to the locals but new to me new to all of us the remote island where the report originated is
02:51called New Britain it's one of the least explored places on earth and somewhere I've never set foot named in
02:59the 17th century by an English explorer it's mountainous covered in rainforest and about the size of Maryland
03:06forged by volcanoes millions of years ago New Britain sits on the Pacific ring of fire
03:16the island is still rocked by volcanic activity eruptions and earthquakes strike without warning and with
03:28devastating effect an ancient fishing community under attack by something new in the water is a scenario I
03:37can't resist investigating but all I know for certain is that the incidents happened along a particular
03:43stretch of coast where dozens of coral islands lie just offshore I've managed to find a boatman named
03:53John who has agreed to take me to some of the isolated communities where I can start my investigation
03:59everywhere you look on the water you've got canoes and you've got people actually in the water themselves
04:06it's almost as if they spend more time immersed than they do on land and it's all about fishing because
04:11these people they have to fish every single day just to feed themselves I want to start collecting
04:20information about the recent attacks and John has suggested this market island where people gather
04:26to exchange and barter goods these isolated fishing communities have little or no contact with the rest
04:35of the world and rarely see outsiders I expect them to be suspicious of a stranger like me but a catch being
04:46unloaded gives me an opportunity to talk about fishing our common ground you have a lot of fish in a throwback
04:56to colonial times most people here speak a version of Creole called tok pizin and some speak a little
05:03English so all spare this business so okay so you're going down very deep or someone's going down is this you you
05:13you so you got like 30 40 meters so like a hundred feet yeah more than 100 feet well
05:18the idyllic waters conceal an arms race beneath the surface the fish are bristling with weaponry including things I've never seen before
05:31he's just telling me you've got to be very careful the tail there is a spine which is actually pointing forward so I'm glad they pointed it out to me
05:41because I could have 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
05:50the locals soon warm to a fellow fishermen and I turn the conversation towards the attacks
05:58any big fish here that bite people that you hear about
06:04they tell me that because of the recent incidents everybody is now wary in the water
06:14nobody on this island has been attacked but they know about a spear fisherman who encountered a large
06:22toothy fish he'd never seen before and they think it could be the culprit
06:27yes but actually me I remember a man named George they tell me this man's name is George
06:36and he lives I believe it's the the island right on the horizon there so I need to go and try and get some more details from him
06:42as a spear fisherman George will know these waters well so he could be a valuable first witness in my investigation
06:53these people encounter fish on a daily basis and because being actually under the water and spear
06:59fishing is such a big part of that their familiarity with those fish and their behavior possibly surpasses
07:05that of fishermen anywhere else in the world so for an experienced spear fisherman to see something that
07:10he can't identify if that's true that is hugely significant
07:22on the way to george's island i spot a lot of activity a sign that fish are feeding
07:27it's a chance to get my line in the water and catch potential suspects
07:31i'm hoping that pulling a bright lure behind the boat will call out to anything predatory nearby
07:42this diving vein here that will send it down deep i'm expecting this to to work fairly close to the
07:49bottom in this coastal bit of water here there's also a little bit of a rattle there
07:57so this is actually working on different channels it's sending out visual cues but also there's
08:04there's vibration in the water floating down floating floating floating and then down it goes
08:14it's not long before something takes my lure
08:17it's interesting this is sort of heavy but it's not really running
08:30it's coming in just a flash there it is there it is there it is it's going down again
08:36it's a golden snapper and it's pretty well armed this is very spiky fish that's what a beautiful
08:51fish what a lovely coloration big eyes suggests a sight predator big mouth well that just confirms that
08:59it's a it's a hunter it's a it is a predator teeth in there they're not very big teeth but that's basically
09:05if it grabs something whatever it is it's not going to get away it's a fearsome predator but they
09:13only grow to a couple of feet and their teeth are too small to inflict the life-threatening puncture
09:18wounds i'm investigating
09:24back on the trail of witnesses i arrive at the island where george lives
09:31and i'm greeted by an inquisitive crowd
09:40george isn't amongst them so i head into the village where there are carvings everywhere
09:45including what appear to be ritualistic totems
09:53lots of fish carvings which you'd sort of expect when the people live right on the water
09:57here is very very rich in art in representation some of these things are clearly imaginary or mythical
10:04and there's some real creatures here as well it's a rogues gallery with mug shots of all the well-known
10:11lethal predators in the area but i'm looking for something underwater and unknown
10:18and i'm hoping george the spear fisherman can help
10:24he tells me he was out fishing on a nearby reef
10:27at first there wasn't much around but then he spotted a school of fish and dived down after them
10:45he didn't notice a large mysterious fish coming straight for him until it was inches from his face
10:57he said he was a dark colored fish
11:05not excessively long he says you know a pretty long fish but the main thing about it uh very deep
11:09bodied a big head with what looked like big teeth was this the first time you you'd seen this fish
11:15in over 30 years of spear fishing in these waters george had never seen a fish like this before
11:28so it's a suspect i have to take seriously
11:30a fish
11:34a fish
11:36a fish
11:41john and i have headed out to the reef where george's encounter happened
11:45in the hope of catching the fish that went after him
11:52instead of fishing a single spot i start trolling allowing me to cover much more of the reef
12:01oh and ahead ahead
12:05you know fish are on the hunt they're definitely on the hunt the birds are coming down to grab any
12:10confused injured bait fish yeah it's really kicking off here now and this activity is a sign unseen
12:20predators are on the hunt oh yeah yeah yeah here we go picture on
12:30i'm off a remote island in papua new guinea investigating an unseen attacker that's been terrorizing locals
12:44i'm at the scene of a mysterious recent encounter
12:56oh yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah and i've got a fish on
12:59oh i can just see i can see color here we go
13:13getting it slowly nearer to the surface
13:16uh we're gonna see it's a giant trevally
13:24excellent
13:27big eye that goes with being a sight predator hunting down prey by sight
13:32as i discovered in fiji giant trevally can be lethal using their head as a battering ram
13:43but i'm looking for an aggressive biter
13:50they got teeth there's a couple of canines
13:54in the middle of the lower jaw you know that could inflict some damage
13:57but not the life-threatening wounds i'm investigating and that's another thing
14:03an experienced fisherman like george would recognize it these are very familiar fish if
14:09somebody saw a giant trevally they'd know it was a giant trevally so we're talking about something else
14:18back on the trail of the mystery assailant my boatman john and i carry on trolling to see what
14:24other big predators can be enticed from the depths
14:33every now and again this gives a real hit on the rod
14:42well it's in quite close now i can see that's quite a long fish what's that
14:47that's barracuda okay here we go
14:57this fish has the hardware to cause some serious injury
15:01those teeth are almost like daggers the mouth doesn't really even need to close it just swims
15:06at speed with his mouth open it leaves a long cut the teeth are so sharp that in florida just a glancing
15:15blow was enough to slice a man's arm to the bone
15:21although dangerous this fish doesn't make my suspect list either
15:26and the shape and everything's all wrong from the start but everybody knows where the barracuda is around
15:29here the spear fisherman described a dark full-bodied creature with a big head so definitely not this fish
15:39i'm starting to rack up the species and certainly lots of predators here but nothing so far that's
15:46at all out of the ordinary
15:50at the moment there's no firm link between the fish that went after george
15:54and what's responsible for the more serious incidents i'm here to investigate
16:01to get closer to that culprit i need to find more witnesses
16:07but that's easier said than done these communities are spread along miles of coast and over dozens of
16:14small islands and communications are limited but in one village i'm told about a man named andrew
16:22who some years ago was bitten by something unknown
16:30can you tell me what happened uh this lapis here
16:34me walker bc law net we throw my net now next up
16:40andrew tells me how he and a friend went fishing one day wading into chest deep water on the reef
16:47they were using a long gill net to make a circular trap
16:58so what happened to andrew was he he's deployed the net he's he's gathering it in and there's
17:02something in there which is big and because it's enclosed it's wanting to escape and what happened is it bit
17:09his leg
17:18the assailant left a bloody puncture wound in andrew's calf
17:25it then escaped but not before he got a good look at it
17:29this is a big big fish very big fish how big is about this big
17:39blackfish blackfish mineral looking fishing become it's a strikingly similar description to the mystery
17:44fish that went for george the spear fisherman this one but there's more this time it left behind
17:50physical evidence a scar on andrew's leg one hole one tooth one hole so sharp tooth the scar is
18:00interesting because he said this is a fish with big teeth they're sort of uh pointed teeth and it made
18:06one hole in his leg
18:16on the basis of what i've just heard it's sounding very likely the the mystery
18:20fish on the reef and this fish that bit andrew they could be one and the same and the other
18:26thing that was very interesting was the scar on his leg a single hole it's very characteristic but at
18:33the same time i've got no idea at the moment what that could be as there was only one mark on andrew's
18:40leg it's clear that the culprit's teeth are quite far apart so this is the dental profile i need to be
18:48looking for andrew has told me where he was attacked and i've waded out to the scene of the crime
18:58but fishing without the protection of a boat leaves me feeling vulnerable to whatever might be out here
19:06i'm standing on nice shallow water here but right here it plunges away it's dark
19:11i can't see what's there but anything that's there can very clearly see me so it's a little bit more
19:17adrenaline perhaps than normal involved in this fishing
19:31this is a strong fish if i'm not careful it could pull me over the edge leader in sight leader in sight
20:01On a remote island off Papua, New Guinea, I'm on the trail of a mystery attacker that's terrorising the local community.
20:13I'm fishing on the very edge of the reef, and I've hooked into something big.
20:19Ah, yes!
20:22I'm taking it away from the coral.
20:25It's a strong fish, and I'm struggling to keep my footing.
20:29Leader in sight, leader in sight.
20:31Ah!
20:37Ah!
20:39Oh!
20:41Ah!
20:43That was ten feet from where I'm standing when that came off.
20:46It was just round the edge of the lip of the coral here.
20:51It was something dark against a dark background, because here is light, that is all dark water there.
20:56The stealthy attacker I'm after is a big, dark fish, so this could have been it.
21:04So that was a sizeable fish, and I just wish I'd seen it, at least, even if I didn't get it in, just a glimpse, but no glimpse.
21:13Some predatory fish are seriously territorial, and it could come back for more.
21:20But although I keep casting, but although I keep casting, it doesn't fall for the same trick twice.
21:26The fish aren't biting, so I carry on up the coast in search of other attack victims.
21:34At the next village, I hear about an incident that's very similar to the ones I'm investigating, but with an interesting new detail.
21:47The attacks, which I thought were recent, may have begun decades ago.
21:57One of the witnesses is now 70 years old.
22:06Jim was just a boy when the attack took place, but every detail from that day is seared into his memory.
22:17He was with a group of family and friends at a river mouth near their village.
22:25It was a hot day, so Jim and a friend ran into the water to cool off.
22:32Just as they were about to jump off a log, Jim spotted something.
22:39They saw a movement in the water.
22:41They saw, first of all, it was bubbles.
22:43They thought it was a crocodile.
22:44But then they saw a dark shape, and they realized that it was a fish.
22:51Thinking this large fish would make an easy meal for the family, Jim called over his older brother to spear it.
22:59His brother hit it first time, but the fish thrashed free and attacked.
23:05It sank its teeth into his brother's leg and started to drag him away.
23:15Hearing screams, the adults raced into the water.
23:18Jim says, but if people hadn't come to hell, he would have been pulled away.
23:29A tug of war ensued, and the fish finally let go.
23:35They were able to get Jim's brother back to shore.
23:37The assailant had left behind two big puncture wounds.
23:47And it's bleeding so profusely that they're really worried that he could be in danger.
23:51He could maybe even bleed to death.
23:53They made a makeshift tourniquet out of vines and hoped for the best.
23:58Despite his injuries, Jim's brother survived the attack.
24:09It's all starting to add up.
24:12The large puncture wounds sound very similar to Andrew's.
24:17What is this big?
24:19Blackfish.
24:20Blackfish.
24:20And Jim's description of the fish matches all the others I've heard.
24:26Size, shape, and color.
24:31So although the attacks are 60 years apart, I believe the same type of fish is responsible.
24:39And Jim has a name for the assailant.
24:44Mogillo.
24:45Mogillo.
24:47It's not a name I recognize.
24:50Linking all these attacks is a major step forward.
24:56But I still have no idea of the perpetrator's identity.
25:01Jim's story does give me one other piece of information, though.
25:07The recent incidents were all in the ocean.
25:10But Jim's brother was attacked in the brackish waters of a river mouth.
25:15My boatman, John, knows the spot.
25:24Estuaries can be very interesting places because this boundary between fresh and salt, it's almost like a barrier.
25:31Most saltwater species, you know, they can't go up the river.
25:36Most river species can't continue to the sea.
25:38But you get a certain amount of mixing.
25:41You get a certain amount of mixing of the water and also a certain amount of mixing of species.
25:44So it's the kind of place where you can sometimes find a surprise.
25:51This location could be a breakthrough because it's possible that what I'm after isn't just a marine fish.
26:02Because I'm after a carnivore, I'm going to be using a dead fish.
26:07Quite smelly, this one.
26:08The thing is, when I put it in the water, the current is going to take out a nice trail.
26:13Unweighted, the bait would get washed away by the current.
26:20So 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.
26:31I'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.
26:43No need to cast this. I'm just going to lower it off the back of the boat, and the current will take it down some way.
26:59I've barely set my rig.
27:01When there's a bite...
27:03Here we go, here we go, here we go, here we go, here we go.
27:08Yes, yes, yes, yes.
27:13Here we go, here we go, here we go.
27:25I'm in Papua, New Guinea, hunting down an assailant that's been terrorising remote fishing communities.
27:32My prime suspect is a fish known locally as the Mogilu, 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.
27:52Here we go, here we go, here we go, here we go, here we go.
27:55Yes!
27:56Here we go, fish on.
27:57Here we go, fish on.
27:58Here we go, fish on.
27:59It's here, it's this side.
28:02It's about five feet long.
28:03Whatever it is, it's about five feet long.
28:04There it is.
28:06An unmistakable fin breaks the surface.
28:07It's a juvenile bull shark, at home in salt water, but also comfortable in the brackish water of a river mouth.
28:13We're gonna get in the boat, have a slightly closer look at it.
28:14So, if I just lift up.
28:17Here's one's gonna get the tail.
28:18Good to go.
28:19Here.
28:20Here we go.
28:21Here we go.
28:22There it is.
28:23There it is.
28:24An unmistakable fin breaks the surface.
28:27It's a juvenile bull shark, at home in salt water, but also comfortable in the brackish water of a river mouth.
28:32have a slightly closer look at it. So if I just lift up here, everyone's going to get the tail.
28:39Good to go.
28:44There it is.
28:49We have to be careful. The shark's highly flexible cartilage skeleton allows it to bend
28:54back on itself in ways that bony fish can't. The thing with this is, you know, just
29:00half a second lack of concentration, you've got a hole in your arm and you... Okay.
29:10This is about the right size for the fish that bit Jim's brother, but look at the teeth.
29:18I've seen the mark of this beast before. Normally hidden by gums, its teeth, like almost all sharks,
29:24leave behind a distinctive crescent-shaped bite. So sharks aren't on my suspect list.
29:33Their jaws just don't match the puncture wounds I'm investigating.
29:38Interesting to see what's in these waters in the way of predators. I think it's still alive. I think it's time
29:48to put this over the side. Although it's a biter, this one's just trying to take a chunk out of me.
29:57This isn't the moguilu that Jim talked about.
30:04Off it goes.
30:15I've been invited to a gathering at the village of attack victim Andrew,
30:24the man who sports a scar from the mystery assailant. It's a celebration called a sing-sing,
30:31where tribespeople meet to share music, dance and stories.
30:34For me, any event like this is a chance to meet potential witnesses and uncover more information.
30:46I can also bring Andrew up to speed with my investigation.
30:51I tell him that I've widened my search for his attacker to the river mouth,
30:56and it's then that he gives me a tantalizing clue.
30:59Down the water. Okay, you like the story of fish. Okay, this is a piece of over long fish,
31:07and it's a locate long. Most of the water. But you can stop this in the same place.
31:12Move, move, move. Yeah, only move up the river.
31:15This is a very interesting extra piece of information. He's saying he has seen a large fish
31:20moving from the estuary up the river.
31:29Andrew knows it wasn't a shark, but he says it was large and dark. So now I have reports of unidentified
31:38dark-colored fish in three different places. Ocean, estuary and upriver. And I'm wondering
31:44whether they're all the same fish. So what could it be?
31:49What is this fish that old Jim called Mogilu? One thing's for sure. If I'm going to find it,
31:55I need to take this investigation somewhere I never thought I'd have to.
32:00I think I've just seen something that's actually been staring me in the face for a while.
32:04I've checked out the reef, I've checked out the estuary, and I thought I'd run into a bit of a dead
32:09end. But after what Andrew has just told me, there is of course one other place that I just must go and
32:15investigate. If this fish can straddle the salt and freshwater divide and go up rivers,
32:28it's part of a very select club, whose other members include not just bull sharks,
32:35but sturgeons and salmon, neither of which live here.
32:46This is suddenly feeling a lot more like familiar territory for me, moving up into fresh water,
32:50this wonderful, wild, jungly river. And what gets me particularly excited about this place is,
32:56by all accounts, this is unexplored.
32:57My boatman John tells me that the few tribes that have pushed this far into the jungle lead isolated
33:09lives and have little contact with the world beyond the forest.
33:16Visitors are rare, but he has heard of one other outsider who has been given permission to be here.
33:21Any local knowledge is a good thing, so we're on the lookout for his camp.
33:31Exploring the river upstream, we spot some signs.
33:35His name is Rickard, and it turns out he's a field researcher for an Australian university.
33:52As part of his studies, he's investigating what species inhabit this river system.
33:56I use small underwater cameras and we position them in areas where I think the fish are congregating,
34:02like the snags and like those weed beds out there.
34:07Rickard has an amazing setup for a place so remote, and he's built up quite an archive of what's in the river.
34:14Every now and then we get the small fish. I've got a lot of good footage of some,
34:21what I think could be new species.
34:24The camera gives me a window on what conditions are like under the water here.
34:28I'm instantly thinking fishing, and you're just asking to get sort of hung up on all this stuff,
34:35aren't you? I mean, there's a lot of dead wood and stuff under the water.
34:40As we scroll through more footage, something huge comes into view.
34:46So what is that?
34:46That is what the locals call the Mogulu.
34:50That's the Mogulu?
34:51That's the Mogulu.
34:52Finally, my elusive suspect is revealed.
34:56I've zeroed in on my prime suspect for a spate of attacks in a remote coastal region of Papua New Guinea.
35:13The locals call it Mogulu, and a researcher has just shown me film of one taken far up an uncharted river.
35:21That's the Mogulu.
35:23That's the Mogulu.
35:26This is totally unexpected.
35:30I recognise it as the Papuan black bass, a fish I've always thought of as a freshwater species.
35:36So I never considered it for the attacks in open ocean.
35:40I thought the same, that they're freshwater fish.
35:43But in actual fact, we're starting to discover now that they do move into the salt water.
35:48That's actually really interesting, because until this point, everything was not making a lot of sense.
35:54But that bit of information, I mean, suddenly everything that I've been hearing up to now just falls into place.
36:00It all starts to make sense.
36:06Ricard captured the images of black bass an hour upstream from his camp.
36:12So that's where John and I are heading.
36:14The Papuan black bass is renowned for its power and aggression.
36:22I've never caught one, so I'm excited by the prospect of going up against this jungle river gladiator.
36:29And 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.
36:44The tribes living in the jungle own all of the rivers.
36:49And to fish here, I must have their permission.
37:09In Papua New Guinea, it's customary for visitors to present a gift when they enter a tribe's territory.
37:14So I give them some of our rice.
37:22I'm possibly the first Westerner they've ever seen.
37:25But once John has explained my mission, they're happy to grant me permission to fish.
37:32So it's okay for me to fish here? That's not a problem for you?
37:38That's not a problem for you.
37:39That's not a problem for you.
37:41That's not a problem for you.
37:43That's not a problem for you.
37:43That's not a problem for you.
37:44Before I head off, the villagers recount their own experiences with the black bass, or mogilu.
37:50That's not a problem for you.
37:52Okay, so the little ones you catch and eat, eat them, but the big one, always break.
38:01They say that they do fish for mogilu. The big ones, they say, break the line.
38:07And if it weren't to break the line, apparently, if a big one gets close, it could go for them.
38:11Let's go.
38:15Oh, thank you. That's great.
38:23One man has told me that the best place to find them is a bit further upstream.
38:27I've actually anchored here for a reason.
38:41This is a confluence, and it's a bit like a miniature version of the famous meeting of the waters in the Amazon.
38:46You've got the cloudy water with the dark sort of tea or coffee stained water coming in.
38:53And so you get this very clear boundary between the two.
38:57And then for a long way downstream, you've got an area of mixing.
39:01And it's a classic place for predators to hang out, particularly in the cloudy water,
39:05and pouncing out into the clear water to grab unsuspecting prey fish.
39:15My game plan for getting a black bass is to cast to where the clear and cloudy waters meet,
39:21then work my lure along the boundary.
39:26Something goes for it, almost straight away.
39:31Yes, that's a good-sized fish. That's a good fish. A good fish.
39:34Off! And it's off. It's off. It's off.
39:38But it's left something behind.
39:43I've got some tooth marks. I've got one, two, three. They're quite widely spaced,
39:47pointed teeth by the look of it. And one here has actually gone in quite a long way,
39:52which makes me think of that scar on Andrew's leg. That single hole. And here we've got something
39:58that's made of quite a deep hole in such a hard plastic.
40:02I'm clearly in the right place, but time looks like it might be against me.
40:17That doesn't sound good.
40:23Black bass are sight predators, and the muddy runoff from the banks means they won't be able to see my lure.
40:29The river has transformed overnight, with whole trees being washed downstream,
40:50and the water has completely clouded up.
40:55This has happened very, very quickly. The thing is, for this to get back to normal,
40:59is going to take several days. That's if it doesn't rain again. If it does rain again,
41:04it's going to stay like this. It's going to possibly even get worse.
41:09My only realistic option of catching a black bass now is to head back downstream.
41:14To the river mouth.
41:21Swapping the confined space of a river for a bigger expanse of water,
41:25would normally make catching one even more of a lottery.
41:32But as the river widens, it slows, the sediment starts to settle,
41:36and the water mixes with the ocean, making it clearer. Better conditions for sight predators,
41:43like black bass.
41:49This looks like quite a nice spot here. There's the main current,
41:53flowing down to the estuary just there. But there's a little slack there. I think we can tuck in there,
41:58we can be in a bit of, a little bit of shade, which is always nice. I'm going to use a different tactic.
42:05I'm ditching the lures and going with bait.
42:10And I'll cast out to the edge of the deep channel.
42:19This could be my final chance to do battle with the elusive black bass.
42:29Oh, here we go. That's something on there.
42:42I'm in Papua New Guinea, fishing for a black bass. A possible culprit for a string of vicious attacks,
42:50spanning 60 years and three kinds of water.
42:53I've been washed out up river. And my only hope of catching one now is in the river mouth.
43:03And it looks like I've got something on the end of my line.
43:08Oh, here we go. That's something on there.
43:13Just go out this way a bit.
43:14Yeah, yeah, yeah, yes, yes, yes, that's a fish.
43:22Motoring over to where the fish is at the moment. It looks like it's well clear of the bank. The
43:27problem is there could well be sunken snags down here, shortening the line, shortening the line,
43:34shortening the line. Yeah, just keep coming this way into this clear bit.
43:38It's a big fish. Yeah, you can maybe stop the motor. Stop.
43:49Yeah, this is good. This is good.
43:53Here we go. And oh, there's the leader. There's the leader.
43:56I can see it now. It's on the surface. There it is. It's a big bass. Let's in the water.
44:11Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Wow.
44:18Well, this is a big New Guinea black bass.
44:21This battle scarred specimen is large, but they can grow to twice this weight.
44:31I think all the pieces finally fall into place. It has the coloration that matches
44:36George's story of that mystery fish on the reef.
44:43It has the teeth that could have inflicted that bite wound that I saw on Andrew.
44:48And having felt this on the end of the line, no doubt about it, the power. If this thing
44:55grabbed hold of your leg and started pulling, I think you'd go with it. You'd go under the water.
45:02This is the fish that I'm looking for. This is the fish behind those stories.
45:06When I set out to investigate these attacks, I thought I was searching for a saltwater predator.
45:17Turns out I was only half right.
45:22These attacks are part of growing evidence that black bass are able to straddle the worlds of both fresh and salt water.
45:29It's an amazing adaptation that scientists are only starting to understand.
45:37And for me, it's encouraging proof that new monster mysteries are still out there, waiting to be uncovered.