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River.Monsters.S02E02.Killer.Snakehead

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🐳
Animals
Transcript
00:00Animal Planet. Surprisingly human.
00:07My name's Jeremy Wade.
00:09I'm a biologist with a passion for dangerous fish.
00:13The big, the bad, and the ugly.
00:17What a monster this thing is.
00:19Now I'm after a predator that's invading America.
00:23Watch your pets. Watch your children.
00:26It has spawned horror movies
00:29and stands accused of homicide.
00:32These fish have reportedly attacked humans.
00:35Allegedly, it can even breathe air and crawl on land.
00:42But how much of this can I actually believe?
00:45I intend to separate fact from fiction
00:48and to find out firsthand if this beast really does attack people.
00:54Does its bite match the hype?
00:58And could these so-called Frankenfish take over?
01:02The End
01:03The End
01:04I've been investigating dangerous freshwater fish
01:33for over 20 years, but I've never come across an animal quite like this before.
01:38According to this website, they hunt in packs.
01:42It says here they have a poisonous bite, cannibalistic, eats everything in its path,
01:49breathes air and walks on land.
01:53Some of these reports make it sound like some kind of primeval throwback.
01:58A creature from before the dinosaurs, when fish were first starting to crawl out of the swamps.
02:03There's a story here from Malaysia of a man apparently castrated.
02:13And another story here from Thailand, apparently somebody killed.
02:19To find out if these horrific reports are true, I'll be heading to Southeast Asia.
02:25As well as finding eyewitnesses, I want to track down the monster that stands accused.
02:31The snakehead is a fish born with a taste for flesh.
02:35A beauty that turns into a beast.
02:39This seems like a fish that punches well above its weight.
02:43If just half of what I'm reading is true, then the snakehead really is a beast to be reckoned with.
02:49I want to meet this fish in the flesh and find out what it is truly capable of.
02:55Can they really breathe air and crawl across land?
02:59Is it true that they are spreading like a virus, devouring everything in their path?
03:05And are they really aggressive enough to attack and kill a human?
03:11My search for this alleged killer begins in a place where it doesn't belong.
03:17I'm in South Florida, pursuing an animal that's travelled halfway around the world,
03:23and is now busy invading new territory far from its natural home.
03:28When Bob Newland pulled a weird-looking creature from a Miami backwater in 2000,
03:33he took it to Florida's exotic fish lab to find out what it was.
03:38When I got it there, I just dropped it right on the floor.
03:41I said, OK, Paul, what is this?
03:43And he just looked at me and said, oh, I don't know.
03:46And then he got a big book and he looked in the book and eventually Paul came over and he said,
03:50this is what it is, it's a snakehead.
03:52After that he wanted to know exactly where I caught it and I said, I caught it on a golf course in Tamarack.
03:56And then he said, no, I need to know what hole you found it on.
04:00Government scientist Paul Sharfland had to act fast.
04:04What we had hoped was that they would only be in one pond.
04:07And if they were in one pond, we could go in and eradicate.
04:12But when his team checked the surrounding canals, it was bad news.
04:17Snakehead, 583.
04:19The invaders were already on the move.
04:22South Florida is a maze of interconnected canals.
04:25We couldn't have created a more ideal habitat for snakeheads.
04:32Sharfland is up against the bullseye snakehead.
04:35But this is just one member of a much larger gang.
04:40Snakeheads are in fact a group of almost 30 different species that range in size from a small flick knife to a four foot torpedo.
04:48They're ambush predators with long camouflage bodies, ripping teeth and a reputation for extreme aggression.
05:00Their global empire already stretches from tropical Africa to the Far East, including Russia.
05:06And they seem to be spreading.
05:08Soon after Newland's discovery, a second species surfaced in Maryland, just 20 miles from Washington DC.
05:18The northern snakehead is built to survive cold Siberian winters.
05:23And its presence set off alarm bells in the government and the media.
05:31These fish are top level predators that will eat anything in their path.
05:35They can travel across land and live out of water for three days.
05:42Snakeheads reportedly even attacked humans.
05:49Attacked humans.
05:50Attacked humans.
05:51Attacked humans.
05:54This just sort of took off and it exploded with the media.
05:58People were calling in and saying, do we have to worry about our children being attacked on the way to school?
06:02Can we leave our pets outside in the yard or will the snakeheads eat them?
06:05Meanwhile, scientists from the Fish and Wildlife Department feared that these snakeheads could unleash ecological havoc.
06:17And in a bid to wipe them out, they poisoned an entire pond, killing every last fish.
06:25Yet despite efforts to exterminate them, northern snakeheads are now established in five states across the eastern US.
06:32Media hype is one thing.
06:36But when a government is spending millions of dollars to fight a fish, you know you've got a serious problem.
06:46I never expected that I'd be fishing in a quiet residential area for fish that have been branded worse than piranhas.
06:55I'm in South Florida, just a few miles from where snakeheads first showed up.
06:59To catch one of these alien invaders, I'm using a lure that imitates live prey.
07:07Most baits and lures, you've got the hook exposed.
07:12But here, if a fish grabs it, that's what happens.
07:18I hook up with local guide Alan Zaremba, an experienced snakehead angler.
07:23Very nice.
07:24Look at that.
07:25Oh, there's one!
07:27Oh, no more!
07:29First cast, and the frog had a huge lump of salad with it as well, and the fish went for meat and veg, but didn't hook up.
07:39Ah!
07:40That was a hit and a miss.
07:41Yeah, that's another snakehead.
07:42The problem with the snakeheads, when they attack and get one shot at them, they don't come back for a second shot.
07:53But what do they eat?
07:54I mean, it's not just fish, is it?
07:55They'll eat anything that's moving that they can ambush.
07:58The adults, at least, appear to be lone hunters. They're not swarming in packs like piranhas.
08:05But as I work the banks, it's clear that these canals are crawling with snakeheads.
08:10Oh, yes!
08:11Ah!
08:12There was a hit.
08:13There was a hit, there was a hit.
08:14Take another long cast up that way. Maybe he's got some amigos here.
08:19Great shot.
08:21Are these fish still part of the first wave, I wonder? Or has an invasion already become an occupation?
08:30They're here, and they're not going to stop them.
08:32They're not going to stop these fish.
08:35They seem to love these shallow areas, especially when you get some weeds piled up so they can get up underneath the weeds.
08:41Did you see that?
08:42Yeah, light drop, light drop.
08:44And it's at the hole.
08:45Yeah, that is the fish on.
08:50That is the fish on.
08:51That one came out right from the side, didn't it?
08:52That came out four or five feet.
08:53This wake just arrowing out.
08:55I'm in a leafy Miami suburb, tracking down an illegal immigrant with a violent reputation.
09:06Did you see that?
09:07Yeah, light drop, light drop.
09:08And it's at the hole.
09:09That is a fish on.
09:11That one came out right from the side, didn't it?
09:13That came out four or five feet.
09:15This wake just arrowing out.
09:16I've hooked my first snake head.
09:28And what it lacks in size, it more than makes up for with attitude.
09:37There we go.
09:38That's it.
09:40Oh, a bullseye snake head.
09:45So now I've actually got my hands on one of these things, I can see why it's called a snake head.
09:49Very long, thin, still muscular fish.
09:52I think very often, you know, fish which are long and quite snake-like, you know, do give quite strong fights.
09:58And this particular one is called a bullseye snake head.
10:01It's got this eye spot on the tail.
10:04Have a look inside the mouth.
10:05There we go.
10:06That's definitely the mouth of a predator.
10:09All those teeth there.
10:10And it's not just smaller fish that it eats.
10:12It eats things like frogs.
10:13I mean, that's what I was using, an imitation frog, but also things like lizards, rats, even small ducks.
10:19These fish are clearly carnivorous.
10:22But do they deserve their reputation for extreme aggression?
10:32It's very easy to go on the internet, and just in a matter of a few minutes, you can find stuff like this.
10:38These are clips put up by people who keep pet snake heads.
10:42And this is what happens when they feed them live fish.
10:45Just like pet snakes, these predatory fish prefer their food alive.
10:53When they strike, it just happens too fast to see it.
10:56And it's certainly too fast for the small fish to take any avoiding action.
11:02People always talk about predators being aggressive.
11:06But I mean, most predators actually kill for a reason.
11:08They need food.
11:09But these fish here, they just seem to kill as a reflex.
11:12They'll bite something in half, and then just leave it to die.
11:18I'm used to fishing for predators, but actually seeing the moment of the strike like this in lurid close-up,
11:23I have to say, is pretty gruesome.
11:26They really do seem to be natural-born killers.
11:28These pet snake heads are mere minnows.
11:33Just imagine what a 40-pounder could do to a child or a dog.
11:39Looking at these clips really begs the question,
11:42who set these violent offenders loose in America, and why?
11:4612, 20, this is a 19, 50, 20, 30 to request.
11:52Lieutenant Pat Reynolds keeps a close eye on the illegal wildlife trade in South Florida,
11:58and was called in to investigate.
12:00I think they're getting a delivery of saltwater products here.
12:04The guy has a game fish in the back of his truck, and you cannot sell it.
12:07When this fish was first found in the waterways here, what was your involvement then leading on from that?
12:14I was alerted by our fishery biologists.
12:17They suspected very strongly that these were released, particularly in the oriental trade or the Asian trade.
12:25Quite frankly, the first store I went into had them, and we tracked them back to New York City.
12:32They were coming in through New York, brought down here by an oriental wholesaler who was distributing them to the markets.
12:40I inspect the airport in Miami, and yes, they did come in.
12:44We made arrests and we seized the fish.
12:45Possessing 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.
12:54Snakeheads are highly prized by many Asian Americans, and not just because they taste good.
13:00How much did they go for?
13:02We sell about 15, 20 dollars a piece.
13:04Oh, 15 or 20 each?
13:06When we sell it.
13:07When you sell it.
13:08What they believe is a medical purpose.
13:12Especially when people have the operation.
13:15They said after they eat the soup, it helps them to recover.
13:19Helps the healing process.
13:21That's why the people will pay for that price.
13:24We believe they were intentionally released with the idea that an entrepreneur, a businessman, was going to go catch them and sell them into this trade.
13:33So not somebody keeping one in a tank and it's just too big or they get bored with them and in the water.
13:38No.
13:39Somebody intentionally put them out there so they could go harvest them later.
13:42And they wouldn't have to import it from New York.
13:46Here's what we tell everybody.
13:48If you catch them, because they are good eating, don't throw it back.
13:51Put it on ice, take it home and eat it.
13:56Soon after they arrived here, snakeheads caught the imagination of filmmakers.
14:03The alien invaders were cast as slithering assassins.
14:10As super fish that could somehow crawl out of the water and attack dogs.
14:16Or unsuspecting humans.
14:21It's easy to dismiss this movie monster as pure fantasy.
14:25And yet remarkably, much of it is based on fact.
14:29Some of the traits that the media picked up on are true.
14:32The fish can survive out of water.
14:34Some of them can move over land.
14:37They do have high levels of aggression.
14:43Does this mean that snakeheads could, under certain conditions, become the backyard predators of our nightmares?
14:50Aside from fish, which other dangerous river monster have I recently encountered?
15:03Was it A, an 18-foot croc?
15:06B, a three-ton hippo?
15:09Or C, a hungry grizzly?
15:11Aside from fish, which other dangerous river monster have I recently encountered?
15:18The answer is all three.
15:21But if anything's going to flip my boat, it'll be the hippo.
15:24I've seen how aggressive snakeheads can be in water.
15:36But could these fish ever live up to their billing in the movies and launch an attack on land?
15:42Fish biologist Ray Waldner has studied snakeheads in detail.
15:52It is an air breather.
15:55It can use atmospheric oxygen.
15:57You'll see the fish come up to the surface and literally lift its head up a little bit, grab a mouthful of air and then submerge again.
16:04Snakeheads have a special chamber above the gills that acts as a simple lung.
16:10When it gulps air, oxygen diffuses into an encircling mesh of blood vessels.
16:17If they're in a very stagnant area where the oxygen levels in the water are very, very low, the fish are still able to survive.
16:25So they can survive under conditions that would definitely kill other fishes.
16:28But it also allows the fish to live out of the water.
16:35So far, so Hollywood.
16:38But are snakeheads mobile enough to threaten anyone on land?
16:45A few years ago, Paul Sharfland brought some back to his lab and put them to the test.
16:51He's moving, OK, but he's not making a real directional movement.
16:56Most of the time, they sat like this, with a little bit of flipping, but the snakehead has just soft pectorals.
17:06It doesn't have a way to support itself.
17:09They seem to burn out pretty quick.
17:13Experts agree that some snakeheads do travel across land.
17:18In areas with seasonal flooding, it enables them to spread into new lakes and rivers.
17:23The patio-prowling monster, however, looks suspiciously like a myth.
17:30In their element, I've seen that snakeheads hit fast and hit hard.
17:36They are very aggressive. Anything that comes close, they will tear into.
17:40Leaving 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.
17:49I don't think there's much around that they probably wouldn't go after.
17:54Undoubtedly, the snakeheads are feeding on these native fishes such as bass and sunfish.
17:59The crappies that we have here, golden shiners, I think all of those are fair game and there are numerous others as well.
18:05If there's anything that's a little bit different about the bullseye snakehead's feeding habits is the breadth of foods that it will take.
18:17If something is close enough to it and it can get it in its mouth, it'll eat it.
18:22This is a stomach from a bullseye snakehead. This is a tilapia. They'll also eat native fish. There's two mosquito fish in there.
18:34This is a crayfish that was in a stomach. This is the marine toad.
18:38They've even had a snake. And as you can see, the whole snake was eating. This is actually a cannibalistic snakehead. This is a juvenile snakehead. There's even been some turtles. The breath is very interesting.
18:57Snakeheads are starting to sound like eco-monsters. Invaders with the power to mow down everything in their path.
19:04In the snakehead, 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.
19:18Snakeheads, 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.
19:30My 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.
19:44With such fertile and protective parents, snakeheads have the potential to multiply rapidly.
19:52What's more, few native predators are willing to take on an adult snakehead. So there's little to keep them in check.
19:58Nothing more than an earth bank now stands between Florida's snakehead infestation and the Everglades National Park, a vital refuge for endangered wildlife.
20:11How far these predators will spread is anyone's guess. But there is another alien invader that some people fear offers a disturbing preview of where the snakehead story is heading.
20:36It's a fish that's having quite an impact.
20:41In Florida, I found that snakeheads are aggressive, air-breathing predators that'll eat pretty much everything on the menu.
20:59Now, I head north to the Illinois River to witness what happens when an alien invader does run riot.
21:09Skipper and research scientist Greg Sass isn't taking any chances.
21:14What's the idea behind the nets?
21:16This gives one little bit of defence for the driver as trying to protect himself.
21:20OK, and what happened there?
21:22Occasionally, we get such large ones that come up into the net with such force that they'll actually blow a hole right through it.
21:30Forty years ago, catfish farmers in the south imported a fish from China to clean up waste from the breeding ponds.
21:37Before long, some escaped into the wild and began spreading north through the Mississippi River system.
21:44Like snakeheads today, they weren't an obvious problem at first.
21:49Then, almost overnight, they became a plague.
21:52Just absolutely full of fish down here.
21:58Nice, flat, calm surface, but there's loads of them down there.
22:02Quite a fish soup, in fact.
22:06It's not until Greg accelerates, though, that the show begins.
22:13These are silver carp.
22:15And at up to 40 pounds, they're a serious danger to anyone in an open boat.
22:20Quite literally, they've smashed people's ribs and knocked people overboard.
22:31Seeing these as dots on the sonar is one thing, but just the noise of our motor provokes this mass escape response.
22:42There's up to 13 tons of these fish for every mile in the river.
22:46And that's hundreds of miles. They go all the way down to the mouth of the Mississippi.
22:52Just ten years ago, the carp were virtually unknown here.
22:56Now, they've all but taken over.
23:03Ah!
23:04Absolutely stiff with fish.
23:11There we go. Look at this. There's more silver than green in the water there.
23:17Actually feel the boat being buffeted as they bang into it.
23:20Oops!
23:36So who needs a rod? These things just jump into the boat.
23:39The real key to the success of this fish is in here.
23:42So there's the red of the gill filaments and then in front of that, that is basically a filter.
23:48And nothing really gets through that.
23:50That filters down to objects the size of four microns.
23:54That's, you know, a speck of dust.
23:56It's a bit like us feeding every time we breathe, basically.
23:59So that's why these things are putting on the weight.
24:00And by just removing everything from the water, they're leaving nothing for the native species.
24:04Like buffalo, which are also filter feeders, but they're just not as good at it as these chaps are.
24:09So those native species, they're gradually losing weight.
24:12And, you know, if they get too thin, then they're not able to breed.
24:15And that's just why these things are taking over.
24:20As they put the squeeze on native fishes, the carp are also knocking out an entire fishing industry.
24:26If a filter feeder can cause such damage, then what about a hardcore predator?
24:32Are snakeheads, like these silver carp, also destined to explode out of control?
24:39My guess is we're going to see some real problems arise in the next several years
24:44from snakeheads both competing with and preying upon our native fishes.
24:49The fish had the potential to absolutely take over.
24:52Between them, the bullseye and northern snakeheads have what it takes to overrun most of North America.
24:59If they do, then fisheries worth over $30 billion to the economy could take a massive hit.
25:07And it doesn't end here.
25:09A third, much larger member of the gang has been turning up sporadically from Maine down to Arkansas.
25:15The giant snakehead is a beast that can weigh as much as a five-year-old child.
25:22And it comes with a nasty reputation.
25:25I've heard stories of the giant snakehead attacking humans
25:30and even a case of one individual being killed by a giant snakehead.
25:35To track down this would-be invader and find out if it really is as dangerous as people say,
25:40I must travel to the far side of the world.
25:45I'm in Thailand and I waste no time heading up country.
25:50My destination is a place called Khao Lem, a remote dam on the upper reaches of the river Kwai, close to the Burmese border.
25:58This is prime snakehead habitat and I've come here in the middle of the monsoon, just when the fish are at their most aggressive.
26:09It's their breeding season and they're said to attack anything that comes close to their fry, including people.
26:18Yet the giant snakehead is also a popular food fish.
26:22Many people here farm them to sell.
26:24Snakehead really do lend themselves to this type of business, this type of culture.
26:32They are really, really tolerant to low oxygen levels in the water.
26:35And you can see they're coming up to the air, they're blowing out the spent air and taking another gulp.
26:41And also they look very pretty. They look very pretty when they're small.
26:44And you can absolutely understand why people will want to have those in their aquarium in Florida, for example.
26:48Even in these cramped conditions, the giant snakehead fry are thriving.
26:55By one month they've doubled in size and are growing ever more hungry for flesh.
27:01Breakfast is pulped fish.
27:04But this ravenous swarm has never been hand fed.
27:07So it's going to be a test of nerve for them, as well as for me.
27:13I've watched snakeheads not much bigger than these rip into finger-sized fish.
27:20There's one or two pecking. There's one or two...
27:22Right up to late juvenile stage, these snakeheads school and feed together.
27:41The stories I've read of voracious packs are starting to make sense.
27:45I've come to Thailand to find out if the giant snakehead really does attack people.
27:55And within a day of arriving here, I track down a man bearing the scars of a bloody encounter.
28:01All the reports of snakehead attacks on humans concern just one species.
28:19The giant snakehead.
28:21Like many people here, Sombat lives by the water and often encounters these aggressive fish.
28:26What happened was that he needed to swim underneath his raft to replace some of the bamboo.
28:33It gets a bit rotten.
28:35It's as he's fixing his raft that Sombat senses something behind him.
28:42With nowhere to hide, he's face to face with a giant snakehead.
28:47It actually put its fins out, a bit like an elephant, when an elephant is threatening to charge.
28:56Before Sombat can move, the fish has savaged his foot.
29:02It was actually bleeding so bad that he went to the hospital.
29:06The people there didn't believe that it was a fish that was responsible.
29:09They thought it was a dog and actually ended up giving him rabies jab.
29:12So, I mean, what we've got here is a very dramatic example of what appears to be a completely unprovoked attack.
29:18Sombat's story proves to me that a giant snakehead will attack something far bigger than itself.
29:28It seems to be a fish that really does punch well above its weight.
29:32Like its cousin the bullseye, the giant snakehead is an ambush predator that favours areas with plenty of cover.
29:52For several hours I worked the banks and shallow bays of the dam, without getting so much as a nibble.
29:57Fishing for snakeheads here is a world away from Florida, where the hits came thick and fast.
30:05With Sombat's story still fresh in my mind, I send a lure towards an abandoned raft.
30:10Oh, yes!
30:31Whee!
30:33A giant snakehead.
30:35Whoa!
30:37This fish is only one-tenth the size of a full-grown adult, but it's certainly got some attitude.
30:44Very toothy, I wonder if I can just get my hand in there.
30:47Its snake-like appearance has led to the belief in some places that this fish has a poisonous bite.
30:54Fortunately, this simply isn't true.
30:56That is, uh, yeah, that is a bit of a toothy critter.
31:01Although it's got the fierce reputation, quite a beautiful fish really.
31:05I've hand-fed the carnivorous fry, and been snapped at by a Bolshe juvenile.
31:20But 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.
31:29To find this snakehead guru, I travel deeper into Khao Lem's muddy backwaters.
31:35Kunda is the master hunter.
31:41Over the past 20 years, he's gained an unrivalled knowledge of his quarry.
31:46Forget nets or rods.
31:49For Da, catching a giant snakehead is more like armed combat.
31:53And his weapon of choice is the spear gun.
31:57The problem with this spear gun is that it takes a long time to reload.
32:01So Kunda's actually invented his own rapid reload spear, which is much simpler but much more effective.
32:10The key feature of Da's homemade gun is that he can rearm it quickly.
32:15As he explains, this is crucial when you're hunting a fish that defends in pairs.
32:19Unusually for a fish, snakeheads fiercely guard their young.
32:29But Da's own close-quarter observations add a further twist to the story.
32:36While the father corrals the cluster of fry, the mother patrols at a distance,
32:41primed to attack anything that looks like a threat to her offspring.
32:45What's interesting is that this is coming from somebody who is actually observing these creatures closer than any scientist.
32:53And the reason for that is not only his livelihood, but possibly his life depends on it.
33:02Da knows that if he shoots one snakehead, he still has to watch his back.
33:07Hunting for these aggressive animals in murky water is fraught with danger.
33:15And as I'm about to discover, these fish don't hesitate to fight back.
33:20Storys of people being mauled by snakeheads are not uncommon round here.
33:38But now I've picked up a more disturbing lead.
33:41I cross to the far side of Kowlem Dam, just 12 miles from Burma.
33:47People sometimes slip across the border to fish here for a day or two,
33:51then melt back into the jungle with their catch.
33:56I'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.
34:02Thai fisherman Khun Lang vividly recalls the Burmese couple that came here three years ago to hunt snakeheads.
34:12I'm a little teacher.
34:13I'm an old girl.
34:14I was just like, I had to shoot in the bush because I was my man's neck and she was a little girl.
34:19I saw my dog.
34:20I saw my dad with my dog.
34:21But he was just like, that guy's a little girl and wanted to get the knelt.
34:23I saw my dog in the rain.
34:24I was like, I didn't want you.
34:25I didn't know what I was like.
34:26But I was shooting.
34:27I wasn't looking for the hunt.
34:28This is a Easter feeding, I saw my dog in his back.
34:31I saw a lamb in his neck and a truck.
34:33So what actually happened was that the fisherman was under the water with his spear gun,
34:38shot the snakehead head on.
34:40on and actually scored a direct hit the fish then just kept on coming and shoved the the rear end
34:48of the metal spear through the fisherman's mask and into his face
34:56the fish was just panicking so much it was thrashing fish doesn't have a reverse gear
35:00it just kept flapping apparently the spear actually came out the back of the man's head
35:10the wife was still sitting in the boat dived into the water and and found found the fisherman dead
35:25well i actually came here doubting these stories you know doubting that this
35:28fish has actually been responsible for any fatalities and here we have
35:33a very graphic case of a snake causing a human fatality
35:40i've deliberately timed my trip here to coincide with the giant snakehead's breeding season
35:50this is when the fish are at their most aggressive as they guard their young against all comers
35:58a fleeting ripple shows me where the fry have just surfaced to gulp air
36:04by dropping my lure right on top of them i'm trying to provoke a strike from one of the parents
36:11but it seems that these canny adults know all about fishing lures
36:16the only snakehead that has a go is a 10-inch juvenile
36:23small snakehead
36:31with the rain beating down it soon becomes impossible to spot the fry as they surface
36:36let alone get the attention of the parents
36:41i'm trying to create a disturbance on the surface to wind the fish up when the water's calm you've got no
36:47competition it's the only thing making a noise when you've got rain falling on the water the signal's
36:52very confused you've got to land that bait much closer to the fish to get them to notice it
36:57the weather isn't about to let up but worse than this and for reasons that aren't made clear i've just
37:05been told that i'm not allowed to fish here anymore so if i'm ever going to get face to face with this
37:11monster i'm going to have to pack away my rods and do it another way
37:19i return to kundar the master hunter
37:28my plan is to dive with him as he goes after the giant snakehead with nothing more than a pair of old
37:34goggles and a homemade spear gun in these choppy conditions i'm straining to spot the surfacing fry
37:42yet kundar's predatory eye picks out the slight ripple that gives them away
37:47ready and with our target pinpointed the hunt can begin
37:58i'm getting a bit nervous it is totally another world down there
38:04by diving with a small camera i hope to capture the entire drama as it unfolds
38:13everything has to happen on a single breath so before going under we edge as close as we can to
38:19our target
38:25and when dar suddenly slips in and vanishes without trace he leaves me scrambling to catch up
38:36bad weather has churned the water into a murky soup
38:46and with dar gone i feel a stab of panic i could easily wind up getting harpooned by mistake
38:54the poor visibility is even hampering dar it's murky down there it's murky
39:09i'm having second thoughts about this i'm starting to feel like human bait
39:14but it's too late to pull out now dar is a man on a mission
39:20a man on a mission
39:29when the fry break the surface barely a boat length away we launch again
39:34but our quarry has vanished into the murk leaving dar to hunt on instinct
39:54a man on a mission
40:11dar loads i can sense we're close
40:17suddenly we're in the heart of the swarm
40:19i think we've got one i'm gonna keep out of the way i'm gonna keep out of the way
40:42with a single well-aimed shot dar has caught a giant snake head
40:49a man on a boat
40:51sitting in a boat
40:53dangling a line over the edge believe me is easy in comparison
40:58despite taking a direct hit the fish simply seems to shrug it off
41:06having listened to accounts of its aggressive behavior
41:10and seen for myself the scars on sombat's foot
41:14i'm well aware of what this river monster is capable of
41:19so there we go
41:22but that wonderful black and white coloration that is very much something that the fry will identify with
41:26bright color it's calling to them
41:31i expected this fish to end up as dinner
41:33yet in a strange twist of fate it's almost unharmed
41:37dar's spear has pierced the muscle of its back but missed its vital organs
41:41we're actually going to release this fish this is catch and release spear fishing
41:48i'm very nice that this is going to go back and it is going to recover
41:52i'm just hoping it doesn't double back and have a go at me as a
41:55last farewell she's actually free now she can go if she wants
41:59there she goes well it's actually gone gone back into the lake to be reunited with the young so
42:11really good to see you don't expect to see that from a fish caught on a spear
42:14of all the encounters i've had with dangerous fish this had to be one of the most unnerving
42:26down in that murky water i could hardly see anything i didn't know if i was going to be
42:29attacked by the fish or maybe even end up myself on the end of kundar's spear
42:35but over the course of my journey a clearer picture of the snakehead has emerged the two
42:40species that have reached america pose no direct threat to humans although in the eyes of many
42:46their presence is an unfolding environmental disaster but in southeast asia i have found a
42:52fish that does deserve to be called a monster the word made flesh this animal is already knocking on
42:59america's door if the giant snakehead ever gains a foothold in america then you really would have to
43:05think twice about getting in the water want more of the world's wildest strangest and most terrifying
43:19freshwater horrors visit our website at animalplanet.com rivermonsters