Skip to playerSkip to main contentSkip to footer
dmdmdtvs
  • 2 months ago
River.Monsters.S02E01.Death.Ray
Transcript
00:00I'm Jeremy Wade, biologist and extreme angler.
00:17From the depths of the Amazon to the suburbs of Berlin, I've been busy tracking down the
00:23world's most frightening freshwater fish.
00:28Uncovering the truth about their evil reputations.
00:31It's taking line, it's taking line.
00:34A tangled with man-eating catfish.
00:38This is the one that goes after people as well.
00:41Swam with piranhas and grappled with ferocious garb.
00:48My next assignment is a beast of terrifying power.
00:51It's spinning the boat, it's spinning the boat, it's taking the boat down.
00:54Some people say this is the world's biggest freshwater fish.
00:59If my line jams, it could pull me in.
01:04This is a monster that can stab you with an eight-inch bayonet.
01:10Its flesh-dissolving venom has no known antidote.
01:16Catching this fish will test me to the limit, but my aim isn't simply to measure one of
01:21these giants.
01:22I also want to know where it lives and how dangerous it really is.
01:27I have a feeling this could be the toughest challenge yet.
01:31Here it comes, here it comes.
01:32I think we're going to need a bigger boat.
01:34In just the past few years, a strange and possibly deadly creature has come out of the shadows.
01:56I've read dramatic accounts of epic six-hour battles and heard that this predator can inflict horrendous wounds.
02:10Some people are even claiming that this little-known beast is the world's biggest freshwater fish.
02:19The name of this monster is Haimantura chowpraya, the giant freshwater stingray.
02:26Shaped like a UFO, this Southeast Asian giant is said to grow to 16 feet long and 7 feet across.
02:35Some sources put its weight at over 1,300 pounds.
02:41Even this basic information is very hard to verify.
02:45It all sounds incredibly impressive, but how much of this stuff can I really believe?
02:50It seems that no one knows how big this thing actually grows or why.
02:56I've encountered river stingrays before, a thousand miles up the Amazon.
03:02Here they're known as wish-you-were-dead fish because of their agonizingly painful sting.
03:08But these stingrays are relatively small. The thought of a 16-footer sends a real shiver down my spine.
03:20These are some examples of the wounds caused by marine stingrays.
03:25And typically what you're talking about is a very deep puncture wound,
03:30normally to the foot or the lower leg, but sometimes higher up.
03:34And the people generally talk about this as being extremely painful.
03:39And as well as the actual immediate wound, you have this very long-lasting effect of tissue necrosis.
03:45I mean, it's just a very painful, messy wound.
03:51This is the barb from a stingray, actually quite a small one, but you get the general idea.
03:55The barb sits on top of the tail, and what it does, it whips it over its back, a bit like a scorpion.
04:00Or it can also whip it round to either side.
04:02And, you know, looking at this, you can just see just how wickedly sharp that point is.
04:08The second thing is, you've got these grooves running underneath.
04:14And that is for delivering the venom from the gland at the base here,
04:19but also for making it a more efficient stabbing weapon.
04:21You'll see exactly the same thing on a bayonet or a combat knife.
04:24And the third thing, looking closely at this, you can see these serrations along the edge here.
04:30And what that does, it works on the same principle as an arrowhead.
04:33It goes in very cleanly, but, you know, it's going to make a real mess when you pull it out.
04:41Imagine being stabbed by a large steak knife.
04:44Only this one's smeared with poison, and it really shreds your flesh when it comes out.
04:53I've heard that the giant freshwater stingray has a barb that is eight inches long,
04:58which is a really sobering thought.
05:00I'm quite curious to have a look at one of those, hopefully not too close,
05:03and it's certainly not something I want to bring back as a souvenir in my leg.
05:09My quest for the giant freshwater stingray takes me to Southeast Asia.
05:14First, to Thailand's capital, Bangkok.
05:18Surprisingly, this huge and potentially lethal monster lives right under our noses.
05:23Normally, when you're looking for underwater monsters, you're thinking hundreds of miles upriver,
05:28in the middle of remote wilderness, but not this time.
05:31I'm literally taking a short cab ride from the airport,
05:33and I'm slap-bang in the middle of Bangkok and just a few miles away from the sea.
05:39Even more incredibly, scientists only discovered the giant freshwater stingray a mere 20 years ago.
05:46Its species name, Chao Phraya, comes from this very river, running through the heart of Bangkok.
05:56And yet, this monster in our midst is still cloaked in mystery.
06:02I want to find out how big it really gets.
06:06And I also want to know how far this animal travels inland.
06:09In most people's eyes, stingrays are sea creatures, not river fish.
06:20Barely an hour's drive from the capital, I track down a story that puts me on edge.
06:26And reminds me that the venom of this creature has no known antidote.
06:30Four months ago, local fisherman Pung San was surprised to hook one of these rarely seen giants.
06:43For people here, such a huge fish is a potentially lucrative catch.
06:51What happened, the stingray came to the side of the river and then wouldn't come any further, actually.
06:56Basically got buried in the mud. So what he had to do was actually get in the water.
07:01And it was about chest deep and then completely go underwater with a rope.
07:05Feed the rope through the spiracles, the water intake of the stingray, not the rope.
07:11He'd managed to pull it off the bottom and it was actually as it rose in the water that he then felt this pain.
07:16The wound was actually just numb to start with.
07:27And then just this incredible pain and in fact so painful that he collapsed from the intensity of the pain and actually had to crawl the remaining distance to the house.
07:39This was something that wasn't going to go away on its own. It did need urgent medical treatment.
07:47As he races for help, Pung San continues to bleed heavily and almost passes out with pain.
07:56With no antidote available, his chances of survival are anyone's guess.
07:59By the time he arrives for treatment, his condition is deteriorating fast.
08:08What happens at the medical centre?
08:12His heart rate spikes alarmingly.
08:15And despite anaesthetic, he remains doubled up in agony.
08:17The wound, in fact, is no more than a glancing blow.
08:22And yet the pain proves so intense that Pung San is unable to work for the next four weeks.
08:30He still has the very barb that impaled him.
08:34Can I have a look at that?
08:35Well, seeing that really does concentrate the mind, an absolutely vicious point on that and these horrible barbs down the side.
08:49And I think, you know, this is a fish I've got to really treat with some respect.
08:55Evidently, even a quick jab from this fish can land you in serious trouble.
09:01Whatever it contains, the venom seems every bit as potent as in marine stingrays.
09:08OK, so that actually went in about getting off of three inches there, but it was at an oblique angle.
09:15And so although he probably doesn't feel very lucky to have had this experience,
09:19but if that had gone in straight and that had punctured the femoral artery, you know, that could have killed him.
09:23Tragically, Steve Irwin, the crocodile hunter, was not so lucky.
09:32He was struck clean through the heart and died.
09:36While this freak accident happened way out at sea, the chilling fact about the stingray I'm looking for is that it swims up rivers into some of the most densely populated parts of Southeast Asia.
09:47And it's in these crowded waterways that I'm about to try and meet this monster face to face.
09:54I'm in Thailand in search of the giant freshwater stingray, a rarely seen monster that lives in the midst of millions of people.
10:08I've already met a man who's been stung by this beast and who lived to tell the tale.
10:14Now I'm about to try and catch one for myself.
10:18I head to a town called Samut Songkram, 50 miles west of Bangkok and just a few miles inland.
10:25This tidal stretch of river harbours some of the largest freshwater stingrays ever caught.
10:31This fish, the giant stingray, was only described by scientists just 20 years ago, but presumably the people on these rivers have known about it probably for centuries.
10:44The problem the scientists had was just getting their hands on enough specimens to study.
10:48And what this means is that either it's a very, very rare animal or it's just very, very hard to get one out of the river.
10:55To try and catch one of these elusive giants, I'm teaming up with an experienced fishing crew led by stingray enthusiast, Boye.
11:08Live bait is essential.
11:10Its muscle movements will give off the electrical signals that stingrays use to detect their prey.
11:19These animals are active hunters prowling over the riverbed in search of a meal.
11:25Their faces are packed with sophisticated sensors that penetrate the mud and murk.
11:33Potentially eight times my size, this fish is in a different league from anything I've tackled before.
11:40It calls for the heaviest gear.
11:44I'm using ultra-strong braided line with 30 yards of thick nylon monofilament at the business end.
11:50To take some of the strain, I'll be wearing a harness.
11:54Good news for my arms, but if the line digs in and jams, I could be pulled in.
11:59You know, normally what would happen, the fish can't take line and the line will break.
12:02But when you're using a 160-pound line, that line isn't going to break.
12:05I'm going to go over the side or the boat's going to flip.
12:06After Pung San's account, I'm anxious to avoid this nightmare scenario.
12:13If that's dug in for some reason, I've got to have plan B.
12:20I'm going to be strapped to that, I'm going to have a harness locked into that.
12:23So what I'm going to do, I'm going to have a knife in my pocket.
12:25If I'm going over the edge, the knife comes out and just cut that line.
12:28You know, the fish can go, I don't care about the fish, it's better than drowning.
12:34With everything prepped, we head for the chosen spot.
12:38A deep pocket in the riverbed they call Area 51.
12:43Because, as they say round here, it's crawling with aliens.
12:47My battle boat is rigged with four big game rods, including my own Marlin class outfit that I've brought for the occasion.
12:58If a line goes, I'm ready to hunker down, strap in and lock horns.
13:06To improve the odds, boys put out a dozen or so extra lines tied to floats.
13:11This isn't regarded as true sport fishing, but my mission here isn't to beat my chest or win prizes.
13:18I simply want to see one of these incredible animals in the flesh.
13:25And within minutes, there's something big mauling our baits.
13:30That didn't run off with a bait, but there's definitely been a stingray on that.
13:33Something's come along and actually crushed that there, but then instead of taking the bait, it's actually spat it out.
13:38Stingrays have crushing mouthparts that leave an unmistakable imprint.
13:44Disappointing in one sense, but also good news. I mean, I'm in the right place. They are definitely down there.
13:56The next bite's a clean take, and we're game on.
13:59As I race to clip in, something powerful rips out several feet of line, then decides to tow us upriver.
14:08It's spinning the boat. It's spinning the boat. It's taking the boat down.
14:12I think we're going to need a bigger boat.
14:13The venom of the giant freshwater stingray is most like that of which other killer?
14:23Is it A. Rattlesnake, B. Black Widow, or C. Box Jellyfish?
14:30The venom of the giant freshwater stingray is most like that of which other killer?
14:37The answer's A. As in rattlesnakes, the stingray's venom contains a potent enzyme that attacks your flesh.
14:44I'm on a mission to get face to face with a giant freshwater stingray.
14:5450 miles from Thailand's capital, Bangkok, I've finally got a monster on the end of my line.
15:00But I'm up against a beast as big as a bear.
15:03It's spinning the boat. It's taking the boat down.
15:05I've never fought a fish like this before.
15:07Oh, yeah, that is, oh, look at that rod. That rod is now springing back slowly.
15:19This line shouldn't go. The rod's always a bit of an unknown quantity.
15:23It's my own Marlin class outfit taking the strain.
15:28I just have visions of this rod suddenly shattering. I'm getting a face full of fiberglass and carbon fiber.
15:34That's pulling down, that's pulling down. There is quite a real possibility of this thing pulling me in.
15:41I feel like I'm trying to pull the plug out of the river.
15:45All I can do is dig in and keep the pressure on.
15:49After 30 exhausting minutes, I haven't gained an inch.
15:54This isn't like any fishing I've ever experienced, and I start to wonder if I can cope.
16:00Most fish, it's all over in five, ten minutes, half an hour at the extreme.
16:15In fresh water, something like this is just unheard of.
16:19With neither of us willing to give in, it becomes a war of attrition.
16:26Give or take the odd foot of line, we're in total deadlock.
16:31I've just been told it's one hour, five minutes so far.
16:34We're in about round eight now.
16:40Oh, look at that, look at that, look at that.
16:41It's taking line, it's taking line far.
16:43This thing does not like being bullied.
16:44I just decided I was going to, you know, show it who's boss.
16:47And the fish is saying, no, no, you're not the boss.
16:52Oh, that's about half an hour's worth of work has just gone.
16:57I've just gained about three foot of line and it's just taken that.
17:01But sometimes when it does that, the fish then takes a bit of a breather.
17:05I can maybe capitalise.
17:07For another 40 minutes, we slug it out in a gruelling type of war.
17:12Right, I've got the initiative.
17:15Then, after almost two hours, a breakthrough.
17:19I think it's gone off the bottom, there was a sudden, a sudden sort of break of suction.
17:25It does feel like it, it's actually, yeah, that's definitely coming my way a lot faster than it has done at any time until now.
17:32My arms are cramping up and I'm close to breaking point.
17:37But I've finally got the measure of this gigantic fish.
17:40It's about a metre and a half below the surface.
17:42Here it comes, here it comes.
17:43I'm just seconds away from seeing what must surely be one of the world's greatest river monsters.
17:51Right, look at that. That is, the rod went, the rod went.
18:13As you saw the fish, we, you know, we nearly, nearly had it in the net.
18:17But an almighty bang.
18:22My gear was built to deal with sharks and marlin.
18:27Whatever broke this rod could have weighed as much as 700 pounds.
18:32I thought it was my shoulder going to the net, but it was actually the rod.
18:35Not too long.
18:36The rod's too long, yeah.
18:38To the net.
18:40Oh dear, that was so close. The fish nearly came in.
18:42We saw it, it was off off, you know, eventually after two hours, something, it was off the bottom.
18:45We were trying to get the net round it.
18:49The rod went and the fish escaped. It wasn't quite in the net.
18:54And to make matters worse, the fighters left me with a torn bicep.
18:59All that suffering.
19:01I saw the fish and it's...
19:04Oh, all that for nothing.
19:07All that.
19:08It's score one to the stingray, but my close encounter with this giant has got me wondering.
19:21Why does this creature grow so huge?
19:25Perhaps it's no coincidence that the rivers here are also home to another gigantic fish.
19:30Growing up to nine feet long and weighing over 600 pounds, the Mekong giant catfish is a class A monster.
19:44Conceivably, the stingrays' immense size could be a defence strategy.
19:48To get a close-up look at a giant Mekong, I've come to a stocked fishing leaf.
20:06These animals are all but extinct in the wild.
20:08Yeah, this is a strong fish.
20:14Got that line great against there.
20:17This one's giving me the run around.
20:20Huge tail, huge tail on that.
20:23It is probably just a small one.
20:27Very powerful, sort of throbbing fight.
20:30You can almost feel the beats of the tail.
20:44That's a Mekong catfish.
20:46My catch is only one-tenth the size of what they can reach.
20:50Nonetheless, I can see it's no ordinary catfish.
20:53Being a catfish, it's got no scales.
20:55But what's interesting as well, although it's a catfish, it hasn't got feelers, it hasn't got barbels.
21:03And the other thing that's actually interesting here is there's no teeth in there.
21:07There's not even anything approaching one of these raspy pads in there.
21:11Although this does grow very big, well over 600 pounds, it's not really a predator.
21:16This thing's a vegetarian, it's a gentle giant.
21:18If I'm looking down from here, I can't see any eyes.
21:20The eyes are actually on the underside of the head there, very close to the corner of the mouth.
21:25And that's something that just points to it being a bottom feeder, just sort of rooting around vegetable matter on the bottom.
21:31So this gummy oddball isn't a killer.
21:35Which leaves me still wondering why the stingrays here have evolved into such giants.
21:42I've yet to see a Chow Prya stingray, dead or alive.
21:46But with Thailand's biggest fish market just down the road, I'm back on the hunt.
21:50This is a vast clearing house for everything that comes out of the sea for hundreds of miles around.
21:59Stingrays first evolved in the oceans, and it could be that the giant freshwater stingray occurs in the sea as well as rivers.
22:07So we have got rays here. I'm finding some rays. That's not the one I'm after.
22:17This is an eagle ray of sorts. Yet another species of ray.
22:22These are all marine species, but the thing that this is bringing home, there's a huge diversity of ray species, lots of variations on the theme.
22:30Stingrays are clearly one of nature's more successful designs.
22:35But their origins, some 200 million years ago, may come as a surprise.
22:41Quick lesson in evolution here. Here's a shark.
22:45And that is the classic shark mouth, classic shark teeth, shark tail.
22:51Come to this fish here. Shark tail. Shark dorsal fin.
22:55There's something very different going on at the front end of the fish. It's flattening, it's becoming squashed.
23:01Let's flip it over. And suddenly we've got a very different type of mouth there.
23:05Crushing plates, but very different. Gills here on the bottom of the body.
23:09Come to this fish here. And here we have. Same mouth, same gills.
23:15Flip it over. And there we have it. A ray is basically a flattened shark with this long tail.
23:27This flattened body plan, with the eyes and water intakes on top, is an adaptation for life on the ocean floor.
23:34Whatever its origins, the monster I'm after continues to elude me.
23:42After three hours of trawling, I haven't found a single specimen.
23:49Back at Area 51, our lines are set, and I'm hoping my luck's about to change.
23:54As we wait for a bite, Boy tells me an unnerving story.
24:00The heart here, make my eyes just come, bum, bum, bum, bum, right at the square.
24:05And that's the scar of it now, is it? Yeah, just here, right.
24:08I've just been asking Boy about stingray wounds, this kind of thing,
24:12and he told me a story about how a small one just scratched him on the finger,
24:16and he thought, that's going to be fine.
24:1715 minutes later, the entire left side of his body's gone numb, the heart is pounding away.
24:24He was actually thinking, blimey, this could be like a snake bite, you know, this could be fatal,
24:27but actually, after three hours, it passed, and I'm just thinking, yeah,
24:32you've just got to obviously be so careful when handling these things.
24:38With plenty of floats out, it's not long before I'm back in the ring.
24:42This time, I've learnt my lesson, and switched to a shorter rod.
24:48It's my arm that worries me. I'm not sure it'll take another 12 rounds.
25:03To my relief, it's barely 20 minutes before this one starts to surface.
25:08All right, fish is coming up, fish is coming up.
25:11OK. OK, you ready, boys?
25:17So we've got the fish here in the net.
25:22I've finally caught one, my first Chow Phraya stingray.
25:26I keep well clear, though.
25:29Until its sting is strapped up, this fish is still a loaded gun.
25:39So this is just binding the barb, which sits in a bit of a groove, and that is binding the barb to the tail.
25:46Once it's disarmed, we head for the bank.
25:50Most of the body of the fish is actually in the water.
25:53I haven't really properly seen this fish.
25:55I'm really looking forward now to getting it in and having a proper look at this animal.
25:59I've finally caught a giant freshwater stingray, and I'm about to see this animal in the flesh for the first time.
26:14This species is said to top 1,300 pounds.
26:19Yet, as I now discover, this is only half the story.
26:23You've got a male. This one's a male.
26:26The entire team is on hand to help measure and weigh the fish.
26:30So this one's about four and a half foot across.
26:34It's not particularly big as they go, but it is very big for a male.
26:36Its sex explains why this one came up so fast.
26:40Astonishingly, females can be up to eight times bigger than this full-grown male.
26:49We've weighed it accurately. It's quite a hard thing to do.
26:52We've done it very quickly. 175 pounds, around 80 kilos.
26:56For sheer weight, this is one of the largest fish I've ever caught.
27:01And yet, incredible as it sounds, it's a mere minnow.
27:07It's been out of the water long enough now, I think. Here we go.
27:09Definitely time to get it back in the water.
27:11This is an animal that completely warps your normal sense of scale.
27:16So, is it coming under here? Yeah.
27:18Despite catching a good-sized male, I know that my quest is far from over.
27:29Since it was first scientifically described, there have been occasional reports of large Chow Prya stingrays
27:35from far inland.
27:38I'm leaving the tidal waterways around Bangkok and heading up-country.
27:44Could this be where I'll finally find my monster?
27:50150 miles north, at a town called Nakhonsawan, I meet a fisherman with a tantalising tail.
27:57And this was, what, just here in Nakhonsawan?
28:10Right, this is interesting. This is a recent capture. This was only a few months ago.
28:15I'm imagining that that wasn't easy to get out. How long to get this out of the river?
28:18Clearly a very big fish, this. Apparently 320 kilos, which converts to something like 700 pounds.
28:34Seriously large fish. And the story is, it took ten people in two boats four hours to get it in.
28:40And it actually dragged the boat well over a mile during that time.
28:44So I think a bit of an epic battle and a big fish.
28:48Looking at the man's tackle, I'm amazed he got it in at all.
28:52That's a spade-end look.
28:55Ah, we got a video clip someone took. This is obviously big local news, there's people all around.
29:00I'm no stranger to fishermen's yarns, but the figure of around 700 pounds does ring true.
29:07This fish was cut up and weighed accurately for market.
29:11It seems they only kept one piece of it.
29:14Is this from the same fish?
29:17Yeah, same fish.
29:20Ooh, right, OK.
29:22Even with its tip broken off, this barb is by far the biggest I've seen.
29:26If there are giant stingrays here, then how much further upriver do they go?
29:35I'm starting to wonder, could these creatures have penetrated deep into the river systems,
29:41just like their distant Amazon cousins?
29:48Getting on for 3,000 miles long, the mighty Mekong is Southeast Asia's greatest river.
29:54Until just the last 150 years, its upper reaches remained largely cut off from the outside world.
30:06Even today, it still feels like a land of secrets.
30:11If anyone can help me unlock them, it's the fishermen who make their living along its banks.
30:16I'm now 1,000 miles upriver, and I wonder if anyone here will know about the creature I'm looking for.
30:25I wonder if you, fishing here, see any cabin?
30:29Yes, yes.
30:30Yes, yes, yes.
30:31Yes, yes.
30:32Yes, yes.
30:33Yes, yes.
30:34Yes, yes.
30:35Yes, yes.
30:36The big-sized cabin, or these were small fish?
30:38Any really big ones?
30:39Yes, yes.
30:40Yes, yes.
30:41Yes, yes.
30:42Yes, yes.
30:43Yes, yes.
30:44Yes, yes.
30:45Yes, yes.
30:46Yes, yes.
30:47Yes, yes.
30:48Yes, yes.
30:49Yes, yes.
30:50Yes, yes, yes.
30:51What happened there was that the stingray got wrapped up in the net, and this big one just broke its way through.
30:58It sounds promising, but I want a positive ID.
31:01Will they recognize the fish from Nakhon Sawan?
31:04Same fish?
31:05Same fish?
31:20So the same fish as was here?
31:23Right, this is very interesting.
31:28So I've shown the picture of the ray that was caught at Nakhon Sawan, and not only is it the same species, it was also about the same size.
31:36And this was a big animal here, so that's a very, very encouraging bit of information, and it does bode well.
31:42You know, I'm going to be putting a bait in water where these things are.
31:45With a confirmed eyewitness account, I'm eager to take a look for myself.
31:52I'm at a place called Nongkai, right on the border with Laos.
31:5725 years ago I was actually in this very same bit of river, a little bit upstream in fact, and I was arrested by the police on suspicion of spying.
32:06And that cut short my entire trip, end of fishing, end of everything.
32:13They locked me up for the night and confiscated all my photos.
32:20This time round I'm using some sophisticated sonar equipment to scan the riverbed.
32:24What I'm doing now, I'm looking down into the water, I've got the sonar here, I've got about 20 foot of water.
32:30And I'm trying to get a sort of a mental picture of the underwater geography as my first step in looking for the stingrays.
32:37I've actually got fish symbols straight away, but they're in the middle of the water, they're unlikely to be stingrays.
32:44Although, if there's something close to the bottom, it could be a ray.
32:48I do think that they don't spend all the time necessarily just stuck right down.
32:53I think sometimes they do actually rise off maybe three or four feet and glide away.
32:58I'm convinced there are giant stingrays down here.
33:01But before I can unpack my rod, there's a nasty surprise.
33:05I'm in Thailand in search of the giant freshwater stingray.
33:20I fought and lost a real monster and landed a 175 pound male.
33:27Now, I've followed the trail of this obscure beast to the Thai-Laos border, a thousand miles up the Mekong.
33:38But before I can drop some baits into the river, the border police are on to me.
33:42One problem about here, it's the border between two countries, Thailand and Laos.
33:48I might have possibly strayed over the border.
33:51I'm just going to carry on acting normal.
33:54I suppose I have got some sort of fairly high-tech looking gear on the boat.
33:58I'm spying on the bottom of the river.
34:00OK, OK, go in.
34:05OK, OK.
34:08They probably don't see that many foreigners on the river here.
34:11Yeah, no, I've been waved into the side.
34:14I've been waved into the side.
34:16They are still obviously very, very keen on keeping an eye on people who do things by this border.
34:23Border areas are just very sensitive.
34:25That's another difficulty in trying to find this stingray here, the political situation.
34:31I avoid jail at least.
34:35But I've no choice but to cut short my mission and head back south.
34:41I'm starting to wonder if I'll ever see this elusive monster.
34:56With one last throw of the dice, I return to Area 51.
35:02I'm back at Samut Songkram, where I've already caught a full-grown male and come painfully close to landing a truly massive female.
35:21Let's get the rods on first.
35:24This time the stakes are even higher.
35:31A team of scientists has arrived from Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok,
35:35and they're counting on me to provide a live stingray for their research.
35:40So little is known about this animal that every catch offers a rare chance to learn more.
35:46The scientists will settle for any stingray I can catch.
35:55But for me, this is all about seeing a true giant.
35:59To hell with my sore arm. I'm just hoping we've hooked a big female.
36:05I haven't come this far to miss out.
36:08The thing is I get the illusion now that I'm actually bringing the fish to me,
36:15what's actually happening is I'm taking the boat to the fish.
36:19The fish isn't actually going anywhere at the moment.
36:21What do you think? Is it a fairly good fish?
36:24Oh, it's just actually come off the bottom.
36:28It's a worrying sign.
36:30Any monster worth its salt isn't going to give up so quickly.
36:36But then the stingray sinks back down, switches gear and takes off up river.
36:42The drag on this reel is a little bit like a handbrake on a car.
36:48And I've got that almost fully on.
36:51And the fish is basically just taking that line.
36:53As I watch at the moment, it's just going out one inch, two inches, three inches.
36:57After half an hour, my opponent stops for a breather.
37:01And I do the same.
37:08Then we're back for round two.
37:10And it's looking like a big fish.
37:12Seven of us on two boats are dragged half a mile against the tide.
37:18Right, it might surface, it might surface, it might surface over there.
37:21Now I've got the fish on the ropes.
37:23For the first time, it feels like I'm driving the bus.
37:30It's under the boat now. The fish is under the boat.
37:32I don't want to be lifting it while it's under the boat.
37:34I think it's coming this way again.
37:35Ah, it's just squashing my fingers. It's squashing my fingers.
37:39It's coming this way. It's going this way.
37:41It's going this way.
37:42See the water boiling there? I haven't seen the fish yet.
37:46It's near the surface. I've just actually seen the lead.
37:53It's up in the water.
37:55I think you've got it. I think you've got it.
38:01Back of the net.
38:03And this one looks pretty big, with an impressive ten inch sting.
38:07Head of the science team, Dr Ning, first secures the barb.
38:19She's asked me to help her collect some venom before we release the fish.
38:29It takes six people to heave this huge animal onto its front,
38:33into a position where we can measure it.
38:45OK, 180 centimetres the base of the tail.
38:47Head down, head down for a while, head down for a while.
39:01Go for the wingspan.
39:03One metre ninety-one, nearly two metres across, one ninety-one.
39:06At around six feet across, and roughly 400 pounds,
39:10this female stingray is by far the largest river fish I've ever seen.
39:16Little did I realise, she was about to produce the mother of all surprises.
39:35I'm in Thailand, on the trail of the giant freshwater stingray.
39:38It's squashing my fingers, it's squashing my fingers.
39:40And I've just landed the biggest fish of my life, a 400 odd pound female.
39:45But it seems we've got more than we bargained for.
39:50So we've just got the fish into where the scientific team is.
39:54And literally as we sort of pulled it in the net, it's actually given birth to two live young.
40:01Dr Ning uses ultrasound to see if there are any more babies still inside.
40:10This is the first time scientists have been able to collect data from the fully formed pups of these stingrays.
40:16On the ultrasound, there's the dark line, which is a cavity, and then there is a lighter shape inside it.
40:24So apparently that is the baby stingray still inside.
40:28For me, this fish is a real first, and not just for its size.
40:33I thought I had one fish on the end here. It looks like I've got one, two, three, and another one inside.
40:38Four fish, one hook.
40:40Like many sharks, stingrays give birth to live young.
40:45When they emerged, these babies had what looked like a small cap on their stings,
40:50presumably to prevent internal injury to the mother.
40:55However, these safety catches soon drop off.
40:58Within minutes, these twins are armed and ready to defend themselves.
41:02It has been known before for these fish to eject young when they're caught,
41:06and if they are not very well-developed, there's a worry that they're not going to survive.
41:09But the great thing about these fish here, these two, is that they are pretty well fully developed.
41:14They might be being born a little bit early, but I think they are definitely going to survive in this river,
41:18particularly with that two-inch prong on their tail. There's not a lot that's going to come near them.
41:28The scientists return to what I can only describe as the mothership.
41:32No-one really knows why this animal grows so huge.
41:39Could size, I wonder, be the key that allows a marine fish to invade rivers?
41:45Most sea fish die quickly in fresh water.
41:51It's the larger ones that are best able to cope with the stress and survive.
41:58There's one final sample to extract.
42:01OK, I'm all in.
42:02OK, I'm all in.
42:03Right, we're now going to take the toxin.
42:06OK, I'll help him.
42:09Collecting this thick, toxic mucus will help the scientists to discover in more detail how the venom works.
42:17It's time for me to bid farewell to this river monster.
42:23Though the jury's still out, if further research confirms that this fish does live exclusively in fresh water,
42:30then it probably is the biggest fresh water fish on the planet.
42:35What's certain is that this is the biggest and strangest catch of my life.
42:40Reunited with her babies, the mother stingray is set free,
42:45and she returns to the dark depths of her hidden world.
42:48So there she goes.
42:49I think she's probably going to go back to all her friends with all these stories of alien abduction.
42:54You know, they did experiments on me and all sorts.
42:56But personally, I feel like I'm the one who's seen the alien.
42:59I mean, just what an amazing, totally unfish-like fish.
43:03I mean, a real monstrous beast.
43:09What's more of the world's wildest, strangest, and most terrifying freshwater horrors?
43:20Visit our website at animalplanet.com slash rivermonsters.