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River.Monsters.S06E01.Amazon.Apocalypse
Transcript
00:00:00I'm Jeremy Wade, freshwater detective and angling explorer.
00:00:07And the place that holds endless mystery for me is the Amazon.
00:00:14Now I'm heading back again on the mission of a lifetime.
00:00:18Over the course of a whole year, I'll go further and deeper into more remote and unknown
00:00:25river monsters territory than ever before.
00:00:33It was hailed as the safest boat on the river.
00:00:37But when the Sobral Santos sank in the deepest part of the Amazon,
00:00:42hundreds went down with it in a catastrophe that dwarfs all my other investigations.
00:00:49Many passengers mysteriously disappeared without trace.
00:00:53At the very least, we're talking about 50 people, at the most as many as 300.
00:00:59The Amazon is the hunting ground for a terrifying line-up.
00:01:05Half of it's been taken.
00:01:06Of the world's most ferocious river monsters.
00:01:09Hit my arm.
00:01:12One way or another, I have to uncover what was behind the Amazon apocalypse.
00:01:19The Amazon rainforest covers tropical South America in a cloak of vegetation so immense
00:01:37it would smother more than two-thirds of the mainland U.S.
00:01:41And the scale of the mighty river that cuts through its heart is so vast
00:01:47it's almost impossible to comprehend.
00:01:51To put it in some kind of perspective, the amount of water flowing through the Amazon
00:01:56is greater than the flow of the Ganges, Congo, Yangtze, Mississippi, and Nile combined.
00:02:05These tropical waters are so prolific that the concentration of fish species is 10,000 times that of the ocean.
00:02:13These include some very real river monsters.
00:02:18When you think of all the aquatic predators patrolling these watery highways,
00:02:22it makes navigating these rivers a bit like driving a convertible through a lion enclosure.
00:02:32And if there's one sure way, the people living along its endless shores come into contact with the Amazon's river monsters.
00:02:39It's when a boat goes down.
00:02:41I learned Portuguese when I first came to the Amazon 20 years ago.
00:02:47It's an invaluable skill that's opened many doors for me.
00:02:51Just talking to the captain about how potentially dangerous it must be navigating these waters
00:02:56with all the traffic on them, particularly at night.
00:02:59And he said, yeah, absolutely.
00:03:00And accidents do happen.
00:03:02In fact, one of the crew members on this boat was involved in the salvage of a really horrendous accident that happened.
00:03:09It was a passenger and cargo boat called the Sobral Santos.
00:03:14And apparently, even though it happened quite a while ago, the memory of that event still haunts people to this day.
00:03:21Our boat mechanic, Manel, was only 21 when he was sent to a remote Brazilian town to help recover the wreck.
00:03:31It went down in a place called Obydos, which is the deepest and narrowest part of the main Amazon River.
00:03:37Manel was accompanying a team of divers on a massive barge fitted with a crane, which took five days to get to Obydos.
00:03:46He was assisting one of the divers.
00:03:54And what he said was that when the boat was raised, there were lots of bodies inside.
00:04:00And because those bodies had been there so long, there wasn't an awful lot left of them.
00:04:10Lots of them had all their flesh missing.
00:04:14He said the one thing that remained untouched generally was the hands, but everything else eaten away.
00:04:20There was a huge loss of life.
00:04:26No one agrees on how many people were travelling on the boat that night.
00:04:30Perhaps 430, maybe as many as 630.
00:04:35Yet only around 180 survived.
00:04:38The report from the official investigation has been lost, so nobody knows for sure what happened to all the passengers.
00:04:46Some were retrieved dead from the wreckage, others drowned and their bodies were recovered in the following days
00:04:53when they floated to the surface as a result of natural decomposition.
00:04:57But something doesn't add up.
00:05:00When you take into account the number of people travelling on the boat, there were still some passengers unaccounted for.
00:05:07At the very least, we're talking about 50 people.
00:05:10At the most, it could be as many as 300.
00:05:12Manel told me the boat didn't go down in the middle of the river.
00:05:17It was docked in a harbour.
00:05:19I think something happened under cover of darkness that stopped surviving passengers, making it to dry land.
00:05:26If this is the work of a river monster,
00:05:29then this catastrophe has a greater death toll than all my other investigations combined.
00:05:36I've got to find out the truth about what happened to the passengers of the Sobral Santos.
00:05:44The boat made a regular journey, carrying passengers and cargo from the port of Santorin to the city of Manaus,
00:05:55450 miles upstream.
00:05:58It was when it stopped to pick up passengers at the small port of Obydos in the middle of the night,
00:06:04the disaster struck.
00:06:05This is the place.
00:06:16This is where the Sobral Santos went down.
00:06:21But will anyone really remember what happened here more than 30 years ago?
00:06:27And could whatever was lurking in the water then still be around now?
00:06:33There's only one way to find out.
00:06:37I've got to get a line in the water.
00:06:41But with so many large boats coming and going,
00:06:44fishing is prohibited from the working dock.
00:06:47Instead, I'm taking a position on the shore,
00:06:50next to the dock warehouse where the bodies recovered from the river were stored.
00:06:57Just as every journey begins with a small step,
00:07:09every mystery begins with a small clue.
00:07:14You've got to start by getting something that the predators are likely to feed on.
00:07:18So I'm actually fishing for small fish at the moment.
00:07:21I've just got some light line just to see if I can pick up something
00:07:25probably just a few inches long is what I'm after.
00:07:28If I can get some fish like that,
00:07:30I'm then in a position to really go for what I'm really after.
00:07:43Who could bait fish, that?
00:07:44It's a tetragonopterus, sometimes collected for aquaria,
00:07:48but the perfect size for me.
00:07:50It's the kind of fish that could bring in larger predators.
00:07:53If I get a few more to use as bait,
00:07:56I'll be ready to move up to bigger gear.
00:08:00But it seems I've got some competition.
00:08:04Whatever that was, it's taken the hook, it's actually bitten the line.
00:08:07In these waters, even the small fish are formidable predators.
00:08:11That's something.
00:08:21This is actually a bit of a turn-up for the books.
00:08:23Even right off the dock, we've got piranhas.
00:08:28Even on a fish this small, those teeth are still pretty vicious.
00:08:33So could this be my first suspect?
00:08:35Contrary to popular belief,
00:08:38red-bellied piranhas are mainly scavengers
00:08:41and only attack humans in exceptional circumstances.
00:08:46That was actually quite a surprise to catch a piranha here.
00:08:48It's a fish that is normally found in the lakes
00:08:50rather than the main current of the river.
00:08:53But the fact that they're here, next to the port,
00:08:55doesn't necessarily implicate them in what happened after the boat accident.
00:08:58They're a side feeder.
00:08:59They're more active during the day.
00:09:01The boat accident happened 3.30 in the morning.
00:09:03Is it possible all the noise and movement
00:09:05could have awakened them and triggered an attack?
00:09:09It would take a huge number of piranhas to dismember so many bodies.
00:09:16Piranhas normally are found in actually fairly small groups.
00:09:20They're not in groups of hundreds.
00:09:22They're in groups of maybe 30, something like that.
00:09:24So although they're here,
00:09:27I don't think they were a significant factor at all
00:09:29in what might have happened to the people.
00:09:33Still, the lethal weaponry deployed by even small fish here
00:09:37indicates how unforgiving life beneath the surface is.
00:09:42Although the disaster happened more than 30 years ago,
00:09:45I'm hoping someone in the town will have some details.
00:09:48That's interesting stories of screams coming out of the drought,
00:10:03people getting eaten alive by something in the water.
00:10:08Even though this is something that happened a long time ago,
00:10:10it's clearly still very much alive in the minds of people here.
00:10:15But I still haven't spoken to an actual eyewitness
00:10:19until I tracked down the former harbour master
00:10:22who was on duty that night.
00:10:24The first thing that Manel de Souza says is that in the early 1980s,
00:10:34Obidos had very little electric lighting and none in the port.
00:10:38The accident happened at 3.30 in the morning, so it's dark.
00:10:47The boat had to do a bit of a turn as it came in close
00:10:49because there's an eddy close to the banks.
00:10:52The deep, swirling water means mooring at these docks
00:10:55is always fraught with danger.
00:10:57So it's manoeuvring so that it's coming against the current
00:11:01alongside the pontoon.
00:11:03As it drew alongside, it tied up.
00:11:06He tells me that as a crowd of passengers moved to one side to get off,
00:11:10the boat began to lean heavily.
00:11:14Then the next thing that happened was that it drifted away a bit
00:11:17and the cables broke.
00:11:22And in an instant, hundreds of people were plunged
00:11:26into the deadly waters of the Amazon
00:11:27and the carnage that followed has seen no equal.
00:11:42I'm investigating the Amazon's worst riverboat disaster.
00:11:48In the deepest part of the river,
00:11:50I've learned that over the following days,
00:11:52fish consumed the passengers who died on board.
00:11:56Lots of them had all their flesh missing.
00:11:59And also that immediately after the accident,
00:12:02many passengers struggling on the surface
00:12:04suddenly disappeared just yards from the dock.
00:12:08Some say they were eaten alive.
00:12:13The harbormaster was right on the dockside,
00:12:15but with no lighting,
00:12:18the disaster zone was pitch black.
00:12:23It was really too dark to see what was happening.
00:12:26But in the town at that time,
00:12:28there was a diver who worked with a gold mining team.
00:12:32The diver volunteered to go down and help with the rescue.
00:12:36He went in and he came up a very short time later
00:12:40and said, there's something very large down there.
00:12:44And when the people asked him,
00:12:45well, how do you know that it's possible to see?
00:12:48He said, just by the movement,
00:12:50there's something moving down there.
00:12:52And apparently he refused.
00:12:54He said, that's it.
00:12:55I'm just not getting into the water again.
00:12:57So no one dared to approach the sunken boat
00:13:00on the night it went down.
00:13:04Daybreak revealed an apocalyptic scene.
00:13:07The river was awash with half-eaten bodies and body parts.
00:13:12Was some kind of river monster to blame?
00:13:15The Amazon is not lacking in suspects.
00:13:18With more than 3,000 species of fish alone,
00:13:22my challenge is immense.
00:13:24Made all the harder
00:13:26because the waters here at Obydos
00:13:28are exceptionally deep and turbulent.
00:13:32This outgrop of rock is a significant feature here.
00:13:35This is the reason the river is so narrow here.
00:13:37You can actually see the far bank quite clearly,
00:13:39whereas in a lot of other places in the main river
00:13:41it's just this thin grey line in the distance.
00:13:44But because it's so narrow,
00:13:45the river being squeezed into such a small gap,
00:13:48it's also very deep.
00:13:49We've got 200 feet beneath us
00:13:51and also the current is very, very strong.
00:13:53These unique conditions create a dangerous swirling eddy
00:13:59right in front of the dock
00:14:00where the Sobral Santos moored up.
00:14:03Because of the strong current,
00:14:05fishermen can't set static nets
00:14:07but fish them on the drift.
00:14:10And it's no place for a rod and line.
00:14:12A bait cast from the bank would never hold position
00:14:15and nor would an anchor.
00:14:18I'd risk being dragged into the path of oncoming boats.
00:14:23But I do have another option.
00:14:26Many fish patrol
00:14:27and even seasonally migrate up and down the Amazon.
00:14:31So if this part of the main river is unfishable,
00:14:34I may find what I'm after in the tributaries.
00:14:37Oh, it took on the way down.
00:14:50That's a piranha.
00:14:52There are too many similar-looking piranha species
00:14:55to be sure of its identity.
00:14:57But there's one thing I do know.
00:14:59If they're out in numbers,
00:15:00then things might get difficult.
00:15:03And from the tell-tale tapping on the line,
00:15:05it doesn't feel good.
00:15:07It's another piranha.
00:15:14Small groups of these sight hunters
00:15:16couldn't account for a massacre
00:15:18in the middle of the night,
00:15:19but they would have been quick
00:15:20to come in and scavenge the next day.
00:15:24The thing about piranhas is
00:15:25they very often get to the bait
00:15:27before anything else,
00:15:28so they actually prevent you
00:15:30from finding out what else is down there.
00:15:34Changing location
00:15:35is the only way to avoid
00:15:37their unwelcome advances.
00:15:41Yeah.
00:15:42Hey!
00:15:50Very nice, streamlined, scaly fish.
00:15:52Interesting.
00:15:53Even a pretty little silverfish like that
00:15:55is a flesh-eater.
00:15:56It took a little piece of fish.
00:15:58One thing is clear
00:15:59from fishing these backwaters.
00:16:01There's a solid foundation of prey.
00:16:04If you've got small fish like that,
00:16:05you would expect normally
00:16:06to have bigger fish feeding on them
00:16:08right the way up the food pyramid
00:16:10to the very large predators.
00:16:12But the water conditions
00:16:15are making the job harder.
00:16:18I've arrived in Obydos
00:16:19at the peak of the flood season.
00:16:21The river has burst its banks
00:16:22and is spreading far and wide,
00:16:24allowing freshwater predators
00:16:26to disperse into a vast area
00:16:28of rainforest.
00:16:29However,
00:16:30the dock has become
00:16:31a reef of sunken structure
00:16:33in 20 to 30 feet of water,
00:16:35providing extra hiding spaces
00:16:37and ambush opportunities
00:16:38for deep water hunters.
00:16:40If I can fish from the site
00:16:42where the boat went down,
00:16:44I might yet discover a monster.
00:16:48But before I get the chance,
00:16:50some cargo handlers tell me
00:16:52a huge creature
00:16:53recently surfaced nearby.
00:16:59They said there was
00:17:00a very big caiman here
00:17:01just last year,
00:17:03where about 100 yards
00:17:04from the port,
00:17:05something like that,
00:17:06it came up.
00:17:08Somebody tried to lasso it.
00:17:09It went down again
00:17:10and came up again.
00:17:11They said it was a very big animal.
00:17:12They said like 15, 18 foot.
00:17:14I don't think it was as big as that,
00:17:15but it clearly made
00:17:16an impression on them.
00:17:17Eventually,
00:17:17it submerged
00:17:18and it headed off
00:17:20in the direction of the port.
00:17:21It came up again there
00:17:22and then it disappeared.
00:17:23If I think of a creature
00:17:27strong enough to tear limbs
00:17:29from the bodies of the living,
00:17:30then top of the list
00:17:31has to be the caiman.
00:17:33If this relative of the alligator
00:17:35can't swallow its prey whole,
00:17:37it swings and twists off
00:17:38manageable chunks
00:17:39and that might account
00:17:41for the body parts
00:17:42floating on the river.
00:17:46This town has grown a lot
00:17:48since the disaster
00:17:49and underwater
00:17:50it's not the same river
00:17:52that it was.
00:17:55So if I'm to find
00:17:56the evidence I need,
00:17:57I may have to cast
00:17:59my net wider.
00:18:02I've heard about a man
00:18:04who has first-hand experience
00:18:05of the violent power
00:18:07of a giant caiman.
00:18:09I'm hoping he can offer
00:18:10an insight into what
00:18:11a caiman could have done
00:18:12on that terrible night.
00:18:14But to find him,
00:18:16I have to venture
00:18:16into what they call
00:18:17the igar por,
00:18:19the flooded forest.
00:18:21Right now it's right
00:18:21at the height
00:18:22of the flood season.
00:18:24In parts of the Amazon
00:18:25you're talking about
00:18:26a 50-foot rise in water level.
00:18:29Here we're pretty much
00:18:30among the tops of the trees
00:18:32so we're able to take the boat
00:18:33right into places
00:18:34that would otherwise
00:18:35be dry land.
00:18:36Rising water allows us
00:18:38just enough depth
00:18:39to sail through
00:18:40these temporary creeks
00:18:42and opens up shortcuts
00:18:43to remote locations.
00:18:46For the creatures
00:18:47that live in the water,
00:18:49what this means
00:18:50is that instead of being
00:18:51confined to the river channels
00:18:52they are now spreading
00:18:53out into the forest
00:18:54and their territory
00:18:55is greatly increased.
00:18:58Right now,
00:19:00giant caimans
00:19:01have free reign.
00:19:03But water that's too high
00:19:04could see us
00:19:05caught in the canopy
00:19:06and once inside
00:19:08a narrow creek
00:19:09there's no turning back.
00:19:12at last
00:19:21the isolated creek
00:19:23where attack survivor
00:19:24Adamor lives.
00:19:26He has to rely
00:19:27on his younger sons
00:19:28for everything
00:19:29as he can barely walk.
00:19:31To avoid the flood water
00:19:33he confines himself
00:19:34to the upper floor.
00:19:36The attack happened
00:19:3715 years ago
00:19:38but it left
00:19:39a permanent reminder.
00:19:43So he's walking along
00:19:44in the water,
00:19:45this shallow water
00:19:45and he said suddenly
00:19:46almost out of nowhere
00:19:48this caiman
00:19:49just launched itself
00:19:50at him.
00:19:52This is the thing,
00:19:53they can be there
00:19:54and you just don't know it.
00:19:57The upper jaw
00:19:57made contact
00:19:58with his chest
00:19:59and then the lower jaw
00:20:00in the stomach.
00:20:04No time at all
00:20:05he was covered in mud,
00:20:06he couldn't see anything,
00:20:07he was shouting,
00:20:08he was screaming
00:20:08and this thing
00:20:12he says it was shaking
00:20:13him, shaking him.
00:20:14He said he could see
00:20:15its eyes
00:20:15so he put this thumb
00:20:16in its eye.
00:20:19He thinks because
00:20:20his thumb was in its eye
00:20:21it let go.
00:20:28From that point on
00:20:30it didn't bite him again
00:20:31it just went off
00:20:32a little distance.
00:20:33He said it was just
00:20:34sitting there
00:20:34just waiting for him to die.
00:20:36He said there were
00:20:40basically
00:20:41you know
00:20:41just flaps of skin
00:20:42hanging
00:20:43so he had his guts
00:20:43hanging out
00:20:44from his abdomen
00:20:45and he said
00:20:46the upper region here
00:20:47you could see bone.
00:20:50Adamu would have died
00:20:51had not an elder son
00:20:53and a neighbour
00:20:54heard his screams.
00:20:55When they found him
00:20:56they had to push
00:20:57his mud covered intestines
00:20:58back into his abdomen
00:21:00before carrying him away.
00:21:02although he was
00:21:04stitched up at a hospital
00:21:05his infection
00:21:06raged for months
00:21:07and it took more
00:21:08than a year
00:21:08for him to get back
00:21:09the feeling
00:21:10in his chest and belly.
00:21:12It's a miracle
00:21:13he survived at all.
00:21:18The thing about this place
00:21:20this region
00:21:20is just because
00:21:21of the nature of it
00:21:22the people live
00:21:24a very aquatic life
00:21:25they have no choice
00:21:26but to engage
00:21:27with the water
00:21:28and come into contact
00:21:30with the creatures
00:21:31that live in the water
00:21:32now Adamu survived
00:21:34his encounter
00:21:34with the caiman
00:21:35thanks to
00:21:36a combination
00:21:37of physical toughness
00:21:38presence of mind
00:21:39willpower
00:21:41and it has to be said
00:21:42quite a big dollop
00:21:42of luck as well
00:21:43but for most people
00:21:44in that situation
00:21:45meeting an animal
00:21:46like that
00:21:47the outcome
00:21:48is going to be
00:21:48very different.
00:21:52This horrific account
00:21:53shows how easy
00:21:54it would be
00:21:55for a caiman
00:21:56to tear
00:21:56a vulnerable human
00:21:57limb from limb
00:21:58but did they play
00:22:00a part
00:22:01in the carnage
00:22:02when the boat
00:22:02went down?
00:22:04The disaster
00:22:05happened in the
00:22:05middle of the night
00:22:06and in very deep
00:22:07water
00:22:07I'm not sure
00:22:09whether caimans
00:22:09attack in those
00:22:10conditions
00:22:11but there is a way
00:22:12to find out.
00:22:14Caimans have tried
00:22:15to steal my catches
00:22:16at night before
00:22:17but that was
00:22:18in shallow margins.
00:22:21Hey!
00:22:21Get out of it!
00:22:24I'm going to try
00:22:24and just pull this
00:22:25up on the side.
00:22:25Oh, f**k!
00:22:29F**k!
00:22:31Tonight
00:22:32I'll use a fish
00:22:33to set a trap.
00:22:34I want to hook a fish
00:22:36and let it create
00:22:36a commotion
00:22:37on the surface
00:22:38of deep water
00:22:39to see if it triggers
00:22:40an attack
00:22:41by any caiman
00:22:42out there.
00:22:43It's a risky
00:22:44operation
00:22:44in a small boat
00:22:45in deep water
00:22:47in the dark
00:22:48but it's my only option
00:22:49to find out
00:22:50if caimans
00:22:51should be
00:22:51on my suspect list.
00:22:55It's taking a line.
00:22:56I'm in the Amazon
00:23:08hunting down
00:23:08the perpetrator
00:23:09of lethal attacks
00:23:11on passengers escaping
00:23:12the river's worst
00:23:14boat disaster.
00:23:15Hundreds of people
00:23:16disappeared that night
00:23:17and there are plenty
00:23:18of potential suspects
00:23:19lurking in these
00:23:20murky waters.
00:23:22He had his guts
00:23:22hanging out.
00:23:23He was screaming.
00:23:24I'm trying to discover
00:23:28if black caimans
00:23:29will attack
00:23:30in deep water
00:23:31after dark.
00:23:37It's taking a line.
00:23:38But the fish
00:23:39I've hooked
00:23:39to bait a caiman
00:23:40is a lot more
00:23:41powerful
00:23:42than I expected.
00:23:54This is a Piraiba
00:24:01but it's a small one.
00:24:04It's strange
00:24:05to talk of a fish
00:24:06as small
00:24:07when it puts a bend
00:24:08in the rod
00:24:08like that
00:24:08but these grow
00:24:11much bigger
00:24:12than this.
00:24:14A couple of hundred
00:24:14pounds
00:24:15and up.
00:24:16It's good to see
00:24:17my first large
00:24:18predator
00:24:19in these waters
00:24:20but I need
00:24:21something smaller
00:24:21and much more
00:24:22manageable
00:24:23for my caiman test.
00:24:25Interesting to say it.
00:24:29Could Piraiba
00:24:31be contenders
00:24:32for the attacks
00:24:33on the passengers?
00:24:35I know some
00:24:36have the potential
00:24:36to swallow
00:24:37a man whole
00:24:38but these giants
00:24:40are at the top
00:24:41of the food pyramid
00:24:42and just aren't
00:24:43very numerous.
00:24:45This stage
00:24:46I don't think
00:24:46they could account
00:24:47for the scale
00:24:48of the carnage.
00:24:52I haven't seen
00:24:53a single eye shine
00:24:54from a caiman.
00:24:56Perhaps my chances
00:24:57of attracting one
00:24:58are very slim
00:24:59in the middle
00:25:00of all this flood water.
00:25:01I need some more
00:25:02local intelligence
00:25:03if I'm to pursue
00:25:04this line any further.
00:25:11While asking around
00:25:13about any recent
00:25:14caiman sightings
00:25:15I'm told fishermen
00:25:16recently lassoed
00:25:17a giant.
00:25:20It's now being held
00:25:21as a research facility
00:25:23which might give me
00:25:24the access I need
00:25:25to test whether caimans
00:25:27could cause so much
00:25:28carnage in one night.
00:25:38So it was captured
00:25:39in an area
00:25:40where people live
00:25:41where people get
00:25:41in the water
00:25:42they wash
00:25:42they wash their clothes
00:25:43and whatever.
00:25:44It's a big animal
00:25:44it's about 13 and a half
00:25:46foot long
00:25:46it's over 500 pounds
00:25:47in weight.
00:25:48When they got it here
00:25:49they discovered
00:25:50that it was actually
00:25:50blind in one eye
00:25:51this is probably why
00:25:52the fisherman was able
00:25:53to lasso it.
00:25:54It's going to stay here
00:25:55for a little while
00:25:56and then it's going
00:25:56to be released
00:25:56it's going to be released
00:25:57in a reserve
00:25:58where it's not going
00:25:59to come and bother
00:26:00people on the waterfront.
00:26:00there's no doubt
00:26:03caimans attack humans
00:26:05but how would they
00:26:06account for the huge
00:26:07number of missing passengers
00:26:09either there was
00:26:10a massive number
00:26:11of caimans
00:26:12at Obydos that night
00:26:13or each predatory reptile
00:26:15was taking down
00:26:16one passenger
00:26:17after another
00:26:18to test the multiple
00:26:20victim theory
00:26:21I'm under the supervision
00:26:22of a reptile vet
00:26:23and I'm scaling up
00:26:25my line and bait
00:26:26big time
00:26:27to trigger
00:26:29a first strike.
00:26:30Now I have its
00:26:50undivided attention
00:26:52I'm just trying to see
00:26:53how motivated it is
00:26:55to hang on to that meal.
00:26:57I've used pig as bait
00:26:59as I'm told
00:27:00its flesh
00:27:01tastes very similar
00:27:02to human.
00:27:04I don't think
00:27:05that's a grip
00:27:05that's very easily broken.
00:27:09This beast's instinct
00:27:11is to hold on
00:27:12to its prey
00:27:13at all costs.
00:27:15Why would they risk
00:27:16losing a catch
00:27:17by attacking multiple people
00:27:18in a matter of minutes?
00:27:21Time to cut and run
00:27:23and find out
00:27:24about the other theory.
00:27:26In a river as vast
00:27:27as the Amazon
00:27:28could there have been
00:27:29hundreds of caimans
00:27:30in the area
00:27:31when the boat
00:27:32went down.
00:27:34Anselmo de Fonseca
00:27:35has studied
00:27:36their populations
00:27:37in the wild.
00:27:37Obydos is the area
00:27:39the closest area
00:27:40of the Amazon
00:27:41He said the thing
00:27:42about Obydos
00:27:43is that the river
00:27:43there is
00:27:44by Amazonian standards
00:27:45it's narrow
00:27:46there's a strong current
00:27:47and this isn't
00:27:48the preferred habitat
00:27:49of caimans.
00:27:50But normally
00:27:51the preferential areas
00:27:52are the areas
00:27:53more calm.
00:27:53they prefer calm water
00:27:55they prefer backwaters
00:27:57lakes.
00:27:58I think it's difficult
00:27:59really
00:27:59that there's a great
00:28:00occurrence of jacarés
00:28:01at that point.
00:28:02So he said
00:28:02it's very unlikely
00:28:03that they would come
00:28:04close to a city
00:28:05close to people
00:28:06they don't tolerate caimans.
00:28:08So at the time
00:28:09of the boat disaster
00:28:10caimans numbers
00:28:11were very low
00:28:12this knocks them
00:28:13off the top
00:28:14contender spot
00:28:15something else
00:28:16is out there.
00:28:21Just as the Amazon
00:28:22dwarfs the world's
00:28:24other rivers
00:28:25the scale of its
00:28:26biggest disaster
00:28:27overshadows
00:28:29all my other
00:28:29investigations
00:28:30with the staggering
00:28:33number of people
00:28:34who were killed
00:28:35injured
00:28:36or went missing
00:28:38on one night.
00:28:42One of the boatmen
00:28:44has told me
00:28:44that most of the
00:28:45bodies recovered
00:28:45from the accident
00:28:46were buried in town
00:28:48but confusion still
00:28:50reigns over the
00:28:51numbers involved.
00:28:57It's usually a matter
00:28:58of family honour
00:28:59to keep the graves
00:29:01of loved ones
00:29:01in good condition
00:29:02but in the middle
00:29:04of the cemetery
00:29:05I find a line
00:29:06of graves
00:29:07that are near derelict.
00:29:09This is where
00:29:10the victims are buried
00:29:11some of them
00:29:13identified
00:29:14but mostly not
00:29:15there's two reasons
00:29:16for this
00:29:17here in the tropics
00:29:18it was necessary
00:29:18to bury everybody
00:29:20quickly
00:29:20certainly long
00:29:21before word
00:29:22could be got out
00:29:22to family
00:29:23who could then
00:29:24arrive at the scene
00:29:25also because
00:29:26apparently
00:29:27a lot of the bodies
00:29:28weren't intact
00:29:29they were burying
00:29:29body parts
00:29:30and this was
00:29:31pre-DNA testing
00:29:32so
00:29:34this is why
00:29:35to this day
00:29:36nobody knows
00:29:38for sure
00:29:39exactly how many
00:29:40people died.
00:29:41it's estimated
00:29:43that these mass graves
00:29:45hold as many
00:29:46as 200 bodies
00:29:47but because they
00:29:50were unidentified
00:29:50no one knows
00:29:52who's here
00:29:53and I now suspect
00:29:56that a similar number
00:29:57could have stayed
00:29:58in the water
00:29:59victim to who knows
00:30:01what
00:30:02so what exactly
00:30:05did happen
00:30:05I feel I owe it
00:30:07to the passengers
00:30:08and crew
00:30:09of the Sobral Santos
00:30:10to search
00:30:11for an answer
00:30:12just as I'm leaving
00:30:15the cemetery
00:30:16I meet a mother
00:30:17and daughter
00:30:18visiting one of the few
00:30:20marked graves
00:30:21both survived the disaster
00:30:26but one of their family
00:30:28didn't
00:30:28the mother agrees
00:30:33to meet with me later
00:30:34by the river
00:30:35to tell me
00:30:36what happened
00:30:36to her
00:30:37the night
00:30:38the Sobral Santos
00:30:39went down
00:30:40she said that
00:30:48the family was actually
00:30:50moving to Manaus
00:30:51so she got on the boat
00:30:54with four young children
00:30:56between the ages
00:30:58of seven and two
00:30:59to start with
00:31:00there's lots of space
00:31:01she says
00:31:04three boats
00:31:05normally operated
00:31:06this route
00:31:07but one was out
00:31:08of service
00:31:09and the other
00:31:10had just broken down
00:31:11so the Sobral Santos
00:31:13was taking on
00:31:14all the passengers
00:31:15and cargo
00:31:16more and more
00:31:17people got on
00:31:18she said it was
00:31:19getting to the point
00:31:19where it was just
00:31:20ridiculous
00:31:20there were so many
00:31:21people on
00:31:21the hammocks
00:31:22so densely
00:31:23packed together
00:31:24and it actually
00:31:25got to the point
00:31:25where she was
00:31:26wanting to get off
00:31:27but by that time
00:31:31in fact
00:31:31that the boat
00:31:32was already
00:31:32in the middle
00:31:33of the river
00:31:34it had just left
00:31:36without really
00:31:37any notice
00:31:38so she's on the boat
00:31:39traveling
00:31:39she said though
00:31:41that she wasn't
00:31:43sleeping
00:31:43she was very
00:31:44worried
00:31:44so when the boat
00:31:46arrived
00:31:46in Obelos
00:31:48she was
00:31:48still away
00:31:49at 3.30
00:31:53in the morning
00:31:54she heard a crash
00:31:56shouting
00:31:57and then
00:31:59scraping metal
00:32:01within minutes
00:32:03her life
00:32:03would be changed
00:32:05forever
00:32:05while investigating
00:32:11the fate
00:32:12of the Sobral Santos
00:32:13I uncovered
00:32:14a chilling
00:32:15personal connection
00:32:16to the doomed boat
00:32:17find out what it is
00:32:18after this
00:32:19while investigating
00:32:22the Sobral Santos
00:32:23I discovered
00:32:24the wreck
00:32:25was salvaged
00:32:26sold
00:32:26refurbished
00:32:27and renamed
00:32:28and I unknowingly
00:32:29sailed
00:32:30900 miles
00:32:31on the ship
00:32:31of ghosts
00:32:32on my first
00:32:33trip
00:32:33to the Amazon
00:32:34I'm scouring
00:32:41the mighty
00:32:42Amazon River
00:32:42to uncover
00:32:43the killer
00:32:44that tore
00:32:45into passengers
00:32:46trying to escape
00:32:47from the river's
00:32:48biggest boat
00:32:49disaster
00:32:49a survivor
00:32:51Giosalina Colares
00:32:53has bravely
00:32:54agreed to meet me
00:32:55right by the place
00:32:57where the boat
00:32:58went down
00:32:59she said
00:33:04the first thing
00:33:04that alerted her
00:33:06to something
00:33:06being wrong
00:33:07was crashing
00:33:08sound
00:33:09made by falling
00:33:10bottles
00:33:10on the upper deck
00:33:12she jumped down
00:33:16from the hammock
00:33:16and then she went
00:33:17straight into the water
00:33:18because the boat
00:33:20was already
00:33:21in the process
00:33:21of tipping over
00:33:22she's under the water
00:33:26and she has
00:33:27some kind of crate
00:33:28that's trapped
00:33:29her foot
00:33:30she had to rip
00:33:32her foot out
00:33:33and she said
00:33:33in the process
00:33:34of this
00:33:34it cut
00:33:35her foot was bleeding
00:33:36she came to the surface
00:33:39one of her sons
00:33:42surfaced next to her
00:33:44and hung on to her
00:33:45that was when
00:33:46she grabbed hold
00:33:47of a bench
00:33:48floating past
00:33:49at that point
00:33:50she was actually
00:33:51in the middle
00:33:51of the river
00:33:52the boat
00:33:53was gone
00:33:54and the waters
00:33:55of Obydos
00:33:55were filled
00:33:56with battered
00:33:56and bleeding
00:33:57passengers
00:33:57it was the perfect
00:33:59storm
00:33:59that put weakened
00:34:01prey
00:34:01right in front
00:34:02of predators
00:34:03it was very dark
00:34:05you could see
00:34:06a certain amount
00:34:07but she said
00:34:07there was lots
00:34:08of screaming
00:34:09and then
00:34:13just gradually
00:34:15they one by one
00:34:16disappeared
00:34:17under the surface
00:34:17it was then
00:34:38just silence
00:34:39she was bleeding
00:34:49quite heavily
00:34:49from her foot
00:34:50and people
00:34:51actually said to her
00:34:51you were lucky
00:34:52you weren't
00:34:53attacked by something
00:34:54in the water
00:34:55a boat
00:34:57found them
00:34:58in the darkness
00:34:58and took them
00:35:00to the hospital
00:35:00where they were
00:35:01treating two
00:35:02of her other
00:35:03children
00:35:04but her two-year-old
00:35:06son
00:35:06Rui
00:35:07was missing
00:35:08his body was found
00:35:10in the river
00:35:11the next day
00:35:12in the afternoon
00:35:13so he didn't
00:35:14survive
00:35:14although this disaster
00:35:38happened more than
00:35:3930 years ago now
00:35:40it's very clear
00:35:41that the memory of it
00:35:42is still very much
00:35:43alive in the minds
00:35:44of many people
00:35:45I think what I found
00:35:47most chilling
00:35:47from dear Zelina's
00:35:49account was her
00:35:49description of how
00:35:50all the people
00:35:52around her
00:35:53screaming on the
00:35:54surface
00:35:54gradually became
00:35:55silent one by one
00:35:56as they disappeared
00:35:58beneath the surface
00:35:59and the other thing
00:36:02it really
00:36:03and the other thing
00:36:04it really brings
00:36:05home to me
00:36:06is how
00:36:06just the magnitude
00:36:08of this incident
00:36:09just far surpasses
00:36:10anything
00:36:11that I've looked
00:36:12into before
00:36:12Juselina's tragic
00:36:18testimony
00:36:19is starting to fill
00:36:20in some of the
00:36:21missing pieces
00:36:22of this puzzle
00:36:23yet so much
00:36:24still remains a mystery
00:36:25even though the boat
00:36:27went down
00:36:27right off the edge
00:36:29of the dock
00:36:29what exactly
00:36:31is in these waters
00:36:33I'll need to pursue
00:36:41every lead
00:36:42examine every contender
00:36:44however tenuous
00:36:46if I'm to uncover
00:36:47the perpetrator
00:36:48of the horrific
00:36:49carnage
00:36:49alongside the Piraiba
00:36:52the Amazon's
00:36:53other super heavyweight
00:36:54is the arapaima
00:36:55I felt the full weight
00:37:00of one of these
00:37:01and it left me
00:37:02injured for weeks
00:37:04but they aren't found
00:37:05in fast flowing rivers
00:37:06and their method of attack
00:37:08doesn't fit
00:37:09the victim's injuries
00:37:10an arapaima
00:37:11either rams its target
00:37:13or crushes prey
00:37:15against the roof
00:37:16of its mouth
00:37:16they don't strip flesh
00:37:19or tear limb from limb
00:37:21what I'm really looking for
00:37:22is a predatory fish
00:37:24that's large enough
00:37:25but also
00:37:25which is present
00:37:26in significant numbers
00:37:28one way to see
00:37:30what other heavyweight
00:37:31predators operate
00:37:32in the Amazon
00:37:33is to check out
00:37:35the fish market
00:37:36the largest one
00:37:37is right in the heart
00:37:38of the rainforest
00:37:39fishing boats
00:37:41bring their catches here
00:37:42from hundreds of miles
00:37:43around
00:37:44to get there
00:37:45I'm completing
00:37:46the intended journey
00:37:47of the Sobral Santos
00:37:48almost 350 miles
00:37:50upstream
00:37:51to Manaus
00:37:52this is a thing
00:37:56called a cuyu
00:37:57it's a type of catfish
00:37:59but it's got
00:38:00armoured plates
00:38:01as well as having them
00:38:02on the head
00:38:03it's got this row
00:38:04of sort of bony scales
00:38:06down the side
00:38:06some people call these
00:38:07rip saw catfish
00:38:08it's almost like
00:38:09the teeth of a saw
00:38:10coming down the side
00:38:11quite a small mouth
00:38:14but strong enough
00:38:17to vacuum up crustaceans
00:38:19and insect larvae
00:38:20from the riverbed
00:38:20but when the forest
00:38:23is flooded
00:38:23like now
00:38:24it prefers seeds
00:38:26and fruit
00:38:27and what's interesting
00:38:30is that they've
00:38:30they've hacked
00:38:31through the fins here
00:38:33hacked through there
00:38:35hacked through there
00:38:36basically
00:38:37they've got pointed spines
00:38:39on there
00:38:39and if you shove
00:38:39a load of these
00:38:40in a sack
00:38:41and then someone
00:38:41puts them on their head
00:38:42it's going to hurt
00:38:43so
00:38:44this is arowana
00:38:49they feed on the surface
00:38:52you often find them
00:38:53right up on the surface
00:38:54of the water
00:38:55they've got this mouth
00:38:57that just opens up
00:38:59it's a bit like
00:39:00the back of a cargo plane
00:39:01almost
00:39:02predatory fish
00:39:03little teeth
00:39:04around the edge
00:39:05some interesting fish
00:39:10but not the variety
00:39:11or size
00:39:12I saw
00:39:12last time
00:39:13I was here
00:39:13the only big fish
00:39:25I'm lucky to see today
00:39:26are these
00:39:27and these actually
00:39:28aren't very big
00:39:29as Arabheimer go
00:39:30so these were called
00:39:31fairly locally
00:39:32this is interesting
00:39:36these are actually
00:39:37farmed
00:39:38which is something
00:39:38that's happening
00:39:39increasingly
00:39:39it's taking the pressure
00:39:40off the wild stock
00:39:41it's actually forbidden
00:39:43to catch these
00:39:44in the wild
00:39:45except in certain
00:39:45circumstances
00:39:46they might start
00:39:48coming back
00:39:48in the wild
00:39:48as a result
00:39:49I'm not seeing
00:39:50any obvious suspects
00:39:52at the fish market
00:39:52but I've got another
00:39:53place to check out
00:39:55a fishing tackle shop
00:39:57that's got an
00:39:58extraordinary display
00:39:59of bizarre catches
00:40:00collected over the decades
00:40:01these mummified fish
00:40:04might give me an insight
00:40:05into what could have
00:40:06been in the river
00:40:07when the boat
00:40:08went down
00:40:09hanging from the ceiling
00:40:11is a rogues gallery
00:40:13of specimens
00:40:13but one stands out
00:40:15in size alone
00:40:16at around 8 foot long
00:40:19well
00:40:21at first sight
00:40:23this could be
00:40:24a large Piraiba
00:40:25but looking closer
00:40:28absolutely not
00:40:29five gill slits
00:40:30one, two, three, four, five
00:40:32and the teeth
00:40:33give it away
00:40:34this is a bull shark
00:40:36this is a bull shark
00:40:37where did this come from
00:40:40exactly
00:40:41where did this come from
00:40:42exactly
00:40:43where did this come from
00:40:44exactly
00:40:45where did this come from
00:40:46exactly
00:40:47well the story behind this bull shark
00:40:49is that it was caught about 30 years ago
00:40:52in the mid 80s thereabouts
00:40:54and apparently it weighed
00:40:57something over 200 pounds
00:40:58came in on a fishing boat
00:40:59probably on a long line
00:41:00that a fisherman
00:41:01put out for catfish
00:41:02but uh...
00:41:03yeah, quite a beast
00:41:05bull sharks are one of the few sharks that can survive in fresh water
00:41:18they've been found 2,500 miles up the Amazon from the ocean
00:41:22way past Obydos and Manaus
00:41:25one even attacked a woman near here back in the 1980s
00:41:29so this ferocious predator was around at the time of the Obydos boat disaster
00:41:35it's a lead I have to follow up
00:41:38at the harbour I hear recent reports of multiple dorsal fins breaking the surface
00:41:44if these known man-eaters are as numerous as these reports suggest
00:41:49could bull sharks have played a part in the Amazon apocalypse?
00:42:05I'm travelling the mighty Amazon river
00:42:08to uncover the killer
00:42:10that tore into passengers trying to escape
00:42:13from the rivers biggest boat disaster
00:42:19my latest suspect
00:42:22the bull shark
00:42:24I've found a specimen that places this known man-eater
00:42:27in the right place at the right time for the attack
00:42:31and I've found a boatman named Baccaral
00:42:34who has decades of experience on the river
00:42:36I asked him about bull sharks and he said that there's a belief that they follow boats up the river
00:42:51people are throwing food and bits and bobs off the back of the boat and they follow them up
00:42:55but are they here in enough numbers for a mass attack?
00:43:02he says now it's it's pretty well unheard of you just don't see them and even in the old days
00:43:08they used to be very rare
00:43:10a fish so scarce here
00:43:13couldn't be responsible for so much carnage
00:43:16another contender falls off my list
00:43:20but all is not lost
00:43:23he says there's another large predator in the river
00:43:27these grow as big as the bull shark in the tackle shop
00:43:31but are faster and more agile
00:43:34and there's a lot of these lethal hunters out there
00:43:37he says it's actually very common to see five or six of them together
00:43:43on occasion maybe as much as 20 or even more than that
00:43:49huge backs breaking the surface
00:43:53the alien looking Amazon river dolphin
00:43:56the Boto
00:43:57these top predators are here in large numbers
00:44:00and aggressively compete with fishermen on the river
00:44:03unlike its marine cousins
00:44:05the Boto is no fun-loving dolphin
00:44:08its reputation is a lot darker
00:44:11turns out people are actually wary of these animals
00:44:16they are well known to knock their canoes
00:44:20and actually tip them out of the canoes into the water
00:44:26they're said to be enchanted
00:44:29but not in a good way
00:44:31some even say they can change into human form
00:44:34to lure people to their death in the river
00:44:37many people here refuse to get in the water
00:44:40when there are Boto's around
00:44:46often covered in battle scars
00:44:48they've even been known to attack and kill bull sharks
00:44:56but it doesn't stop there
00:45:00I've been talking to some people around town
00:45:01and it turns out
00:45:03a few people have been hospitalized by Boto's
00:45:05by being rammed by them
00:45:07there are all sorts of estimates
00:45:08for calculating the force a Boto can deliver
00:45:11but numbers don't have the same impact
00:45:13as a demonstration
00:45:14to get an idea of it
00:45:16it's something
00:45:17a bit like this
00:45:19being hit by a Boto is like being in a car
00:45:38when it hits a brick wall at 30 miles an hour
00:45:41so I'm left with the question
00:45:43is the river's largest predatory mammal
00:45:46a serial killer?
00:45:55I've been told there's a place nearby
00:45:57where wild Boto's are known to congregate
00:46:00around a desolate house
00:46:02that succumbed to the rising flood waters
00:46:04I got close to Boto's once before
00:46:18they were big
00:46:19not at all afraid of me
00:46:21and they made me very uneasy
00:46:23they really definitely have
00:46:25the dark side
00:46:27that was five years ago
00:46:29but back then
00:46:30I didn't know half of what I know now
00:46:33the only way I'll find out
00:46:36whether they could have gone after the boat victims
00:46:42is to see
00:46:43whether they'll go after me
00:47:03in the heart of the Amazon
00:47:07I'm on the hunt for the perpetrator
00:47:09of an apocalyptic attack
00:47:12on the survivors of the river's worst ever shipping disaster
00:47:18could it be one of the Amazon's top freshwater predators
00:47:21the otherworldly Boto river dolphin?
00:47:24the question now is
00:47:26the question now is
00:47:27how are they going to react to me?
00:47:30is there anything behind the legend
00:47:32that they lure people to their deaths in the river?
00:47:35there's only one way to find out
00:47:37these animals can attack in two ways
00:47:50with dozens of sharp teeth
00:47:52or a headbutt that can take out a shark
00:47:55and I've got no idea how many of them know that I'm here
00:48:01these things they seem to disappear from nowhere
00:48:05I think I'm under surveillance by a group of six or seven predators
00:48:12I'm very wary of the unpredictable nature of wild animals
00:48:18especially ones that aren't afraid of me
00:48:20you get the sense that they're definitely checking you out
00:48:22they're checking me out
00:48:23they're checking me out
00:48:24and I have to submit to it
00:48:25but they're trying to see if I am
00:48:27well, maybe food
00:48:28but also they wanna see if I'm a threat
00:48:29and I think if they see me as a threat
00:48:30that is bad news for me
00:48:31there's no way to hear
00:48:32Especially ones that aren't afraid of me
00:48:37You get this sense that they're definitely checking you out they're checking me out and I have to submit to it
00:48:41But they're trying to see if I am
00:48:43Well, maybe food, but also they want to see if I'm a threat and I think if they see me as a threat that is bad news for me
00:48:49There's no way I can swim away from them quicker than they can swim. There's no way I can resist them either. These are solid
00:48:55They're big. They're solid. I get the feeling it's very much on their terms
00:48:58And I'm very much out of place when I'm in their murky world
00:49:03They're hyperflexible necks and rotating flippers enable them to pursue prey amongst the submerged tree trunks of the flooded forest
00:49:12Their ability to communicate with each other lets them coordinate attacks on prey and
00:49:19Echolocation means they can home in on objects as small as a pin in murky water
00:49:24even at night
00:49:26They would have no problem negotiating a boat full of passengers as it sank beneath the surface
00:49:40So what happened on that night when the boat went down were dolphins in any way involved in the carnage that people describe well first of all
00:49:47Were they there were they at the scene and I've no doubt that they would have been at that time in particular
00:49:52Dolphins were very numerous in the river. They would have been aware that something was happening
00:49:57and
00:49:58There's no doubt these formidable hunters are armed and dangerous
00:50:03But when it comes to humans the Boto has one weakness
00:50:07It's jaw muscles the Boto's tooth line beak is perfect for seizing and gripping slippery fish
00:50:13But it doesn't have the crushing vice like power of the Cayman
00:50:18They can deliver a crippling headbutt against people who provoke them
00:50:23But they can't rip limb from limb
00:50:26Their probing curiosity makes me feel uneasy, but I've seen no unprovoked aggression and
00:50:33Although that curiosity could have drawn them right into the middle of the chaos the night of the accident
00:50:39I don't think they were responsible for any of the carnage that the witnesses describe
00:50:45But something in this water was I've now investigated all the obvious suspects the Amazon predators large enough to take out humans and that have been known to do so
00:50:57But none of them can account for the scale of this massacre
00:51:03So I'm wondering whether it's the number rather than the size of perpetrators
00:51:07That's the key to what happened in the waters of obidos
00:51:11Perhaps the sheer quantity of killers accounts for the carnage if there's one group of people who'll know which fish are most numerous here
00:51:20It's the town's fishermen
00:51:22It's a sobrio o'barco actually don't come a barco, okay
00:51:24Although it's a long time ago
00:51:29They still remember the incident and what they remember in particular that it was a hard time for fishermen because there was a ban
00:51:35Imposed on fishing for a number of weeks afterwards and the reason for that was people were starting to catch fish with human remains inside
00:51:44Everything had either attacked or scavenged the bodies in the river
00:51:50Eventually fishing resumed the fishermen tell me they no longer catch the size of fish they once caught here
00:51:58They say that the fish processing plant used to attract very large fish
00:52:03But it doesn't anymore because they now dispose of the carcasses elsewhere
00:52:08This factory was actually here at the time and one interesting difference though is that today
00:52:17The skeletons the remains that aren't eaten by people they're sent away to make animal feed back then
00:52:23Everything was put in the river just right here a matter of yards and it was chumming this this eddy
00:52:28You've got here and that inevitably would have created a concentration of fish here way in excess of what you've got today
00:52:38The waste from this fish processing plant turned obidus into a massive artificial feeding station
00:52:44Which likely attracted big predators from miles around to feed in the deep circulating waters off these docks?
00:52:52It had to be the worst place on the Amazon for a boat full of people to go down I
00:53:03Need to find out what's in the water around the docks
00:53:06And I'm given special dispensation to fish for one day
00:53:12Between dry season and flood the water level here rises more than 20 feet
00:53:17Concealing staircases and gangways beneath the surface
00:53:21There's a lot of structure so fish like this kind of place
00:53:24It gives them plenty of opportunities for cover and the cargo handlers seem to think the same
00:53:30They actually put lines down themselves as one over there
00:53:32It's going to be a bit snaggy though, but I'm going to put a bait down and see what turns up
00:53:38But before I get the chance there's a take on one of the lines
00:53:41All right this is before I'm even started so I'm a plated catfish
00:53:44I'm a plated catfish
00:53:45Right, this is before I'm even started, it's an armour-plated catfish, and it's quite
00:54:12a meaty fish. That's a very promising start. If a fish this size is lurking right under
00:54:19the dock, I can't imagine what else might be hiding in these waters. But straight away,
00:54:26I get a gruesome reply from the other side of the dock. As soon as the man started gutting
00:54:32and cleaning his catch in the water, hordes of flesh-eaters boldly rose from the depths
00:54:37to feast on the kill. So these are kandiru. Not the tiny variety that swims up inside people,
00:54:46but the kandiru asu, the ones that usually bore into dead flesh. I've investigated this
00:54:52fish before. What looked like bullet holes in a man's body were boreholes from this fish.
00:55:00They were eating his body from the inside out. So this is what happens when you've got smell
00:55:07in the water. This water here is murky, it's not clear, and yet these fish in probably about
00:55:1320 foot of water can just find that in no time at all, just purely from the chemicals that
00:55:20are being released into the water, the blood and fragments of meat.
00:55:23That speed of response surprises me. I thought these creatures sought out soft decomposing bodies
00:55:31to tear into, but this fish was alive just minutes ago. This is a really horrible fish
00:55:38to handle. It's very, very muscular and wriggly. There's almost no eyes at all on this. They
00:55:47don't find their way about by sight, it's purely by smell. And what they do is they cut a circular
00:55:52lump out. If these creatures respond so quickly to fresh blood in the water, what would they
00:56:01have made of hundreds of passengers battered by untethered cargo and bleeding into the Amazon
00:56:10as they tried to swim to shore? And what else is down there that might be responding to the
00:56:19same signals? I don't have much time here, but I think it's worth a change of plan. I want
00:56:26to see what responds not to fish blood and flesh, but mammal. It's time to set a trap.
00:56:33So that's three bags of entrails. Fairly bloody, but quite fatty. That's going to give off quite
00:56:40a bit of odour. And what I'm going to do, I'm just going to stick it down the water here
00:56:45and see if anything comes along. Leave that there, see what happens. To make the most of my time,
00:57:07I'm also deploying rod and line to seek out more stealthy predators from the depths.
00:57:29With nothing biting, I take a minute to check the trap.
00:57:32Well, here we go. That's quite a disgusting haul. My bloody, meaty bait has not disappointed
00:57:54me. And the Kandirua Sioux are not alone. There's another flesh eater in there with them,
00:58:03a fish known as the water vulture, or piracachinga. It's a catfish, no scales, quite small eyes,
00:58:11but what it has got, it's got these very long tentacles, which gives some kind of clue as
00:58:15to how it finds its way around, finds its food down there in the murky water. It might be small,
00:58:20but these are present in very large numbers, much more numerous than piranhas, for example.
00:58:25I've been told the wreck was full of these gruesome flesh eaters when it was raised from
00:58:30the depths, and they were still feeding on the bodies. The teeth are very small, but it's
00:58:35actually got a very strong bite for the fish this size, so it can easily tear off lumps of flesh.
00:58:40Although they normally feed on dead creatures, in a situation where there's maybe lots of
00:58:48bodies in the water, some of them might be alive, but actually injured. I don't know if these are
00:58:54going to think twice necessarily before they actually get into a wound and start feeding.
00:58:59But however large the horde and horrific the attack, I'm not sure that even thousands of
00:59:06these little mouths operating alone could be responsible for so many people, disappearing
00:59:12so quickly. Could there have been another player that tipped the balance?
00:59:22Before I can return to my line, I'm approached by a dock supervisor, Joao Pamos, who tells me
00:59:28about a recent attack on some men who went swimming in the river.
00:59:32There were four of them, and one of them suddenly got into difficulties. He was shouting,
00:59:47calling for help. There was somebody in a boat nearby and he managed to get across to him
00:59:55and hang on to him. And there was something holding on to his leg. And the guy in the boat
01:00:02was pulling. And he actually saw a fish that swallowed the person's foot almost up to the knee.
01:00:17The fish eventually let go.
01:00:22But apparently the man's leg was a bit of a mess.
01:00:29He actually managed to see this fish closely enough to recognise it. And it's a large catfish
01:00:35with a big mouth. And it was dragging this guy under the water.
01:00:43I've encountered the three biggest catfish in the Amazon before. The Piraiba.
01:00:50The Ja'ul. And the red tail. I've already discounted the Piraiba because they're such solitary predators.
01:01:00But could a concentration of another big catfish have wreaked the carnage at the docks?
01:01:07Primed with this new information and the vision of a large meat-eating catfish on the end of my line,
01:01:14I lower a fresh bait deep into the submerged structure.
01:01:18I just have to hope I can catch one before my 24 hours at the docks are up.
01:01:24In other situations I could put the rod down and just listen for a click of the reel.
01:01:34But here...
01:01:36Oh, this is something going.
01:01:39I'm scouring the depths of the Amazon for a horde of large catfish that may have been tearing
01:02:02into the survivors of a boat disaster.
01:02:06In the docks where it all happened, I've got a very strong fish on the end of my line.
01:02:11Oh, this is something going.
01:02:13Right, I think the hook came out.
01:02:23What I was going to say was that I can't afford to let anything have even a few inches because
01:02:28it's going to wrap me around something.
01:02:31I could have...
01:02:32Hindsight now, I'm thinking I should have let that fish have a little more line, but I don't
01:02:36know.
01:02:37You do that here and it's just wrapped you around some of the structure.
01:02:41That felt like quite a good fish.
01:02:44The only way I'll uncover its identity is to get a fresh bait straight back down there.
01:02:52But the countless underwater snags are consuming my gear.
01:02:59This place is basically eating terminal tackle.
01:03:02It's just eating its way through my tackle box.
01:03:04I'm just losing so much gear.
01:03:06Fishing at the attack site has concealed more than it's revealed.
01:03:13And that's just one of the hazards of fishing a place like this.
01:03:16There's just so much stuff on the bottom.
01:03:18My 24 hours at the docks are up and I don't have anything to show for it.
01:03:24Except for the information about the catfish attack.
01:03:29If Sha'u or red tails are contenders, surely someone in the town would know about them.
01:03:41I tracked down a man who was head of the cargo handlers in the early 80s.
01:03:45And who remembers what was living in the water back then.
01:03:48Back at the time when the accident happened there were a lot more fish in the river and also bigger fish as well.
01:03:59What's happened since then, the reason the numbers have decreased and also the sizes of fish is because there's been a lot more fishing activity.
01:04:06And also people these days eat catfish. In the old days they didn't.
01:04:11It was thought to be unlucky or even dangerous to eat catfish. So these predators thrived.
01:04:18Back then, because of the large fish, people were afraid to bathe in the river.
01:04:25There are stories of women going there with their children, children disappearing.
01:04:29People putting this down to fish in the water.
01:04:34They were in no doubt that catfish were to blame.
01:04:37And even today that fear persists what might be in the deep water and you don't see very many people bathing by the riverside there.
01:04:48So I have new contenders in my sights. But there's no way I can investigate these heavyweight catfish here and now in Obydos.
01:05:07A lot has happened in 30 years. Here on the main river people eat all manner of catfish.
01:05:12That, and the increase in commercial fishing generally, means I simply won't find the evidence I need here now.
01:05:20Instead, I need to find some corner of the Amazon that's in the same state now that the main river was in then.
01:05:28So what I really need to do is to travel to a more remote part of the river system, relatively untouched by progress,
01:05:34where the fish might be present in the size and numbers that they once were here.
01:05:39And from that, I might get some insight into what part they played on that night.
01:05:52But that's not going to be easy.
01:05:54To outrun the huge reach of thousands of commercial fishing boats, I have to literally go beyond the limits.
01:06:00I'm told I must travel more than 750 miles upstream to the mouth of a little known tributary called the Padawery,
01:06:11which snakes its way north towards the border with Venezuela.
01:06:14This river's waters flow down past Obydos, but at this extreme distance, they're rarely fished.
01:06:23For me, this will be completely uncharted territory.
01:06:27I've examined all the other serious contenders and eliminated them one by one.
01:06:40I'm staking everything on the chance that out here I'll find the heavyweight catfish I'm after,
01:06:45and that I'll be able to prove it fits the profile of the super assassin that wiped out so many passengers so quickly on just one night.
01:06:56I'll need to deploy tackle that can deal with their extraordinary pulling power.
01:07:06That means a line with 150 pounds breaking strain,
01:07:11tough fluorocarbon to cope with submerged trees and rocks,
01:07:16and a steel leader that can withstand piranha teeth,
01:07:20and to top it all, a serious hook.
01:07:23This is a pattern I've actually used for shark fishing in the past.
01:07:27This is what's known as a circle hook.
01:07:29That point actually points towards the shank.
01:07:33It forms a rough circle.
01:07:34You actually fish in a slightly different way.
01:07:36You just engage the reel, let the line tighten.
01:07:40It's only when it reaches the lip you have proper contact.
01:07:46So most of the fish are hooked very nicely in the lip,
01:07:51where it's quite easy to get the hook out.
01:07:53Which is just as well when the creature I'm after stands accused of engulfing human limbs.
01:07:59That's piranha.
01:08:00It's history repeating itself.
01:08:01Once again, piranhas are stripping my bait.
01:08:02But these bites feel unusually aggressive.
01:08:05These piranha have the feel of quite big piranhas.
01:08:07It's history repeating itself.
01:08:24Once again, piranhas are stripping my bait.
01:08:27But these bites feel unusually aggressive.
01:08:30These piranhas have the feel of quite big piranhas.
01:08:34A couple of times they've taken out a couple of foot of line.
01:08:41I could move on, but my instinct tells me I should get a closer look at one of these bait thieves.
01:08:49My circle hook isn't going to catch them.
01:08:54Even a big piranha won't get that entirely in.
01:08:58I'm going to change for a J hook.
01:08:59And what that means is that the next time they start bothering the bait, I'm going to strike.
01:09:15Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on.
01:09:17Yep.
01:09:23Feels sizable.
01:09:25I'm heading up a remote tributary of the Amazon on the hunt for heavyweight catfish that I suspect had the pulling power to drag struggling survivors escaping from a boat disaster to the river's depths.
01:09:53But my attempts are being thwarted by an aggressive predator hiding in the river's dark waters.
01:10:09The strike feels like a piranha, but ten times the size of the ones I've caught downstream.
01:10:17Right, that's what's been eating my bait, that's a really big black piranha, just the size of that head.
01:10:34The power of those jaws.
01:10:37Now, a piranha this size could do some serious damage.
01:10:40It dwarfs the red bellies I've caught before.
01:10:47So could a swarm of these beasts be to blame?
01:10:52Luckily, they're not normally found in the concentrations that you find the small red belly piranhas.
01:10:57And the other thing is, actually, these are very rare in the main river, so I'm pretty certain that it wasn't involved in the events of that night.
01:11:05It's 17 long, and then 19-inch girth.
01:11:12And at more than six and a half pounds, this is the largest piranha I've ever caught.
01:11:18If my finger were in the way there, I'd be mine as a finger.
01:11:32If piranhas this size are at the smaller end of the food chain here,
01:11:36I'm seriously wondering what's at the other end of it.
01:11:40I'll have to keep fishing to find out what tipped the balance of survival against the passengers of the Sobral Santos.
01:11:50For days, I follow the relentless coils of this serpentine river northwards,
01:11:56towards the remote border with Venezuela.
01:11:58I might see the fish in a second.
01:12:22Finally, a flash of fin at the surface shows I'm dead on target.
01:12:28This is the pirarara.
01:12:36More commonly known as the Amazon red-tailed catfish.
01:12:41Its guarani name comes from the word for fish, pir, and the word for parrot, arara,
01:12:47because the fish's fins look like the plumage of the scarlet macaw.
01:12:52Out the water, they grunt, but also they make this squeaking noise.
01:12:56It's a piece of bone clicking against another piece of bone.
01:13:01And I can only imagine that that is actually for communication underwater.
01:13:05Normally, these things live in pretty low-vis conditions, hence the feelers,
01:13:10but this gives them another channel of communication to operate on.
01:13:15Next to its colour, the red-tail's most striking feature is its enormous head,
01:13:19around a third of its total body length.
01:13:23Wide mouth, very capacious mouth cavity, lots of little teeth that form these sort of sandpapery pads.
01:13:30So one here, one on the lower jaw.
01:13:34It's very good for gripping prey, anything they get hold of.
01:13:37As you can see, my finger is sort of rasped, rasped my finger there.
01:13:45But I still have too many unanswered questions to condemn the red-tail just yet.
01:13:51If these predators were involved, exactly what role did they play?
01:13:55I know they can grow to a size where they could easily engulf half a human leg,
01:14:02and I felt more than enough power to pull someone under.
01:14:07But how could these expert grippers account for all the mutilated bodies
01:14:14and so many passengers disappearing in the middle of the night?
01:14:22Up until now, I haven't dared fish here after dark.
01:14:27My location is so remote that if anything ever happened,
01:14:31an emergency evacuation at night would be impossible.
01:14:34But despite the risk of capsizing into water home to caimans
01:14:39and other nocturnal predators, I have to find out.
01:14:43Something's bumping on there now.
01:14:51Woken up all of a sudden.
01:14:52There's the proof that pirarara are active at night.
01:15:06The fact that they've got those feelers means they can operate and feed
01:15:10with no trouble at all.
01:15:14And quite a decent size as well.
01:15:18This one is four pounds heavier than the last.
01:15:21The case against this particular suspect is building.
01:15:25But if red tails did pull passengers from the surface that night,
01:15:30what is it about the way they operate
01:15:34that wiped out so many people so quickly, so near the shore?
01:15:39The only way to find out is to keep fishing,
01:15:42to see if there's anything in their behavior
01:15:44that could reveal an answer to this mystery.
01:15:53Yep.
01:15:54I haul in one red tail after another.
01:15:59Oh!
01:15:59But in order to bring the fish in,
01:16:02I have to take them on in an underwater battleground,
01:16:07booby-trapped with snags
01:16:09that's repeatedly destroying my gear.
01:16:14It's just cut on some sharp bit of wood, don't it?
01:16:25As the fish come in,
01:16:26I'm building up a picture of what's going on under the water.
01:16:30And it seems that they very much like proximity to snags.
01:16:37Well, not just proximity,
01:16:38they like being right in these fallen trees.
01:16:40I can feel it grating on a branch down there.
01:16:46So that's basically cut on a branch.
01:16:49But fishing these nightmarish snags
01:16:51has revealed the answer I'm after.
01:16:54Whenever a red tail takes the bait,
01:16:56it makes a dash for cover
01:16:58right into the heart of the snags.
01:17:02I've had a couple of runs,
01:17:03which, just as I've been getting ready to tighten them,
01:17:06it's stopped.
01:17:08And it looks like a fish
01:17:10that's maybe picked up the bait and dropped it.
01:17:12This says something about the catfish behaviour,
01:17:16which is grabbing food and then running off with it.
01:17:20When I go to reel in,
01:17:21I find it hasn't let go.
01:17:23It's just gone to ground.
01:17:25It's a bit like a dog running for its basket with a bone.
01:17:29But in certain circumstances,
01:17:30this behaviour can have lethal consequences.
01:17:33Catfish clamped on something, swimming,
01:17:37if it is somebody's foot with toes on,
01:17:40wiggling around and the fish grabs hold of it,
01:17:43it's going to drag the whole thing with it.
01:17:47The entire person is going to come with the catfish.
01:17:51OK, it might eventually let go.
01:17:55But in that time,
01:17:56that could make the difference
01:17:57between staying above the surface and drowning.
01:17:59And once the victim's under the water,
01:18:04the Amazon's sharp-toothed predators and scavengers
01:18:07can move in to finish the job.
01:18:15To be sure of my theory,
01:18:17I need to bring up a beast
01:18:18that's clearly capable of engulfing a limb.
01:18:21I have to attempt one more catch
01:18:25with what's left of my tackle.
01:18:40I might be about to get
01:18:42more than I bargained for.
01:18:44Oh, yeah.
01:18:47That's a good-sized fish.
01:18:51I think I'm closing in on the unlikely catalyst
01:19:03that turned a tragic shipwreck
01:19:06into an apocalyptic bloodbath.
01:19:09Oh, yeah.
01:19:10It's a good-sized fish.
01:19:15Let's keep well clear of the line.
01:19:16The beast isn't a heavyweight redtail,
01:19:23but a 100-pound-plus Piraiba.
01:19:26This goes to show
01:19:27that these pristine waters
01:19:29aren't patrolled by just one type
01:19:31of giant predatory catfish,
01:19:32but two,
01:19:34and both were found at Obydos.
01:19:37But there's a problem.
01:19:39The hook has been taken deep inside the mouth,
01:19:41and I need to take it out.
01:19:43I'm going to shove my hand in
01:19:46to get the hook out.
01:19:47It's going to give me a bite.
01:19:52It's bitten my arm.
01:19:54But this extreme opportunity
01:19:56to feel the bite of a big catfish
01:19:58gives me the last piece of evidence I need.
01:20:02Piraiba are in the same family as redtails,
01:20:05and they have virtually identical
01:20:07rasping pads in their mouths.
01:20:08These give them a grip
01:20:10that prevents slippery, struggling prey
01:20:12from escaping,
01:20:14a grip far superior
01:20:15to human hands.
01:20:26And a grip that I now know
01:20:29would have no problem
01:20:30holding struggling prey
01:20:31in the dark waters of Obydos
01:20:33the night the boat went down.
01:20:3630 years ago at Obydos,
01:20:39they used to chum the water
01:20:41with remains
01:20:41from the fish processing plant.
01:20:43I believe these exceptional conditions
01:20:46could have attracted
01:20:47the usually solitary Piraiba
01:20:48in greater numbers than normal,
01:20:51and they were far from alone.
01:20:53There were also hordes
01:20:55of oversized redtails.
01:20:56And these were fish used to
01:21:00grabbing morsels in the water.
01:21:03A bloody foot
01:21:04or somebody's arm,
01:21:06quite conceivable,
01:21:07they'd grab them
01:21:08thinking it's an edible morsel.
01:21:10And if you think how little it takes
01:21:13to make the difference
01:21:14between keeping your head above water
01:21:16and going under,
01:21:16it's very little.
01:21:20A fish the size of that
01:21:21or even half the size of that
01:21:22gets a good grip on part of you
01:21:24and decides to go.
01:21:26You're not going to have much chance.
01:21:37My gamble to pursue my quest
01:21:39to this remote tributary
01:21:40has paid off.
01:21:42I now have little doubt
01:21:43that the Amazon's heavyweight catfish
01:21:45played a pivotal role
01:21:46in the disaster,
01:21:48and what they started
01:21:49was finished
01:21:49by their deadly accomplices.
01:21:52Back at Obydos,
01:21:53the final pieces of the puzzle
01:21:55fall into place.
01:21:57So are we any closer
01:21:59to understanding
01:22:00what happened
01:22:00to those passengers
01:22:01who were unaccounted for
01:22:03at the time,
01:22:03the ones who went below the surface
01:22:05and never reappeared?
01:22:06And what was responsible
01:22:08for all the body parts
01:22:10floating in the river
01:22:11the next day?
01:22:12No single element
01:22:14causes a disaster
01:22:15of this scale.
01:22:17This catastrophe arose
01:22:18from an extraordinary convergence
01:22:20of conditions and participants
01:22:22on one horrific night.
01:22:24The mix might have included
01:22:26a few rare giants
01:22:27that could have easily torn victims
01:22:29limb from limb,
01:22:30and certainly a multitude of creatures
01:22:32at the other end of the size scale
01:22:34capable of mass carnage.
01:22:36There is no doubt
01:22:37that there were very large numbers
01:22:39of small carnivores.
01:22:42Flesh eaters drawn in
01:22:43by the thousands,
01:22:45by the scent of bleeding passengers,
01:22:47and primed to tear into
01:22:48and dismember
01:22:49the bodies
01:22:50of both living and dead.
01:22:56And come daylight,
01:22:58scavenging piranhas
01:22:59would have moved in
01:23:00to clean up
01:23:00what was left.
01:23:01From what I've seen,
01:23:03I think the devastation
01:23:05of this feeding frenzy
01:23:06was only made possible
01:23:07because something first
01:23:08pulled the victims under.
01:23:11Large red tails,
01:23:12aided and abetted
01:23:13by Piraiba.
01:23:16Both have the grip,
01:23:18the power,
01:23:20and the instinct to bolt.
01:23:24And 30 years ago,
01:23:25the pitch black waters
01:23:26of Obydos
01:23:27were alive with them,
01:23:28perhaps supersized
01:23:30on fish waste,
01:23:31dumped in the river
01:23:32right here,
01:23:33where the Sobral Santos
01:23:35went down.
01:23:36It was the perfect storm
01:23:38that delivered weakened prey
01:23:40to hordes
01:23:41of hungry flesh eaters.
01:23:43And if 30 years ago,
01:23:45you were in a boat
01:23:45travelling up the Amazon
01:23:47home to some of the world's
01:23:48most notorious river monsters,
01:23:50the last place
01:23:51you would want it to sink
01:23:52would be here.
01:23:54To watch more video
01:24:00of the most terrifying monsters
01:24:01and see behind the scenes,
01:24:03go to animalplanet.com
01:24:05slash rivermonsters.