- 5 months ago
River.Monsters.S07E04.Alaskas.Cold.Water.Killer
Category
🦄
CreativityTranscript
00:00Ice-capped mountains, wild rivers, and isolated coves.
00:08Southern Alaska may be spectacular, but this remote land can be a harsh and treacherous place.
00:16Recent reports have caught my eye of fishermen disappearing, vanishing without a trace.
00:23But for every case that makes the papers, others appear to go unreported.
00:30Sometimes people will be on a trip, just having a pleasure day, and they never come back.
00:37My name's Jeremy Wade.
00:40For many years I've been investigating mysterious disappearances on rivers and lakes.
00:47Revealing the strange and sometimes deadly creatures that lurk beneath the surface.
00:52Fish off, fish off!
00:55In Alaska, mysterious deaths are commonly blamed on boating accidents or bad weather.
01:01But with a growing case file, I'm beginning to wonder if these deep forbidding waters are in fact concealing a cold water killer.
01:10Every year, people venture into Alaska's remote waterways, never to return.
01:32They vanish, leaving no clues, no witnesses, and no bodies.
01:41The extreme weather is often blamed for this loss of life.
01:50But is that too easy a conclusion?
01:53Many fishermen are among the death toll.
01:56So I've come here to look beneath the surface.
02:00To find out if they're being lost to something other than the weather.
02:04I want to know if there's something in the water that's killing people.
02:15One recent tragedy is typical.
02:18There are only a few clues, but enough to arouse my suspicions.
02:23A fishing boat was discovered upturned on a mud bank.
02:28Although their life jackets were found, the two occupants had vanished.
02:32If bad weather had been closing in, being experienced fishermen, they would have put their life jackets on.
02:40But they didn't.
02:42The only things missing besides their bodies were their fishing rods.
02:49From what little is known about the incident, it seems that something must have caught the victims by surprise.
02:57It's very little to go on.
03:02But with so many fishermen killed in Alaska, I need to know if that deadly surprise is lurking in these waters.
03:12My investigation begins where their upturned boat was discovered.
03:17On the eastern edge of Prince William Sound, off Alaska's south coast.
03:21The evidence of the fatal fishing trip was found in a remote bay, where a branch of the Copper River Delta drains into the sea.
03:33When the tide comes in, all of this is underwater.
03:37But at low tide, like now, you just get this massive expanse of mudflat.
03:41And it's here where the boat was found.
03:44Now, how it got here, nobody knows for sure.
03:47One possibility is that whatever happened, happened somewhere out at sea, and the boat washed in on the tide.
03:53But another possibility is that something happened inland, and the boat actually got here by floating down the river.
04:03Since the fatal encounter could have happened along the coast or upriver, I've got double the normal challenge.
04:10The culprit could either be in freshwater or out at sea.
04:14I decide to start in the type of water I know best.
04:22The nearest town is Cordova, a remote fishing community of 2,000 people.
04:28If anyone can tell me what's in the rivers here, it will be the locals.
04:33We've got this gigantic king salmon.
04:36Yeah, a friend of mine caught one, like, about ten days ago out here in a gill net.
04:41Yeah, it was a five-foot window.
04:43Whereabouts was that?
04:44Not under the Copper River salmon.
04:46They come in there, and they spot right here.
04:49Is it shallow?
04:51They tell me that large king salmon breed in the Copper River, and that I should meet a man who has been fishing here for 30 years, river guide Stan Groves.
05:01I've seen lots of people getting in trouble, underestimating what was in this river, and once you fall in that river, if you get out of sight, you're gone.
05:09What's the biggest fish that most people can realistically expect to hook in this river?
05:14It's possible for a salmon to be up to 90 pounds.
05:17So that's the king salmon?
05:18Yeah.
05:18Chinook king salmon.
05:19This is no ordinary salmon.
05:22Growing up to five foot long with a maximum recorded weight of 135 pounds, it's the giant of all the Pacific salmon.
05:30The fish's size and the river's power are a dangerous mix.
05:36If this water's fast, when a big fish hits that line and takes off, it knocks you off your balance.
05:44So you've actually seen people pretty much pulled into the water by king salmon?
05:48Absolutely.
05:49No doubt about it at all.
05:50Big cowboy, 6'4", 235 pounds.
05:52There ain't no issue in this river is going to pull me off my feet pretty quickly here.
05:56Kaplunk, and there's these hats floating down the river.
05:58My son had to jump out of the back of the boat and grab him and pick him up on the bank.
06:02He shut up after that.
06:07If a man bigger and heavier than I am can be pulled into these waters so easily, I need to think carefully about my approach.
06:14I also hear a confirmed report of a young man dying after tangling with a king salmon.
06:22In Washington state, Harry Koha was spearfishing while his brothers watched from the bank.
06:28When he speared a large king salmon, the fish took off with such force, he was wrenched into the icy river.
06:35According to reports, his battered body was recovered along with the remains of the 65 pound monster fish
06:42that pulled him to his death.
06:47But could the king salmon be behind some of the disappearances here in Alaska?
06:53This is not a fish I'm familiar with, so I'm not entirely sure what to expect.
06:58The largest salmon breed in the Copper River tributaries.
07:07To reach a place where I'm likely to find one requires a dangerous voyage through 17 miles of uninhabited wilderness.
07:14I'm feeling out of my element in these icy, turbulent rapids.
07:24But the mighty king salmon has the power to swim against this wide water on its 200 mile run from the sea to its breeding grounds upstream.
07:33The thing about this water, when you look at it up close, it's quite cloudy, quite milky.
07:45You can't really see into it and that's because it comes off a glacier, it's carrying very fine sediment.
07:51It's also, it's cold, it's very cold.
07:53So this is where the salmon are. They are totally equipped for this kind of water.
08:07The salmon can manage these extreme conditions.
08:11But if I was dragged into these waters, I'd either drown or be dead from hypothermia in minutes.
08:16The fish rest in pockets of calm water on their way upstream.
08:23So that's where I'll try to intercept them.
08:26Salmon stop feeding when they leave the sea to spawn.
08:30So to hook one of these monsters, the locals tell me I have to use an unusual bait.
08:36Those are actually king salmon eggs.
08:39Now, salmon don't normally feed in fresh water.
08:42But if you drag this across their face, they will go for it.
08:46One theory behind that, nobody knows for sure, is that maybe they recognize the eggs,
08:50but they will be from another individual.
08:52So it's the salmon trying to put the competition out of business.
08:56Final detail, I'm using a hundred pound breaking strain braided line.
09:01The drag here, I've got it screwed up almost as far as it will go.
09:05And that's all I can do to pull that line off the spool.
09:08I can feel it cutting into my fingers.
09:11But you need it this tight because if the fish get up any momentum in this current,
09:16they're going to take a lot of stopping.
09:21If I do hook a king salmon, I must remember it's not safe to step any further into this river.
09:28A fisherman's determination to never let go of the rod can be overwhelming.
09:33But if I get pulled into this icy current so far from help, I could end up as another deadly statistic.
09:44My drag is set to maximum.
09:46My feet are firmly planted.
09:48I'm ready to test the power of this mighty fish for myself.
09:52I don't know if that was anything or not.
10:10Most other fish, other than salmon, you wouldn't tend to just stay in one spot casting, casting repeatedly.
10:16But the thing about salmon is there might be some holding up here, but others are going to be working their way up river.
10:22So I'm varying the approach a little bit, but waiting for the fish to come to me.
10:33Somewhere hidden in this churning current, the king salmon are on the move.
10:38Suddenly, something grabs the bait.
10:40Fish!
10:54I've come to Alaska to find out if some kind of monster fish is behind mysterious cases of fishermen vanishing without trace.
11:04My first suspect is the biggest fish of the river, the king salmon.
11:10They have been known to drag fishermen into the water, and I'm hoping to put this fish's legendary power to the test.
11:20Fish!
11:22One of these bruisers is now on the end of my line.
11:25Big fish in heavy current.
11:27Amazing how much strength he's got.
11:29It's quite close, I think.
11:43It's quite close.
11:45Here comes.
11:47Yup!
11:49There we go.
11:51Still a lot of strength in that fish.
11:53Wow.
11:54And that's the male.
11:56Fantastic.
11:58There we go.
12:01Okay, here we go.
12:03So this is a male king salmon.
12:06The males transform as they head up river.
12:09Their jaw distorts and develops sharp canines, ready for gruesome battles in the spawning grounds.
12:16It's swum over 160 miles to be here.
12:20Hasn't fed the entire way.
12:21It's been just running on body fat, so it's been losing weight as it gets up here.
12:25I'm just amazed that it has so much energy.
12:28This 35-pounder put up an arm-wrenching fight, but fish twice this size have been caught here.
12:35I wonder if the king salmon could indeed be behind some of the unexplained disappearances in this part of Alaska.
12:43There we go.
12:45There was a moment there where I was actually struggling to keep my balance on these boulders.
12:50The strength of that fish took me a little bit by surprise.
12:53It would be very easy to end up in this fast water, and fast water doesn't need to be very deep to overpower you.
12:58You know, knee deep or so, it can knock you over.
13:00I can imagine a scenario where just that desire to go too much out into the current could spill trouble.
13:10The loss of a lone fisherman in this way is very believable.
13:14But in the recent case where the upturned boat was found, two people were fishing together.
13:20What about the second person?
13:21Well, you see instances all the time where somebody goes to help a person who's already in trouble.
13:26They both end up in trouble.
13:28So, yeah, two people quite possibly.
13:32But something still doesn't add up.
13:36In this case, the victim's boat and life jackets were discovered.
13:41So why were their bodies never found?
13:43The water here is just too shallow for two people to completely disappear.
13:51Even a scavenging grizzly would have left some evidence behind.
13:56In this case, I don't think they were fishing upriver at all.
14:01Their boat was found where the river meets the sea.
14:07If this fatal accident didn't happen in freshwater, I must turn my attention to the coast.
14:16Did these fishermen encounter something large and powerful at the river mouth?
14:21I need to find out what predators patrol the shoreline.
14:27In this very remote stretch of coast, there are few people around to ask.
14:33But my investigation takes an unexpected turn when I track down Boone Hodgin,
14:38the manager of a small fishing lodge on one of the inlets.
14:41Oh!
14:44I'm looking into an incident of some people who went missing in this area.
14:49I just wondered if you knew anything about any disappearances in this inlet.
14:54Yeah, actually, we get quite a few disappearances each year.
14:58But it's something that only the locals hear about.
15:01We're so remote that it doesn't actually reach beyond this area.
15:05Now, this year we've had about five already.
15:07And there's a lot of mystery to how these people disappear.
15:10Sometimes people will be on a trip, just like on a day like this, and they never come back.
15:19What he tells me appears to confirm my suspicions.
15:23Fishermen are vanishing even in calm water.
15:27And these deaths are not even making the newspapers.
15:30It appears the cases I've read about are just the tip of the iceberg.
15:35Boone recounts one story of a chilling disappearance.
15:41Donald Graham left Cordova to fish alone, and later that day his boat was spotted spinning in circles.
15:48The engine was running, but no one was at the wheel.
15:52It's another case where a fisherman just vanishes.
15:57Do you have large animals, potentially dangerous, that could be a factor if you're out on the water?
16:05Yeah, you know, we've got sharks in the area just right down the beach from us.
16:09Sharks actually in the inlet here?
16:11Yes.
16:12You're saying that if I take a boat out here, you can pretty well guarantee that I'll see a shark?
16:17A hundred percent. And they're really big.
16:23These cold northern waters are not the usual shark hunting grounds.
16:27But it seems this coast is visited by a relative of the Great White.
16:35Salmon sharks can grow as big as the fearsome bull shark.
16:40And there are unconfirmed reports of them reaching over 14 feet.
16:45I'm on the water for less than 10 minutes, when dorsal fins start circling close to our boat.
16:53That is unmistakably a shark fin.
16:56This is very interesting. Once you see one shark here, you just start seeing them everywhere.
17:01They're actually quite discreet. You just see a few inches of fin cutting the surface.
17:05The thing that we don't know is that just the tip of the iceberg.
17:09Are there many more down below?
17:11But definitely just from the ones that I can see, if you were to fall in the water here,
17:15you would not be very far from a shark.
17:17Very few people fish for these sharks.
17:23So unlike the highly prized king salmon, this is not a fish that people here will risk their lives trying to catch.
17:30Fishermen are not being pulled in trying to land one.
17:35But what if a person fell in or capsized in these waters?
17:39Would these large predators then attack?
17:41Sharks are normally cold blooded, slow and sluggish in icy waters.
17:49But salmon sharks are very different.
17:53These killers are warm blooded.
17:56They have a clever heat exchange system that effectively traps heat in the fine blood vessels in the shark's core,
18:04thereby preventing heat loss to the surrounding water.
18:07This ensures that their muscles, eyes and brain are powered by blood up to 70 degrees warmer than the water around them.
18:18So even in icy temperatures, these predators move fast and hit hard.
18:24They have the teeth and the power.
18:28But what I need to find out is whether they also have the disposition to attack.
18:32These sharks are not known man-eaters.
18:38But in these remote waters, few people choose to swim.
18:42Though sharks rarely encounter humans.
18:45To find out if salmon sharks would attack people, I now realize that I'm going to have to put my rod aside and test their aggression the only way I know.
18:54It looks like there's no alternative to using myself as bait.
19:00In icy Alaskan waters, I'm looking for a fish that could be behind the mysterious disappearances of local fishermen.
19:20And I've just found a ten-foot suspect.
19:25There have been no reports of salmon sharks attacking people, but that's not surprising.
19:31Swimming is hardly popular in their cold, remote hunting grounds.
19:36But what if someone falls in?
19:38With no witnesses to the many fatal accidents, I have to test the gruesome possibility that shark attacks are the reason few bodies are ever found.
19:47Little is known about salmon shark behavior.
19:57Shark scientist Scott Anderson is in Prince William Sound studying how they hunt.
20:02These salmon sharks are up here to feed on salmon, and they're very aggressive when they're feeding.
20:09They get it right on their nose, and they just will chase it right down.
20:13And, you know, they go for other things that are in the water.
20:15When they get excited, they see jellyfish, and they look at them, and we've had them bite our hydrophone or a camera.
20:20These large-eyed predators launch their attacks from below, catapulting themselves out of the water to seize their prey.
20:29It's the same mode of attack as their close relative, the great white.
20:32Great whites are known to mistake humans for food. Is the same true for salmon sharks?
20:49The scenario of somebody in the water struggling, what might happen?
20:54I don't think there would be a big problem, but there's always a chance that they could be territorial in a way that we don't understand,
21:00and somebody might give the wrong cues, and one may try to bite a person at that time.
21:04So there's the potential that they could try to bite a person, but nobody knows.
21:08If these sharks are hunting near a fishing boat, what happens if someone falls into the feeding frenzy?
21:16To find out, I need to take a calculated gamble, and Scott has agreed to come with me.
21:23We head towards a location very close to land, where Scott thinks we'll find plenty of sharks.
21:30Before I get into the water, I'm anxious to get a feel for the shark's behaviour below the surface.
21:39So I send down a remotely operated underwater camera, which sends a live feed back to the boat.
21:52Big jellyfish.
21:54Big jellyfish.
21:56Oh!
21:58It was a shark, right through the screen. Right, where's that gone?
22:02Where's that gone?
22:03Here, there it is, there it is! It's circling, circling.
22:08Is it my imagination, or is that actually quite inquisitive?
22:13That's inquisitive, that's coming, that is inquisitive.
22:17I'm beginning to wonder whether getting into the water is the best idea.
22:21and that looked like it was definitely investigating the sharks are clearly very
22:29curious now to test their behavior in their most aggressive state we need to
22:36get them into their feeding mode by putting bait in the water we are seeing
22:42if we can get the sharks interested in in herring we're not using hooks though
22:47we're just clipping them on if these sharks go for the bait this will set us
22:52up to replicate the scenario I'm interested in testing what happens if a
22:57fisherman falls overboard when a pack of sharks is hunting next to the boat
23:03I'll just pull it sink a little and then slowly wind it good coming up it's following it
23:24my goal is not to catch a shark but to switch on their hunting mode
23:29well I think what I'll do in a sec is actually give you the rod and if you can keep them
23:36interested all right I'll go and suit up okay good deal what we're gonna do now is get in
23:54with them it does sound potentially rather a crazy idea but it's the only way we're gonna
23:59gauge how they react to people when they're actually in that feeding mode Scott says I
24:06should be okay with only a dry suit and a snorkel I hope he's right which internal organ makes up a
24:20quarter of the salmon sharks wait the answer right after this which internal organ makes up a
24:28quarter of the salmon sharks wait the answer is the oil-rich liver which gives the fish buoyancy
24:34along the Alaskan coast fishermen are vanishing without a trace
24:48I want to know if salmon sharks close relatives of the great white would ever attack someone who fell
24:58into the icy water I've teamed up with shark scientists Scott Anderson to attempt the ultimate
25:06test I will jump into a shark feeding frenzy to see how they react I'm going in without any
25:15protective equipment just a dry suit and a snorkel but I'm staying close to the boat in case they appear
25:22ready to attack now that I'm in the water I feel incredibly vulnerable more and more sharks emerge from the gloom chasing the bait with spectacular agility and speed
25:44That shark took that herring right in front of my face saw its mouth open and then it just turned away they're feeding but not on me so far
25:51Then the sharks close in and I'm surrounded they're striking at herrings only a few feet away
25:58Then the sharks close in and I'm surrounded they're striking at herrings only a few feet away
26:06They appear to home in on anything small and silver just like the fish they target one shark carefully skirts around me to attack one of our shiny underwater cameras
26:13Then the sharks close in and I'm surrounded they're striking at herrings only a few feet away
26:19They appear to home in on anything small and silver just like the fish they target one shark carefully skirts around me to attack one of our shiny underwater cameras
26:31To attack one of our shiny underwater cameras
26:38very very close feeding action there one took the herring right in front of my face it's coming
26:59towards me but I think it was totally focused on that herring I was there as a sort of an obstacle
27:03it was an unnerving experience but what's important is that I emerged unscathed
27:10these fish are definitely in feeding mode no doubt about that but they're not going for people
27:18that's that is shark mythology the reality about these ones is they're focused on on fish
27:23when shark attacks do happen it's very often a case of mistaken identity
27:33here these large-eyed visual predators could easily tell me apart from their target prey
27:39and they avoided any contact
27:41as soon as you hear the word shark it's the normal human tendency to cast them as the villain but
27:49having tested this assumption as thoroughly as I possibly could I'm forced to the conclusion
27:54that these sharks here pose no threat to people so where does that leave us maybe there's something
28:03else down there my search for dangerous Alaskan fish has led me from the rivers to the nearby coastal
28:11waters I wonder if a shark isn't to blame is there another fish big enough to drag or knock someone out of his boat
28:20back in town I head to the docks if there are other monstrous fish offshore someone here is bound to have run into them
28:34I ask around and find fisherman Chris Knowles who has an almost unbelievable story
28:42we were out for the day fishing my buddy and I in a small raft and this 200 pound fish comes up to the surface
28:52and my buddy Steve lunged at it with a harpoon and I went to throw the hook into its lip
28:58and a weight came and threw my arm down into the mouth of the fish it just bit down and clamped my arm
29:05and the 200 pounds immediately pulled me over to the side I reached over the other side of the dinging
29:11and it starts lifting up like this and all I can do is just to hold on and keep my head above water
29:18I'm like Steve help and Steve pulls as hard as he can the harpoon finally comes out he falls back and he's flailing in the boat
29:25and I've got a halibut here that's just gnawing on my arm so this is a halibut that's got hold of your arm
29:31and it's and it's about 200 pounds you say well it's the biggest fish we have in Alaska next to
29:36salmon sharks and a big halibut pound for pound they can do a lot of damage when they get on the boat that
29:41tail gets slapping they can start curling up they can break deck gear break legs break bones when this
29:47was happening what was the worst case scenario that was in your mind what's the worst case scenario I'm going
29:53down with this halibut I had that image in my mind the hooks in me and I'm going down was yelling and
29:59cussing like I never did before and spent the next three days nursing injuries and cuts all on my hand
30:05the hand was completely cut up lots of blood I'm surprised to hear that Chris hooked this fish very
30:14close to shore the halibut is an unexpected contender but it is a powerful predator it looks like I've got
30:24another dangerous battle ahead of me in southern Alaska I'm looking for a fish that's big enough to take
30:44down a human and I've just found the most unexpected contender Chris Knowles was fishing close to shore when
30:53a monster sized halibut that he was trying to bring into the boat nearly dragged him overboard these giant
31:02fish are usually shot in the water or killed as soon as they're on deck handling a live one is asking for
31:10trouble it was a small dingy Chris was fortunate to escape with his life but he knows of another
31:16fisherman who wasn't so lucky Joseph cash hooked to halibut weighing more than 150 pounds when he
31:25hauled it onto the deck the thrashing beast struck him with such force it broke one of his legs and
31:31ruptured his femoral artery fearful of falling overboard the injured fisherman roped himself to the winch
31:40but by the time he was discovered he bled to death Chris's stories get me thinking halibut have been
31:51caught along this coastline for centuries but if this fish really poses such a deadly threat to fishermen in
31:58small boats how were they caught before modern vessels were used to find out I arranged to meet
32:07commercial fishermen and native Alaskan June Lankard halibut fishing is really dangerous it's really hard
32:15work and so traditionally fishermen would really have to design their gear to catch smaller fish in the
32:25old days our canoes were you know at best maybe 20 feet and if you landed a big halibut it could flip
32:32that boat over or wrap you up in the line anything could happen June shows me a traditional hook and
32:38its unusual construction is revealing so this is designed specifically to avoid the bigger halibut
32:45partly because how dangerous that can be if you're in a small boat right depending on the size of your
32:50hook in the space between the hook in this bridge right here would determine what size of fish could
32:57actually get their mouth around that hook so basically a fish with a big mouth a big thick jaw
33:02just physically won't get it past that gap so it won't get impaled on the point right I have to say
33:08I don't think I've ever seen a hook before that's actually designed to avoid hooking big fish I mean
33:14it is very ingenious sure but if you went out there without knowing all these things and if you landed a
33:19big halibut in some cases they could be fatal when I arrived here I was unsure where to look for a
33:29possible killer though halibut are marine predators they do come right inshore literally to the river
33:36mouths so anyone fishing here runs the risk of encountering one of these monsters the largest
33:46specific halibut ever caught was just under 500 pounds that's nearly three times what I weigh and
33:52they're voracious predators salmon squid seagulls and even seals have been found in their stomachs
34:00if you're in a small boat and you hook one of these giant flatfish is possibly not the halibut
34:08that's going to end up as dinner
34:16now with this new suspect on my radar I want to find out for myself how strong this beast really is
34:31there's a known halibut spot that we're going to and what I'm trying to do is prepare myself mentally for
34:36catching this fish the other thing that's on my mind is the big ones people around here they don't try
34:44and get them in the boats intact and then return them if they bring them in the boat they're going
34:49to kill them they're either going to shoot them in the water they're going to club them they're
34:52going to harpoon them gaff them I don't want to do any of that but that is introducing a whole new
34:57layer of challenge how to get a close look at a big fish without injuring it or me it's not really
35:05something that anybody's particularly tried to do before fishermen here just don't tangle with large
35:12live halibut but I want to get a good look at this creature and then put it back alive
35:17this region around here looks a little bit like Jurassic Park amazing fishing spot very hard to believe
35:40that there could be halibut here this isn't very deep I was going to say I can't wait to get a line
35:46in the water but what I've heard about some of these fish it's one of those moments where you're slightly
35:51hesitant about the process as well I'm using a large plastic jig on hundred pound braided line
35:59and dropping it onto the seabed just 30 feet below the sea floor is the halibut's domain and I'm hoping to
36:10tempt a monster onto my line yes it's a solid it doesn't take long yeah to bring that in
36:21that's something already there it is there it is oh running at the surface I'm gonna let it just go
36:34tire itself out
36:35off it goes again off it goes again
36:44so whatever that was uh has escaped
37:06it felt like it was a good-sized fish I reset and hope I haven't let the big one slip away
37:15it seems these waters are swarming with these bottom-dwelling predators
37:37the second it hits the bait the fish takes off with a turn of speed that catches me off guard
37:45that turned into quite a powerful dive I'm getting a very disconcerting and characteristic
37:50knocking on the uh the rod
37:53the way these fish swim it's sort of up and down
37:57it's up and down movement
38:00bringing this fish in is going to be an almighty struggle
38:08I can see it I can see it
38:09this is the size of a fish
38:12I'm in the remote wilderness of southern Alaska where fishermen have gone missing without a trace
38:33and what may be the most dangerous fish in these waters is on the end of my line
38:39yeah
38:39big halibut are usually killed as soon as they're caught
38:46because no one wants to risk handling a live one
38:50but that's exactly what I want to do now
38:53it's quite a good size
38:54I'm going to go for the nets
38:56yep we all ready
38:57I want to get this fish on board without injuring it or us
39:01now
39:01on that end that end
39:06no no no no no no
39:07hey can you get and just cover the left hand side
39:12someone take the rod please
39:14all right and down we go
39:25right it seems calm now
39:28should we go for it
39:29okay good
39:30it gets really green
39:32yep
39:33dorsal fins there good
39:35okay
39:36this is a big halibut
39:38this is 120 odd pounds
39:40heavy to lift
39:41heavy to bring in
39:42and having seen this thing thrash on the surface I can absolutely believe
39:45those stories of when they kick off in a boat
39:47damaging people
39:48we tend to think of flatfish as just food for us
39:51but this is absolutely way up the food chain
39:53this is a predator
39:54and if you're in any doubt of that
39:56just look at the size of the mouth and the teeth there
39:59that will just engulf and then clamp down
40:01its large tail and powerful musculature
40:06give it explosive acceleration
40:08it is undeniably a very odd looking beast
40:14a sight hunter with two eyes on one side of its face
40:17is something I've never encountered in fresh water
40:20though this one seems to have calmed down
40:25after coming into the boat
40:27I don't want to push my luck
40:29when I came to Alaska I wanted to find out if there is anything under the water
40:39that could be responsible for some of these cases of unexplained human disappearances
40:45and the answer is an unequivocal yes
40:49there is a very large and powerful fish living around the river mouths and inlets of this remote coastline
40:55in a fight with one of these it would be perfectly possible for an unlucky fisherman
41:01to be dragged down and lost in cold coastal waters
41:04at least one fisherman is known to have been killed by a huge halibut
41:09and they have long been treated with respect by native Alaskans
41:13in these hostile waters storms and boating accidents do take many lives
41:20but hooking one of these monsters could also be surprisingly deadly
41:25and in fact having heard all that I have about this fish
41:31I actually consider myself very lucky to have walked away from my encounter unscathed
41:37thank you
41:55thank you