- 4 months ago
Documentary, River Monsters S05E02 Atomic Assassin
##RiverMonsters
##RiverMonsters
Category
🐳
AnimalsTranscript
00:00In Eastern Europe, there have long been rumors of an ancient freshwater monster.
00:07It has slithered through the centuries, leaving a string of grisly attacks in its wake,
00:13dragging people from the shallows and even tearing off limbs.
00:18My name is Jeremy Wade, and my search for this elusive creature
00:22will lead me from its remote rural beginnings to the most unlikely refuge,
00:27the cooling pond of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
00:34Where I'm thrown into a science fiction nightmare,
00:38searching for a suspected mutant amid the fallout of the worst nuclear accident the world has ever seen.
00:46So mutant fish, it seems very likely.
00:49My mission is to venture deep behind the former Iron Curtain
00:53to discover this monster's true identity
00:56and in a race against deadly radiation and time
00:59to catch it.
01:02That's a fish!
01:14Soviet Ukraine in the 1930s,
01:17and a young farmhand tends his cattle.
01:19Heading down to the lake to cool off,
01:22he secures the cow to his wrist with a length of rope.
01:33Suddenly something grabs his leg and drags him into the water.
01:39Still attached to the cow, he shouts the command,
01:41go, go, go, go.
01:43And the tug of war begins.
01:49Hearing his screams, villagers run to his aid and haul him to safety
01:53as the beast retreats.
01:59But is there really a creature living in those waters
02:05capable of such an attack?
02:08I'm making my way to Ukraine in Eastern Europe
02:15To a village called Somin at the heart of the lake monster legends
02:20The whole area is permeated by interconnected lakes and waterways
02:27The perfect labyrinth to hide a monster
02:30Beneath the relics of the Soviet Empire lie its rural roots
02:35Remote places steeped in pagan folklore and mysticism
02:39Their misty waters are said to be home to vengeful spirits
02:43With ancient ceremonies still performed to appease them
02:47My investigation starts in Somin
02:53Which appears every bit a sleepy rural village
02:56I waste no time and get chatting with the locals
03:01Who, on hearing that I'm on the trail of a mysterious lake creature
03:04Immediately point me in the direction of a nearby farmer named Anatoly
03:09Anatoly, people say that you know something about a large creature in the lake
03:16Something called a Somme
03:21They've got a name for this thing
03:22What exactly is a Somme?
03:23What does a Somme look like?
03:25A lot of small sharp teeth, he says, almost like the bristles of a brush
03:41The whole body just has this slimy feel to it.
03:50The fish of seven to ten foot used to be a regular occurrence.
04:00They would be so big that they'd have to take them away on a horse and cart.
04:04And apparently swans and geese from time to time would just disappear from sight.
04:10Something would come up and just engulf them whole.
04:13Very, very fast, striking, ferocious fish.
04:16Do you still have big ones in the lake?
04:27He says he thinks there are still quite big ones there.
04:30Fish maybe seven, eight, nine foot long.
04:35So it seems there's a large, aggressive fish at the heart of these stories.
04:40And while I'm not sure of its identity, I do at least have a name.
04:44The Somme.
04:46Somme!
04:48It's hard to imagine this tranquil village harbouring a bloodthirsty monster.
04:52But as I search my way through the dawn mist, Somme Lake takes on a whole new character.
05:05The sun there rising through the mist.
05:07It feels like a place where water spirits and ten foot long fish could be perfectly possible.
05:13I want to find out what life lurks in the depths of this lake.
05:19Trailing a lure behind the boat will allow me to explore a large expanse of water.
05:24But without the modern luxury of a motor, it does require some effort.
05:29See the rod tip sort of wobbling away there, which is good.
05:32It shows that the bait is working.
05:34It's actually swimming with a bit of life.
05:39The thought of fishing here, getting on for the length of this boat.
05:46It does make you feel a little bit vulnerable.
05:48I fish all through the morning, without any interest in my lure.
05:54Then I come across someone else with a line in the water.
05:58Helena lives nearby and fishes here nearly every day.
06:03Do you know anything about big fish in this lake?
06:06I saw it not far away.
06:08Not far away.
06:09Not far away.
06:10Not far away.
06:11Just off here, about 30 feet off the dock, the water parted.
06:17And something, well that was actually the width across its back.
06:22A very large fish surface.
06:23She said it was multicolored.
06:24There was a bit of red and blue in there.
06:27Well, I think it was Somme.
06:29She said she thinks it was one of these Somme.
06:33I now focus on the area where Helena saw this fish,
06:36and switch to casting out my lures.
06:42Yeah, yeah.
06:47No, that's not a fish.
06:48That's not a fish.
06:50What's this?
06:53I think it's called on a net.
06:59I'm pulling it in because netting is actually illegal.
07:02I can hardly get two fingers in one hole.
07:05So that is designed for very small fish.
07:08It just goes on and on.
07:11There must be over 200 feet of net just in this one spot.
07:16Oh, what's this?
07:19There's a pike here.
07:21So this is a pike.
07:22This is only a small one.
07:23But these do grow four or five feet long.
07:25It's a predator, but it's got teeth.
07:27The Somme doesn't, or certainly not teeth like these.
07:30And also, the thing I've been hearing about,
07:33the width of the body is the length of this.
07:36So whatever it was that attacked that boy,
07:39pretty certainly it wasn't one of these.
07:47Now it's attacked the bottom of the food chain.
07:49And what it means is that everything that depends on the small fish,
07:51you know, there's just not enough food.
07:53I wonder how big an impact modern fishing materials have had on this ancient lake.
08:02In search of answers, I seek out a man named Petro,
08:05one of the village's old-timer fishermen.
08:07The last 20, 25 years, life got a bit hard, but at the same time,
08:16you had more availability of cheap fishing line, cheap fishing net.
08:22There aren't the fish now that there used to be.
08:26He says he thinks it's not too late, but this place, it seems,
08:31is a shadow of its former self at the moment.
08:35So I don't disbelieve that there were seven-foot-long fish here once,
08:40but it sounds like I might be 20, 25 years too late.
08:45But in a country as vast as Ukraine,
08:50could the Somme still be lurking elsewhere amid its myriad marshes
08:55and interconnecting water channels?
09:00I'm on my way to meet a freshwater spear fisherman,
09:03and he claims to have some more recent information about this fish, the Somme.
09:09His name is Bogdan,
09:11and he's spent over a decade spearfishing in Ukraine's murky, fresh water.
09:16What do you see? What do you hunt here?
09:19Somme, big Somme, big Somme, and Somme.
09:23Pike, Xander, and Somme.
09:26In my opinion, about 70-80 kilograms.
09:29Very big. He's seen them up to, well, getting close to 200 pounds.
09:34Are these fish dangerous?
09:36This fish is very dangerous.
09:39And he knows some real incidents.
09:46Apparently, a military diver doing sort of repairs.
09:58He saw a very large Somme.
10:01Diver didn't fear.
10:02He took a knife and got caught.
10:04So the Somme attacked the diver.
10:07The Somme managed to grab hold of his arm or his hand,
10:12and actually pulled his hand off.
10:19And whereabouts did this happen?
10:22In one of Prudov-o-chlighters, one of the atomic electric stations.
10:29So apparently this happened in the cooling pond of a nuclear power plant,
10:32and people are saying that not only was this fish very large,
10:35it was also some kind of a mutant.
10:38Which nuclear power station?
10:41Chernobyl.
10:42The site of the worst ever radiological accident in history.
10:49And now reportedly home to a giant mutant with a taste for human flesh.
10:54But how close dare I go in search of the Somme?
10:59I'm in the former Soviet state of Ukraine, exploring an area with a long history of lake monsters.
11:15Where I've just learnt of a diver reportedly having his hand ripped off by a giant fish.
11:22Rumored to live in the cooling pond of the abandoned Chernobyl reactor.
11:27In the early hours of April 26th, 1986,
11:33the safety systems at reactor number 4 were temporarily shut down for an experiment.
11:42Moments later, an unexpected power spike caused a series of huge explosions.
11:48They tore through the reactor, exposing hundreds of tons of intensely radioactive material to the surrounding environment.
12:03Good evening.
12:04That Soviet nuclear disaster is probably the worst in history.
12:08Radioactivity is still being sent into the atmosphere.
12:11With reports that as many as 2,000 people may have been killed and a dangerous fire continues to burn.
12:16Emergency crews battled night and day to control the raging fires.
12:21There was a chemical explosion which caused a core meltdown.
12:24That is the most severe of the nuclear accidents that can occur.
12:28And an 18-mile security zone has been set up around the site.
12:32Today, nearly 30 years later, this exclusion zone is still under strict military protection and control.
12:40Only authorised personnel may enter.
12:43When I set out, I never imagined that I'd end up heading for the site of the world's worst ever nuclear accident, Chernobyl.
12:54The question that's on my mind is whether this fearsome fish, the Somme, has survived in the cooling pond.
13:01Is it still there?
13:02And if it has, has the radiation maybe caused it to mutate into something potentially even more terrifying?
13:10The word mutant instantly conjures up visions of deformed giants, gargantuan products of ionising radiation.
13:20Could the Somme really have met a similar fate?
13:23Very few people are allowed through the gates guarding Chernobyl's exclusion zone.
13:32So there's a lot of control going on here.
13:34Very closely guarded zone.
13:40Fishing gear has raised questions.
13:42This is not a place where fishing is allowed.
13:45Ever since the accident, fishing within the zone has been completely outlawed.
13:51They're being very thorough about checking that I've got everything, that the paperwork's in order.
13:55The authorities approve my preliminary paperwork and I'm granted temporary access to the periphery of the zone.
14:07Chernobyl consists of multiple jurisdictions, much like a Russian doll, each layer giving way to the next and all requiring a new level of permission.
14:18For my own safety, I'm restricted to just five consecutive days of exposure.
14:25This is a fishing trip unlike any other.
14:27I've got a couple of things here that I wouldn't normally have with me.
14:30These will keep track of the total amount of radioactivity that I'm exposed to.
14:35This thing, this thing's really my guardian angel.
14:38This will go everywhere with me.
14:39This will read in real time the level of radioactivity around me.
14:43If I'm anywhere where the reading's particularly high, there's an alarm that will go off.
14:48Crucially though, this device also shows me how close I'm getting to my radiation limit.
14:54A maximum set by safety experts that must not be exceeded in my five days.
15:00Any exposure to radiation incurs an increased risk of cancer.
15:05And staying within this limit is essential for my safety.
15:08If I reach it, I'll have no choice but to leave Chernobyl immediately.
15:14The countdown has begun.
15:21Under the gaze of the reactor stands the city of Pripyat.
15:24Prior to the accident, it was a thriving community, built to house the thousands of power plant workers and their families.
15:37It was a model city for the nuclear age.
15:42Now, it lies completely abandoned.
15:58To see ancient ruins overrun by vegetation is one thing.
16:03To see a modern city like this is something else entirely.
16:06And the silence in this place is really quite spooky.
16:12What happened here? What was the story?
16:14Well, what happened was a mass evacuation.
16:1850,000 people told to leave and they left in a matter of hours.
16:24And they were told that they would be back in three days.
16:26Well, it's now nearly 30 years and they never came back.
16:36This whole area is still radioactive.
16:39It won't return to normal for tens of thousands of years.
16:43And the levels of radiation, they vary.
16:45There are localised hotspots where the level might be several hundred times what it is just a few feet away.
16:51Without my specialised equipment, I'd have no idea what I was being exposed to or how quickly I was approaching my limit.
17:01Just as the men, women and children of Pripyat were unaware of the danger they faced from this invisible threat.
17:08The full death toll will never be known, though it's clear that it lies in the thousands and continues to rise to this day.
17:25But not all living creatures were able to escape the radiation.
17:28There were fish living in the very water that cooled the reactor.
17:33And what I need to do now is to find out what happened to them.
17:35Did they survive even?
17:36And if so, could this be the basis of this story about a huge mutant fish?
17:45Many fish can live for well over 30 years.
17:49Could there still be fish alive here, trapped ever since the accident?
17:53Super-sized mutants capable of tearing off human limbs.
17:59The cooling pond is a vast man-made lake, built to provide water to the power plant reactors along a number of channels.
18:08It extends for almost four miles before draining into the Pripyat River at its southern end.
18:14The whole area seems surprisingly green and healthy above the water.
18:21But what about underneath?
18:24I'm about to get my first look at something brought up from the radioactive depths.
18:35How long will it take for Chernobyl's radioactivity to return to pre-accident levels?
18:40It will take millions of years for Chernobyl's radioactivity to return to pre-accident levels.
18:56I'm exploring the radioactive waters around Chernobyl, looking for a suspected mutant fish, accused of ripping a man's hand clean off.
19:05There's clearly some kind of life in these waters, but am I about to pull up a mutant?
19:13Well, that's a lovely pike.
19:17This fish actually looks perfectly formed.
19:21I think this doesn't look like any kind of mutant fish.
19:24This may be bigger than the pike I found in the village, but even a pike of record-breaking size couldn't remove a man's hand.
19:35Fish, that's a fish.
19:37Fish, that's a fish.
19:38Fish, that's a fish.
19:43This is a really nice-sized perch.
19:45Very characteristic, spiky dorsal fin.
19:48Also, these vertical black bars.
19:51Lovely coloration on the other fins.
19:54And it's a predator, a very aggressive predator.
19:58Very big mouth relative to size of body.
20:00These perch don't grow big enough to drag a man into the water, but their presence is encouraging.
20:06It suggests the healthy fish numbers required to sustain a large predator, like a song.
20:12Well, there are fish in here.
20:14And, well, some very nice-looking fish.
20:17What's going on at the cellular level on that fish, though, is open to question.
20:23Much of the most serious radiological damage is invisible to the naked eye.
20:32Therefore, the only way to understand the true effects the disaster has had on the fish is through specialised scientific research.
20:43I've arranged to meet a scientist who spent years studying the effects of radiation on Chernobyl's wildlife.
20:48But before I can venture deeper into the zone, I must undergo a scan as a control portal, still six miles from the core.
20:58It's time for a contamination check. I'll need to do this on a regular basis as I move around the zone.
21:05The machine detects radioactive particles.
21:10Any contamination on my body would sound an alarm.
21:14Let's clean it.
21:15I'm on my way to meet Tim Mousseau from the University of South Carolina, who's done numerous radiological studies on animals in the zone.
21:29To limit his exposure, Professor Mousseau only makes brief trips to the zone.
21:36But he's been doing so for over 12 years.
21:39Most recently, to study the birds.
21:42To me, this looks a perfectly healthy bird, and we're in the middle of this very green landscape.
21:49Is it true to say things are getting back to normal?
21:52No, you know, things are actually continuing to get worse here.
21:55We're seeing many fewer species and many fewer numbers, and we know that this is because the birds are not living as long, the insects are dying, and the males are frequently sterile.
22:06His probability of surviving from now until next year is less than half of what it would be in a clean area.
22:15We'll put him in the bag for now, and just tie that up tight.
22:18What was the magnitude of the event that happened here?
22:23Something on the order of between 200 and 400 atomic bombs, equivalent to the ones that were dropped on Hiroshima.
22:30It was a nuclear fire that burned for 10 days, just spewing radioactive materials, and much of the zone is still maybe half to a third as contaminated as it was the day after the event stopped.
22:45So how prevalent is mutation? What are you finding?
22:49It's everywhere. Essentially, every organism shows some level of mutation.
22:55So mutant fish, I mean, that's not something out of science fiction. That's perfectly possible here.
23:00It seems very likely. Every time it rains, we get runoff, and this carries with it a substantial amount of cesium, and it gets into the water.
23:09So it's very likely that the fish are picking up a significant dose from their diet.
23:13Professor Mousseau's research seems to show that little has escaped radiation's deadly reach.
23:20Radioactive substances like cesium and plutonium can have catastrophic effects on living tissues, causing mutations, cancers, and death.
23:31And perhaps no more so than at the bottom of the cooling pond, where all that radioactive material has been accumulating since the accident.
23:43Could it be serving as a nuclear nursery, rearing mutant Somme capable of the attack that Bogdan described?
23:50That was just my alarm going off. Must have just passed a radiological hotspot. I don't know, something in the undergrowth maybe beside the road.
24:09The ghostly scenes all around me feel a million miles from home. But the reality is that the United States alone has over a hundred nuclear reactors. Each one with the potential to go catastrophically wrong.
24:27It's therefore vital to learn as much as possible about the radiological impact in disaster zones such as Chernobyl.
24:41Although few studies have been done into the fish, one man does have experience in this area.
24:50Dmitry Gudkov is head of radio ecology at Ukraine's National Academy of Science.
24:56And we meet at an abandoned Soviet fish hatchery.
25:00Apparently he has a photo of a Somme to show me.
25:02I can show you a photograph so it will be more clear.
25:09Yes, this is Somme.
25:11Gosh, that's...hold on, that's strange looking. That's...
25:15Ah!
25:17OK. No, I know this fish, but a different name.
25:21This is a Wells catfish.
25:23What they call a Somme, I know as a Wells.
25:26The physical descriptions match and so too does the behaviour.
25:31The Wells catfish can grow to over 250 pounds and can be very aggressive.
25:37Easily capable of the attack on the villager and perhaps even wrenching the diver's handoff.
25:42This looks like a Wells catfish except there's something very strange going on with its mouth.
25:47It seems to have two lower jaws.
25:50Is this a mutation?
25:51He's saying that to really understand whether there's any mutations in these fish, you've got to do laboratory analysis.
26:04And they haven't actually done any work on these Somme, these Wells catfish.
26:10The reason being they haven't actually had a specimen to work on.
26:13Almost like looking at the flight recorder, the black box of an aircraft, it will give you a really, really good insight into what's happening with the fish here.
26:23But as yet, that work hasn't been done.
26:27I've caught big Somme before.
26:30Maybe I can help you here.
26:31What if I could give you a specimen? Would that be useful?
26:35Yes, of course. This will be very useful.
26:38But in order to catch this fish, you need to get the correct permission.
26:42I could potentially help here. I could catch a large fish.
26:44But he's saying this is not the kind of place where you just turn up and fish.
26:48This is a controlled zone.
26:50I would need to go through a process of permission before I could even get near the water.
26:54This is no longer simply about my investigation into myths from a sleepy corner of Eastern Europe.
27:02It's grown a whole lot bigger.
27:05If a catfish can shed light on the biological effects of a disaster on the scale of Chernobyl,
27:12it could be the most important fish I'll ever catch.
27:18Thanks to my unique collaboration with Dimitri, I'm granted permission.
27:22I'm going to be the first person allowed to fish for a wells on the cooling pond.
27:29Progressing through to the next layer, I arrive at the pumping station that supplies water to the pond from the Pripyat River.
27:37I meet my guide, Vlad, who suggests that the edge of this churned up oxygenated water could be a good spot for catfish,
27:46and offers to fish for bait while I rig my lines.
27:52Something going on here.
27:55Suddenly, Vlad is shouting from the other bank.
27:57What is it?
27:59Here it is.
28:01Something from the radioactive depths is on his line, and it's clearly much bigger than mere bait.
28:07I'm in Ukraine, Eastern Europe, where I follow the trail of a lake monster from its ancient rural roots to the most unlikely modern refuge.
28:25The cooling pond of Chernobyl's reactor number four.
28:30The creature that locals call a somme I know as a wells catfish, and I've been granted unprecedented access to fish on the pond.
28:37Is it? Here it is.
28:40While trying to catch bait on light line, my guide, Vlad, has unexpectedly hooked into something big.
28:47What happened?
28:51Did the line go?
28:52It was a catfish.
28:59The fish was almost within reaching distance.
29:03I saw that fish. That was a good-sized fish.
29:06But something just gave in the gear at the end.
29:08What was interesting, though, is it took a moving lure. I mean, that could be, you know, that one got away, but that could be the way to get them on that kind of lure, but just heavier gear.
29:24I'm amazed to see that a wells catfish has survived just a stone's throw from the reactor.
29:30Losing a good fish is always disappointing, but it has given me a vital pointer.
29:35I'm going to rig plastic lures on stronger line and cast directly into the turbulent water.
29:42I have three days to get a result.
29:45Even though I'm fishing from the bank, I'm still making a point of wearing my life jacket because the worst radiation is actually on the bottom of the lake.
29:56So I don't really want to be going anywhere near that.
29:58It's a fish on.
30:04This is a Xander. It's what they call a pike perch.
30:19And this is a healthy looking fish. So this is surprising, you know, not what you'd expect necessarily in this place.
30:27And it's got a healthy set of teeth to match.
30:30Catfish probably are lying near the bottom. They're not going to see much down there. They're going to feel vibrations.
30:44Yep, there's one here.
30:48But I can't get through the aggressive Xander.
30:54One thing about Xander is they have these very big eyes. They are sight feeders. They're really good at seeing down near the bottom in low light.
31:06Frustratingly though, the bottom of the water column is precisely where I'm working my lures for the catfish.
31:17Well, the Xander are getting bigger at least.
31:21It's actually quite a beautiful scene with the sun going down, but that is actually what's left of reactor number four.
31:26When I watched this place go up on the television all those years ago, I think the last thing on my mind was that one day I'd be here fishing.
31:40The novelty is definitely wearing off now. These things are so active, so hungry.
31:45It reminds me a little bit of piranhas in the Amazon, just eating the bait or getting to it before anything else can.
31:51So these are in my mind now, the piranhas of Chernobyl.
31:58Normally a good way to increase the chance of a catfish would be to fish into the night.
32:04But here I'm under a strict after dark curfew.
32:08I've now got just two days left of my allotted time and the pressure is mounting.
32:14I have to think constantly about radiation safety.
32:17Each evening I test all my gear, checking it thoroughly for radioactive particles that I may have pulled up from the pond.
32:27But as a catch and release fisherman, I've also been wrestling with the exceptional circumstances of my challenge.
32:33There have been instances in the past where fish that I've caught have helped scientists acquire knowledge.
32:40The thing that's different about this is that I'm going to have to hand the fish over and I'm not completely comfortable about that.
32:47But ultimately, the information that could be gained from even one fish in this unique situation, I believe makes such a sacrifice wholly justifiable.
32:58With time so precious, I decide to stick to the method which so nearly proved successful.
33:06Oh, something hit there. On the drop, on the drop.
33:10This is a new fish, different fish.
33:13Again, it's just completely inhaled that bait.
33:17It looks like a fish called a chub, big mouth, cylindrical, powerful body.
33:27Again, it's not the suspect I'm after, but I am encouraged.
33:32This is what was missing from the lake in Sommen, an abundance of perfect prey for a hungry giant catfish.
33:38Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.
33:42I've got slime on the line here.
33:46I might have had a catfish investigate that.
33:48Right, let's get it out again quickly.
33:51Catfish secrete an antibacterial mucus that covers their whole body.
33:56Slime on my line is tantalising evidence that I'm getting closer.
34:03Yet again though, I don't seem to be able to get past the ravenous sander.
34:08To reach the catfish.
34:10It's time for a tactical rethink.
34:13The bright lures I've been using so far are attracting too much attention from the sharp-eyed competition.
34:21Catfish rely largely on vibration to detect their prey.
34:25So I changed to a dull allure in the hope of avoiding the zander.
34:31But there seems to be no fooling them.
34:33These fish here are turning out to be much, much harder than I'd anticipated.
34:41Now normally what you do is you just keep fishing.
34:43But here, with the issue of radiation, I'm absorbing radiation the whole time that I'm here.
34:48They take safety very seriously.
34:51There is a very, very strict limit on how much time I can spend here.
34:54So there is some real urgency now about finding this fish.
34:59With pressure mounting, I decide to head off around the pond's perimeter in the hope that some different spots may change my fortunes.
35:14Right, this bit of water here, I've heard that the fish are sometimes seen down here when the weather is warmer, but I'm not going to fish here because my alarm just keeps going off.
35:24But now, my efforts are either thwarted by dangerous levels of radiation, or the water simply appears lifeless.
35:37Oh, this is another part of the lake, but it just seems dead. There's nothing doing here at all.
35:42I'm finding it hard to stay optimistic when it feels that everything is all turning against me.
35:52The layers of bureaucracy, while all the time my exposure to radiation is steadily increasing.
35:58I'm starting to wonder if I might have taken on something which is going to turn out to be impossible.
36:05Desperate times call for desperate measures.
36:08There's one area where catfish have been consistently spotted, but it lies on the very channels that were used to feed the reactor.
36:19Even if I can secure permission, will fishing this close to the core put me into radiation overload?
36:26It's a huge gamble, but I've come too far to turn back now.
36:31I'm in Ukraine, in a race against radiation and time, working with scientists on the trail of a suspected mutant catfish, accused of a grisly attack in the radioactive waters of Chernobyl.
36:53So important is the need for a specimen that the authorities have made the ultimate exception, granting me permission to fish on the very arteries leading to the heart of the reactor.
37:06But being this close, can I catch that fish before I reach my exposure limit?
37:12My alarm's just gone off.
37:15And this isn't, and again, and again, and again, and again.
37:21And this isn't because of anything, any dust on the ground or a localised hotspot or anything.
37:26That's the sound record, it's just going off as well.
37:30The reason this is going off now is because that is the nucleus of the whole place.
37:35That's reactor number four.
37:36That is where, nearly 30 years ago, a 3,000-foot tongue of flame shot into the air, showering radioactive debris into the surrounding area.
37:50I don't have much time before I reach my limit, so I'm switching up to heavier, more robust gear.
37:57This is my last day.
38:03Time is ticking.
38:07And so is my dose meter.
38:16Suddenly, I'm hooked into something, something big.
38:20And it's pulling me closer and closer to the radioactive water.
38:27It's off.
38:33It came off the hook.
38:36That might be my only chance here.
38:37Might be my only chance.
38:42It's off the hook.
38:43It started swimming towards me.
38:44I don't know, it's...
38:47There was a big fish on my line, very briefly here.
38:50Right in the shadow of the reactor.
38:52I felt the weight of the fish.
38:54It was a heavy fish.
38:58But the hook came out.
38:59I mean, the weight that I felt should have set the hook.
39:02So I really don't know...
39:06Sometimes the hook will not hold.
39:08And of all the times for that to happen, it happened here.
39:10It's a soul-crushing failure.
39:19But I can't give up.
39:21There's clearly something big out there.
39:24But I'm getting ever closer to my radiation limit.
39:27The only option is to persist on the channel in the hope that losing that fish hasn't spooked any others nearby.
39:33I can't afford any mistakes.
39:47If there's any interest in my bait, I absolutely have to set the hook securely.
39:53Get out of here!
40:03I'm in Chernobyl, Ukraine.
40:06Fishing the very channels leading to the ill-fated reactor.
40:10Searching for a Cold War mutant, accused of ripping a diver's hand clean off.
40:16My body is being constantly bombarded by radiation and I'm teetering right on the edge of my time limit.
40:23When finally, I set the hook.
40:26It's a fish, a fish.
40:27Wait!
40:31I need the gloves.
40:33Until this fish is analysed by Dimitri, I've no idea how radioactive it is and what risk it poses to me.
40:52So this is it, this is the Somme.
40:55Long, dark, tapering body shape, the wide head, slimy skin, tentacles, teeth a bit like a worn down brush.
41:09Yeah, absolutely positive ID.
41:11I'm finally holding the biological black box I've been searching for.
41:18I may have caught bigger, but never a fish as extraordinary or significant as this.
41:24Dimitri's research will later reveal that far from being the mutant giant of science fiction,
41:30this Chernobyl catfish is under half the normal size for its age.
41:34Its stunted flesh harbouring 16 times the usual level of radiation.
41:38So I came to Ukraine to investigate stories of a fearsome water monster living in a remote rural corner of the country,
41:48only to find it long gone.
41:50The victim, as is so often the case everywhere, of relentless human progress.
41:55So how strange that I should find this fish here, the site of the world's worst radiological disaster.
42:01The ancient Somme of Ukraine live on, as Chernobyl's radioactive river monsters.
42:10For behind the scenes stories, fishing games and more, go to animalplanet.com slash rivermonsters.
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