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River.Monsters.S08E02.Death.Down.Under
Transcript
00:00I'm Jeremy Wayne, angling explorer and biologist.
00:09Fishing is my passion.
00:12One of the most extraordinary catches of my life.
00:15Time and again, this passion has helped me solve fresh water mysteries.
00:22Some of my most dangerous investigations have unfolded in Australia.
00:27Where murky rivers hide bizarre and deadly beasts found nowhere else on Earth.
00:35That is huge!
00:37But this time, I'm going beyond the rivers, venturing into the ocean that lies off this vast continent's northern coast.
00:44Back beneath me is some of the wildest coastline anywhere on Earth.
00:49It's in these waters where more people die from animal attacks than anywhere else on Earth.
00:55This place is known as the deadliest sea on the planet.
01:00And I'm here to find out why.
01:02It's not a matter if you could die, you will die.
01:07If you thought the rivers were bad, you haven't seen anything yet.
01:13Over the years, I've collected hundreds of reports of mysterious disappearances and attacks from all around the world.
01:32But there's one file that's thicker than all the others.
01:37All the reports come from the same place, the seas around northern Australia.
01:42Take the case some years ago of five Aboriginal elders and the pilot of the small plane they were flying in.
01:49Who found themselves alone in the water, in sight of land, after their plane developed engine problems and was forced to ditch in the sea.
02:01All that was ever found of them was one severed leg.
02:08What exactly is in these waters that can tear apart six fit, capable men?
02:16I'm going to try to find out.
02:18I'm starting my investigation in northern Australia in the same waters where the men were reported to have disappeared.
02:35There are predators here that simply can't be ignored.
02:39The beaches along a stretch of coast have been closed since yesterday because of a shark attack.
02:43Australia has the highest number of fatal shark attacks in the world.
02:48A father of two has died after being savaged by a shark.
02:52But out of the 170 shark species known to patrol these waters, only three have the rap sheet for fatal attacks on humans.
03:03The Great White doesn't venture this far north.
03:06An experience tells me that bull sharks are mostly found close to the coast and near river mouths.
03:12So I'm starting my investigation with the apex predator in these waters, the tiger shark.
03:19I'm joining shark biologist Adam Barnett.
03:23I know there are documented attacks on humans by tiger sharks.
03:28So what triggers these attacks and would a group of men in the water be likely targets?
03:36I want to know what Adam is learning from his research.
03:41We're not just tagging them anymore, but we're actually taking the blood, taking tissue samples.
03:46The blood and the tissue will give us an idea of what they've been eating.
03:49You know, if different sharks are eating different things or it's a very generalised diet like we would probably expect from a tiger shark.
03:56By understanding what tiger sharks are eating, I want to build a bigger picture of what they see as prey and whether that includes us.
04:05All the baits are out.
04:14At the moment they look untouched.
04:16You've got a red boy and also the smaller white boy.
04:21What we're waiting for is the white boy to disappear.
04:26But it's all quiet at the moment.
04:34Then we get a sign that we're not alone.
04:38That's doing something isn't it Adam, what do you reckon?
04:40Oh yep, yeah, there it goes, it's going under.
04:43Tiger on! Tiger on!
04:44As we approach the boy, I can see an ominous shape beneath the surface.
04:53This is tiger shark and this is a big one.
04:57Still got a big kick in it!
04:58The shark has a lot of energy left and I struggle to keep control of it.
05:02It's ten foot plus.
05:09We're talking 650, 700 pounds.
05:11This is a big animal.
05:12This is what's in these waters.
05:14Let's turn it over.
05:18The problem we've got at the moment is Adam's taken a bit of tissue.
05:22That involves some rather delicate surgery with a very sharp scalpel.
05:25And you've got an animal that couldn't start flashing at any moment.
05:35So Adam's taking a blood sample from it now.
05:39From these samples Adam will get a better understanding of what the shark eats.
05:48It's rolling, it's rolling.
05:49The shark is winding itself around the leader wire, dragging our side of the boat down.
06:01Then it sinks its teeth into our air-filled boat.
06:10It's got a hole in it!
06:12The shark is punching the boat.
06:14It's also wrapped in the leader.
06:15With the boat taking in water, we need to unwrap the shark from the leader.
06:21And fast.
06:23It's got to come over, that's it.
06:26Let's just get it off and get the boat there.
06:29OK.
06:30Right, we've decided we're going to abandon any attempt to get any data from this.
06:34We've got the boats going down.
06:36We cut the leader.
06:40And release the shark.
06:42We have a hole in the boat.
06:44And the air has come out and water is going in.
06:47We need to get back to the mothership, which is becoming increasingly distant.
06:51So priority is us getting out of here.
06:54We limp back to the mothership.
06:57I still can't get over the sight of such a huge predator so close.
07:01Now, more than ever, I wonder if we humans are on the shark's menu.
07:07Do tiger sharks have preferences in terms of what they feed on there?
07:12I think, you know, they might have evolved to hunt certain things.
07:15Like, turtles seem very, very popular in their diet.
07:18If you had a scenario of a person or people in the water,
07:22might they consider that as a food item?
07:24Anything's possible, but in my experience of diving with them, they're very shy animals.
07:29We put bait in the water to actually bring them in and they'll come in.
07:32And then we'll get in the water and they'll often leave.
07:35Now, their heads are full of all these sensors.
07:37So if they go to feed on something or attack it,
07:39they have to be very careful that they don't get damaged as well.
07:43So how do you explain the times when tiger sharks have attacked people?
07:47I think there's a clue in what Adam's blood sampling is turning up.
07:52He has shown that here, turtles are a big part of the tiger shark's diet.
07:57When you consider that almost all attacks on people occur 300 feet or less from the shore,
08:03where surfers are usually found,
08:05could it be that tiger sharks are mistaking the outline of a surfboard for their favourite food?
08:10I need to start piecing things together.
08:17We'll never know for sure whether tiger sharks attacked the plane crash victims.
08:24Tigers are solitary hunters, so a lone shark might have bitten one of these men,
08:30but I don't think it's likely that it could have taken them all out.
08:34I go back to the case file for clues and find a shocking story
08:37with echoes of the case of the missing men.
08:41In this new mystery, a man was lost in the open ocean
08:45and a severed body part was the only evidence found.
08:48But what really gets my attention is where that evidence was found.
08:56A worker processing fish in a Queensland factory opened up a large grouper
09:01and made a gruesome discovery.
09:02When he sliced open its stomach, what he found inside was a human head.
09:11I'm investigating the case of a group of men who disappeared in the seas around northern Australia.
09:28The only evidence ever found was a severed leg.
09:33Now, I've found another case with striking similarities.
09:38But this time, the evidence is a man's head.
09:41And it was found inside the belly of a species of grouper.
09:44So sharks aren't the only animals here capable of swallowing pieces of humans.
09:51I've come to a remote and uninhabited group of islands 60 miles from the nearest township.
09:58This is a scorched and arid place.
10:02The average daily temperature at this time of year is 110.
10:07I'm here to track down a Queensland grouper.
10:12To see for myself what this animal is capable of.
10:15But as we're heading to the fishing grounds, we encounter a situation that stops us in our tracks.
10:25I'm rolling guys.
10:27Water out for the guy.
10:29Our cameraman starts recording when we stumble on an incredible scene.
10:34A fisherman separated from his boat shouting for our help.
10:37The crew focuses on getting him rehydrated, but keeps rolling as the story unfolds.
10:44We just came around the coast. This is an uninhabited island.
10:47And we first of all saw a cooler on the rocks.
10:51And then one of us spotted, said there's somebody there, there's somebody there.
10:55He immediately came down to the water and he's yelling out, you know, give me something to drink, give me something to drink.
11:00Pretty desperate, actually got right in the water to come out and meet us.
11:04We'll find out very soon what's happened.
11:07We saw a cool box on the, on the rock and then...
11:11No, I came around here.
11:13It's good luck in here and down here because I've seen a turtle and that's a heap of empty bottles.
11:17So I was hoping that one of the bottles might have a bit of water in it.
11:22You can see no water out.
11:26He was separated from his boat two days ago and became disoriented.
11:30Despite efforts to find his vessel, he was beaten back by the ferocity of the sun.
11:36And with every hour that passed, his chances of survival diminished.
11:41One more day on the beach and he would have died.
11:45Out here in the Australian high summer, stranded without water or shelter, your survival is limited to two, maybe three days.
11:54We make sure that he's well hydrated and sent him for medical attention.
12:03This is a first for me.
12:05In all my travels to remote places, I've found some of the rarest fish on the planet, but I've never rescued someone stranded on a desert island.
12:12It's a vivid reminder of how easily life can sometimes be snuffed out.
12:20I continue to the fishing grounds to resume my hunt for a giant Queensland grouper.
12:25I need to get a line in the water to learn more about its behaviour and hunting strategy.
12:40Fishing for something this big means I have to place protective tape on my thumb and wear a harness.
12:47Anything capable of swallowing a human head is going to be huge.
12:51I normally don't like to use live bait, but groupers often bite fish off anglers' lines as they're being reeled in, much to the anglers' annoyance.
13:02So I'm hoping that by mimicking this scenario, I might get a strike.
13:10And it's not long before I get my first.
13:13There's a hit. There's a hit. There's a hit. There's a hit. I don't think we're going to go down and down.
13:18That's hooked.
13:20This feels a bit different. Oh, my goodness.
13:22This fish feels enormous.
13:26It's going down. It's going down. It's going down.
13:29And the bandage on my thumb is useless.
13:32So much for that plaster, the whole thing just popped off.
13:34It's melting my thumb.
13:41Without the protective tape, the fast spinning reel strips off my skin.
13:46And the fish is gone.
13:49It's off.
13:51I put plaster on my thumb and it comes off.
13:54How one little thing can let you down.
13:55I'm using my thumb as a brake.
13:58And the plaster just comes off.
14:00That's what it does. It rips my thumb and we lose the f***ing fish.
14:06I'm rapidly finding out that in this heat, it's all too easy to lose your head.
14:13I now know there are big fish down there, but any element of surprise I might have had is gone.
14:19It's almost like a thief triggering the alarm system.
14:21I decide to change up my tactics.
14:25It's actually gone very quiet.
14:26There's not a lot of interest, well, no interest in the bait.
14:29And I'm just thinking, particularly in this water clarity,
14:32there have to be fish down there that are aware of it.
14:36What I might do, instead of having the bait just hanging around in the target zone,
14:40I might just crank it a few feet up just to give the impression of something trying to get out of the danger zone.
14:46That could trigger something.
14:51Oh, here we go. There's something on there.
14:56There's a massive hit on my bait.
14:58I can hear the line straining under the tension.
15:02Oh, that's a bad sound.
15:04It's going to reach right to the anchor. Right.
15:06It's a big fish.
15:07If we're going to bring it in, I urgently need to stop the line fouling the anchor chain.
15:12But this manoeuvre risks giving the fish the chance to reach the rocky bottom.
15:16I wonder if we can even get the anchor up and go after it.
15:17This is a very big fish. Very big fish.
15:18We need to work the fish away from the submerged cliffs and sharp rocks around the island, which could cut the line.
15:34Might go again.
15:35And if you can show that the depth as well would be great.
15:38It's mighty.
15:39Great. Thank you.
15:40Now we have it in more open water, we stand a chance of landing it.
15:47Then it makes a powerful surge for the bottom.
15:50It's going again.
15:51It's going again.
15:52I can't believe.
15:53You feel you're getting the upper hand.
15:58Still haven't even glimpsed it.
16:01Heart in mouth.
16:02The fish is tiring.
16:03It's coming in.
16:04So this is when it's time to be careful.
16:07We're well clear of the island.
16:09We should be well clear of structure.
16:11And it's coming up again.
16:13You've got to see it any moment.
16:14I can see it now.
16:16I can see it now.
16:17There it is.
16:20I don't want to take any chances.
16:23In this case, the gaff hook is necessary to hold it securely.
16:27Otherwise, we could still lose it.
16:29This is way too big to bring on board.
16:32I want to have a closer look at it.
16:35And there's a rock ledge.
16:37We're going to try and get it on there.
16:39It feels a bit better.
16:43It's actually clamping down slightly.
16:46That's biting my hand.
16:49I'm investigating the disappearance of a group of men in the waters off Australia's wild north coast.
17:09The only evidence recovered was one severed leg.
17:16I've come to a remote island chain to find out if there's a link between that case and another one that bears disturbing similarities.
17:24Where the severed head of a man was found inside the belly of a species of grouper.
17:33And the fish I've just caught is easily capable of swallowing a human head.
17:38It's actually clamping down slightly.
17:44That's biting my hand.
17:46It hurts.
17:47It hurts.
17:48Oh no, it's on a hook.
17:50I'm actually caught on a hook.
17:51This could be dangerous.
17:52Sorry.
17:53I'm actually attached by a hook to this fish, which is not a good scenario.
17:57There's a hook.
17:58Just cut it there, where my finger is.
18:00Yes, good, good, good, good, good, good.
18:01I'm just going to see if I can get a little bit of this out of the water.
18:05I don't want to lift it all out.
18:07But I can lift it maybe a tiny bit.
18:09That's about as much as I can lift out the water.
18:14This grouper is comfortably six feet long and I estimate close to 300 pounds.
18:22There is the mouth.
18:24I think I could probably get my head in there if I was so inclined.
18:27But I'm not so inclined.
18:29That is the last thing that a lot of small fish, and not so small fish, see.
18:34Whether this would actually take a living person in the water, I don't think so.
18:37That's not their behaviour.
18:38They lurk down pretty deep normally, but they're going for fish.
18:43But if there was a corpse on the bottom, this could absolutely seize the head and dismember it.
18:50There's somebody's hook here I'm just going to take out.
18:53I remove several hooks and line from old battles.
18:56For many other anglers, this was the fish that got away.
19:02Incredible as it is to see this fish up close, I can't keep it at the surface for long.
19:07It's home as the deep.
19:08This is a powerful and intimidating fish, but I don't believe that this is the active killer that would have the instinct to attack a human at the surface.
19:21Groupers like the one I've just caught, wait for their prey near the sea floor.
19:24Lurking in caves and crevices ready to ambush using the suction of that huge mouth.
19:31The series of events that led to the man's head being found inside one of these fish can only be speculated on.
19:38But it's possible to imagine a shark attack sending body parts sinking to the depths to be scavenged by one of these giants of the deep.
19:48A case of right place at the right time from the fish's point of view and an easy meal.
19:55The group are ensuring that normally no evidence is found.
20:04What does this tell me about the missing men?
20:07I still need to establish exactly what caused them to disappear.
20:11But one thing the water off Northern Australia isn't short of is suspects.
20:16I go back to the only piece of evidence in this case.
20:21A severed leg washed up on a remote uninhabited island, not far from where the men dished into the sea.
20:28I know from experience that bite marks can be clues.
20:33The forensic photographs didn't show the classic curved signature of a shark bite.
20:39So what did this?
20:42I know of only one other predator in this region capable of dismembering human bodies.
20:51I'm meeting biologist Dr. Adam Britton, who has spent his life researching saltwater crocodiles, the largest and most aggressive reptile on Earth.
21:01He's invited me to join a night hunt so I can get a first-hand look at this reptile's weaponry
21:07and find out if the plane crash survivors could have fallen victim to a crocodile at sea.
21:16Do they ever go out into more open ocean?
21:20Salters have got the ability to tolerate salinity a lot better than a lot of other crocodile species.
21:26So that gives them the ability to be able to move down to the river estuary and even around the coastline.
21:31And in effect, the ocean for them, or the coastline in particular, it's like a highway.
21:38They'll use it to get from one river system to the next river system.
21:41So if they encounter someone on the beach, for example, they might try an attack on that person.
21:46They're so adaptable, it's one of the things that makes them so dangerous.
21:50I need to see a saltwater crocodile for myself.
21:52We head to the Adelaide River, a huge estuarine system.
22:01We position ourselves only a few miles from the ocean, where Adam knows there'll be concentrated numbers of crocodiles.
22:08I quickly get a sense of the size of the population here.
22:13I see dozens of crocodiles slip into the water as we move past.
22:21Adam has learned that the best way to get close to them is under cover of darkness.
22:29Well, what we're going to do is we're going to use the reflective layer on the back of the crocodile's eyes to see the eye shot.
22:35And so we'll be able to see a lot more crocodiles than we saw during the daytime.
22:40So we'll just see this big bright light coming towards them, and that'll enable us to get really, really close and hopefully to catch them.
22:47This is a harpoon head. So you've got these four barbs here, and it's designed to go through the skin, through the top layer of the skin, and then hook onto the skin.
22:55So this is the reel, and then it's just like playing a big fish. It's exactly the same.
23:05This harpoon looks deadly, but the head is designed to detach from the pole and hook in just under the hide, with minimal harm to the crocodile.
23:20It's the most effective way of bringing one in.
23:25At first, the crocs we see are on the mud banks and out of our range.
23:29Then, one makes a run for the river.
23:40The strongest bite force ever recorded belonged to a saltwater crocodile.
23:45But what creature had the strongest bite of all time?
23:49The answer after this.
23:50I asked, what creature had the strongest bite of all time?
23:56The answer is the megalodon shark.
23:59The salty's bite force is similar to that of a T-Rex.
24:03But the now extinct megalodon shark is thought to have had five times the bite force of both.
24:09Its jaws could have crushed a car.
24:11I'm on the search for what might have caused the deaths of a group of men alone in the open ocean, after their plane ditched into the sea.
24:29I've joined a biologist on a night hunt for Australia's living dinosaurs, deadly saltwater crocodiles.
24:42The harpoon head holds.
24:44OK, just untie the harpoon line.
24:51Good shot, Jeremy.
24:53Now, I have to reel it in.
24:59Keep going back, keep going back, keep going back, keep going back.
25:02Bit more, bit more, bit more.
25:03The harpoon is designed to only penetrate its hide.
25:06There he is, there he is, there he is.
25:09It's rolling, rolling, rolling, rolling.
25:11OK, a bit too much.
25:13Eventually, the crocodile tires, and we're able to bring it alongside the boat.
25:18We have the crocodile secure.
25:19The harpoon line is still in, but that's not needed now.
25:22We've got a really good lasso on the upper jaw.
25:24The main thing is the jaws are still open.
25:27Although salties have incredibly strong muscles to snap those jaws shut,
25:32the muscles to open them are relatively weak.
25:36But even so, we can't take any chances.
25:39OK, I'm happy.
25:40That's pretty good. Go for it.
25:42OK, now sit down on the back of it.
25:44Sit down.
25:46We carefully remove the barbed harpoon.
25:50The thick, leathery skin will heal quickly.
25:55Adam collects the data on this crocodile.
25:58First, he measures it.
26:00Just over eight feet.
26:02And clips one of the scales on its tail to identify it.
26:05There's no polite way of sexing the animal.
26:10OK, but nothing more substantial.
26:13This is a female.
26:14Sorry about that.
26:16Turn around that way.
26:18OK, so three, two, one, over.
26:20Here we go.
26:28So, as soon as she opens her mouth, there you go.
26:32Gone.
26:33That's a new type of fishing for me.
26:34Actually on a line.
26:36OK, harpooned rather than hooked.
26:38But I think the main thing for me is just how many there are in this bit of water.
26:44They've clearly got the power to kill a man, but something doesn't add up.
26:50Saltwater crocodiles are mainly found in estuaries or skirting the coast to travel between rivers.
26:56They rarely venture out to open ocean.
26:59The chance of the plane crash victims encountering a lone, rogue crocodile is slim.
27:04So what other killers are in this sea?
27:10I get hold of John Anderson, a journalist who looked into this story, to see if I can glean any new details.
27:17What can you tell me about the case?
27:19They took off from Monington Island.
27:22They hit severe weather and something happened.
27:26Did the search recover anything?
27:27A search party, it was able to trace some of the victims to a small uninhabited island and footprints were found.
27:37Footprints?
27:39There were some footprints found and a limb, but nothing else was found of the occupants of that aeroplane.
27:49Until now, I'd been working on the premise that these men had perished in open water.
27:53I'd never considered that one or more of them might have run the gauntlet of the ocean and made it to the beach.
28:01This new knowledge means I've been looking in the wrong place.
28:05At least some of these men perished on land.
28:10That leg didn't wash up on the beach.
28:13It was left there.
28:17I've read transcripts of the interviews with the people who knew them and they all say that with their experience of the country,
28:22they should have survived on that beach.
28:25There's nothing on land in Australia other than crocodiles capable of devouring these men.
28:30But I don't think crocodiles are the whole story.
28:33I suspect something else might have played a role here.
28:37Four of the survivors were Aboriginal elders.
28:41They knew this land and its dangers.
28:42I'm hoping some of the fishermen in this remote Aboriginal community can help me understand what could have happened.
28:52They mention a fish that I've never encountered before.
28:59Stonefish.
29:01Stonefish.
29:03You can hardly see him because, you know, he's just like the stone, see?
29:07Like, he sees the image of the stone.
29:10You can't see the stonefish.
29:11Right.
29:13Probably stone on it.
29:15You could poison him too.
29:17Has that ever happened to you?
29:18Yeah.
29:19I'm trying to put your nostril.
29:22Put them drips warm a couple of weeks.
29:24We get better.
29:25Yeah.
29:26So you...?
29:27Yeah, I got stung under my feet.
29:29The same thing.
29:30And you say hospital for a couple of weeks?
29:32Yeah.
29:34Is that pain just in your foot or does it go...?
29:36Right up.
29:37Yeah.
29:40The fisherman tells me I can find them in pools along this beach.
29:46The stonefish's camouflage makes it almost impossible to spot,
29:50hiding in and among the rock pools of the shoreline.
29:57I actually pride myself in being able to see things in the water,
30:01but this is taking that to a whole other level.
30:04There's something here which looks like a rock.
30:07But it's not a rock.
30:09This is the most venomous fish on Earth.
30:12When disturbed, it can inject lethal neurotoxic venom.
30:16I know this fish is deadly, but I can't resist taking a closer look.
30:20I'm investigating the deaths of a group of men in northern Australia.
30:25I now know that at least some of the victims made it to shore.
30:29And I suspect crocodiles ultimately disposed of them.
30:30But I think something else might have played a role here.
30:34There it is.
30:35There it is.
30:36Not a stone, but a stone fish.
30:37There it is.
30:38Not a stone, but a stone fish.
30:39There it is.
30:40What an amazing beast.
30:41What an amazing beast.
30:42It really does look like a piece of rock.
30:43This is camouflage taken to the nth degree.
30:44Here it is.
30:45Here it is.
30:46Here it is.
30:47Here it is.
30:48There it is.
30:49Here it is.
30:50Here it is.
30:51Here it is.
30:52There it is.
30:53It's a beautiful fire and its
31:15Stonefish, even more dangerous, is that they can quite happily stay out of water for up to 24 hours,
31:21making them all too easy to step on when the tide retreats.
31:25And it's the spines on their back that deliver the deadly venom.
31:30It's actually got 13 of these dorsal spines, and each one is basically a hypodermic.
31:38And just a little way back from the point is the, that's where the venom is.
31:43And what happens is if you tread on one of these, it's your body weight that injects that.
31:51Let's just see what this thing can do.
31:54Found that on the beach, this is the kind of thing I often wear.
31:58Put these on for eye protection, and what happens?
32:07Did you see that?
32:08It's only when the footage is slowed down that you can see the amount of venom that's delivered by one single spine.
32:19Now, if you trot on that, that venom would go into your bloodstream, and as well as being very painful,
32:25I mean, if you've got people with you, they're going to need to look after you.
32:28I'm discovering that making it to shore here can be an even deadlier proposition than being lost at sea.
32:36One possible scenario, who knows?
32:38Maybe one of those survivors stepped on one of these, and that just took everybody's concentration.
32:46They're dealing with that person, and then events just went on from there.
32:50Even if one of the survivors stepped on a stonefish, that still leaves four men alive.
33:01But North Australia's oceans harbor one more killer, and this one could have taken out the entire group.
33:09The box jellyfish is the most venomous creature on Earth.
33:12Within its deadly tentacles is a toxin powerful enough to kill a man in under two minutes, several times over.
33:24Did the men, believing they had reached safety, stumble into this near-invisible killer?
33:30I check the date that the incident occurred, and discover that November coincides with the start of box jellyfish season.
33:42I'm on my way to meet somebody who has made it his life's work to understand these near-invisible killers,
33:50particularly how their toxin works on humans.
33:53Now, he knows better than most what this actually feels like,
33:56because he was one stung on the face and hospitalized for 50 hours.
34:05Dr. Seymour, I presume?
34:07It is indeed. Thanks, buddy.
34:08Dr. Jamie Seymour has spent 20 years researching box jellyfish,
34:13attempting to understand their behavior and how their complex venom works.
34:22To make anti-venom, he has to collect live samples.
34:27It's risky work in 100-plus degree heat, handling the planet's deadliest creature.
34:33I've never seen a box jellyfish, so I've agreed to help him collect samples from these ghostly killers
34:40for the anti-venom lab.
34:44What makes them so dangerous to man are their tentacles.
34:48An adult box jellyfish can grow up to 40 of them,
34:52and each one contains around 5,000 stinging cells.
34:56That makes 200,000 deadly points of contact.
35:01They can sense when they touch something living,
35:04and that triggers thousands of tiny darts.
35:08The toxin then enters the blood.
35:10It takes only 6 to 7 feet of a single tentacle to kill an adult human.
35:15My wetsuit should act as a barrier.
35:23This water might look quite inviting,
35:25but Jamie tells me that just this little bit of beach here,
35:30there could be hundreds of box jellyfish,
35:33and getting in without due precaution and due vigilance
35:40would actually be, I mean, verging on insanity, even.
35:47So what you're looking for is,
35:49it's a little hard to explain it,
35:50but a transparent jellyfish with a set of tentacles.
35:52Right.
35:54There's one right there.
35:56Ah.
35:56So it's just a sort of a fuzzy white, but that purple is quite...
36:00The purple's a dead-set giveaway,
36:02but not all the animals have purple tentacles.
36:04Yep.
36:04Another one out here.
36:05Yep.
36:06Another one there.
36:07I'm just thinking, you could come down here.
36:09Hot day, let's just splash through the water, cool off,
36:12and you could die, couldn't you?
36:14Just knee-deep water.
36:15Look, it's in these sorts of conditions,
36:17it's not a matter if you could die, it's you will die.
36:21I mean, if you're swimming in here and you didn't know what was going on,
36:23yeah, you'd die.
36:23It's as simple as that.
36:25We're on the lookout for bigger specimens.
36:28Jamie needs fully grown adults to harvest their venom.
36:32The main reason we're here is to collect venom.
36:34What happens is you grab the animal, you pick it up,
36:36you cut the tentacles off,
36:37so we'll cut about half of the tentacles off,
36:39and then we can take the tentacles back to the lab and extract the venom.
36:42Now, what you need to remember is these guys will grow the tentacles back
36:45somewhere between half to an inch in length a day.
36:48So cutting off half the tentacles is not really a major issue for these animals.
36:52They grow them back very, very quickly.
36:55Jamie has learned that it is possible to gently grasp the jellyfish by its body
36:59without being stung.
37:01He tells me that to do this, you need the sensitivity and feel
37:06that can only be achieved by using bare hands.
37:09Oh, what's that, right in the...
37:17Oh, that's a beauty, actually.
37:19That'll be a...
37:19That's a cracker.
37:21Right.
37:24Righto.
37:26And you see, so we're literally in sort of knee-deep water here,
37:29and it's almost impossible to see now.
37:31You want to be in front of the animal?
37:33Yes.
37:33It's going to take two hands.
37:34Yes.
37:35And it'll be a lot heavier than you think.
37:37Right, okay.
37:38It's now or never.
37:41Time to commit.
37:45Ah!
37:59I'm in Northern Australia,
38:01attempting to find out what happened to a group of Aboriginal elders
38:04who found themselves alone in the water
38:07after their plane ditched at sea.
38:11And I'm closing in on a killer.
38:14The deadly box jellyfish.
38:17Ah!
38:17Wait a minute.
38:19That touched something.
38:20Yeah, there's tentacles all over the bell there.
38:22Yep.
38:22All over the bell.
38:23After only the briefest of touches,
38:25it feels like my skin is on fire.
38:27And that was with less than a tenth of an inch of contact.
38:31Yes, it's starting to burn.
38:32It's starting to burn.
38:33It's dialing up a little bit.
38:35Imagine six or seven feet.
38:37I mean, you've probably got a quarter of an inch, maybe.
38:39Yes.
38:39So, you know, dialing up a heck of a lot
38:41and you start to get some indication of the pain that goes with it.
38:45Now, for me, I'd let that animal go.
38:47Let it go.
38:48Or look for another one,
38:48because now it's got tentacles and things around its bell.
38:51You can't pick it up by that top end.
38:53No.
38:53OK, so leave that one.
38:57One element of this is the pure sort of technical thing
38:59about picking it up,
39:00but the other thing that's there in the back of your mind,
39:03which it's got to stay there,
39:05but it mustn't take over everything else,
39:06is just how dangerous these things potentially are.
39:09And it's, you know, there's crocs here.
39:11It's very slippery underfoot.
39:12There's mozzies buzzing around.
39:14It's, you know, staying focused.
39:17And the heat as well, staying focused.
39:19It's a lot to, I don't know.
39:23I'm starting to think that I might not be up to the job,
39:27but I'm determined to try one more time.
39:30This is now personal.
39:35That one looked, as we got over it,
39:37it looked a bit bigger, actually.
39:39OK.
39:40It's more or less in a good position, isn't it?
39:41This is a good one.
39:41Yep.
39:42I've done it.
39:51I've finally overcome my fear.
39:54Now I can get a good look at this deadliest of all killers.
39:58It's strange.
39:59It doesn't look alive, but it feels alive,
40:01but in a very weird way.
40:02That size animal's probably got seven to eight tentacles
40:05on each corner of the belt.
40:07You only need six to seven feet long
40:09in an adult to kill somebody.
40:11That animal has potential to kill 50 people
40:14in under two minutes.
40:18We collect several more large specimens
40:20and harvest their venomous tentacles
40:22for making anti-venom back at the lab.
40:28I still can't compute the deadliness
40:30of the venom of this thing.
40:32I mean, this is quite a big animal,
40:33and this would kill several people
40:36in a very, very short time.
40:41So what happened to the plane crash victims?
40:44Since I believe they made it to the beach,
40:46they could have been devoured by crocodiles.
40:50But it's possible these ghostly creatures
40:52are what brought them down.
40:55In the final analysis, of course,
40:57we'll never know.
41:00What is it about the water here
41:02that makes it so dangerous?
41:04For a start, the water is very warm,
41:07so it's unusually productive.
41:09And this means that the apex predators
41:11can grow to gigantic sizes
41:13with massive mouths and powerful jewels.
41:16For me, it's the combination
41:19of biochemical weapons,
41:21the development of super-powerful venom
41:24with near-invisibility,
41:27surely the ultimate in camouflage,
41:29that is the really scary thing.