- 2 weeks ago
Documentary, River Monsters S08E05 Invisible Killers
Category
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AnimalsTranscript
00:00Mysterious tales of unsolved murder cases, suspicious attacks that could be explained by an underwater creature, always catch my eye.
00:14And recently, I came across a very strange case indeed.
00:21In 2011, on a beach in Mexico, five fishermen washed up.
00:27Dead.
00:30The article states that the corpses were badly beaten, with horrific bruises.
00:41It sounds terrible, but in a country ravaged by drug wars, finding mutilated bodies is not necessarily unusual.
00:50It's what comes next that has really grabbed my attention.
00:55It wasn't the police, but a marine biologist who was called in to investigate.
01:00Because according to the report, the finger of suspicion doesn't point to a human, but to a deadly sea creature.
01:08My name is Jeremy Wade, and I normally investigate cases of river monsters.
01:19Fresh water killers that plague the rivers and lakes of our planet.
01:23This thing really is a river monster.
01:25Mysteries of the sea are outside my comfort zone.
01:29But this story about fishermen attacked by a mysterious sea creature is so intriguing, I can't ignore it.
01:36I'm investigating a chilling story about five dead fishermen, washed up on a beach in Mexico's Sea of Cortez.
01:51One of the key clues is that the bodies were covered in strange wounds.
02:09The local marine biologist was convinced that they were the work of an animal.
02:14The marine predator that always springs to mind is a shark.
02:18But sharks leave a clear signature.
02:21A wound with the distinct curve of a shark's jaw.
02:25To get to the bottom of this case, I need some details about those mysterious wounds.
02:31But I can't track down the marine biologist in the article.
02:38Nobody's heard of him.
02:41I'm beginning to have doubts about this story.
02:44But I have unearthed other strange reports of fishermen attacked by mysterious creatures in the Sea of Cortez.
02:52This one talks about two Mexican fishermen dragged from their boats and chewed so badly,
02:58their bodies could not be identified even by their own families.
03:03And another one about a man who fell overboard.
03:07As he reached up for help, he was pulled to the depths, never to be seen again.
03:14Finding such similar stories in one location can't be a coincidence.
03:19I need to get on the ground to investigate.
03:22Mexico's Baja Peninsula is a remote strip of land separated from the mainland by the notorious Sea of Cortez.
03:38These infamous waters have a dark history of violence.
03:43Stories of hidden coves where Spanish pirates buried their treasure.
03:47And where drug cartels still bury their victims.
03:57Santa Rosalia is one of the few populated areas.
04:01A remote fishing community.
04:02I ask around to see if anyone knows about the attacks.
04:09I'm told I need to go to the beach at sunset.
04:15To speak to the locals before they head out night fishing.
04:18I ask about the five dead bodies.
04:33They say they're not aware of the case.
04:36But they do have other stories of fishermen who were attacked at sea.
04:40Including one about a man left covered in unusual bite marks.
04:43This sounds like the stories that brought me here.
04:49And adds to my suspicion that there's an elusive predator in these waters.
04:55But when I ask where I can find this man.
05:00I'm told he committed suicide.
05:03I'm too late for that victim.
05:08But the fishermen tell me the attacks happened in deep trenches off the coast.
05:13The Sea of Cortez sits on a series of major fault lines.
05:19And was formed when the Earth's tectonic plates ripped apart.
05:23Under the surface are underwater canyons.
05:25With depths reaching thousands of feet.
05:38The next morning I hire a boat to take me out to sea.
05:46I need to get my line in the water to find out what is really out there.
05:50As we approach the deep waters I start to see an abundance of life.
06:08Some big old sea lions on this rock here now.
06:13They might look a little bit cuddly and comical out of water.
06:15But they are actually very efficient predators.
06:19They've basically got teeth rather like a dog.
06:22Like sharks, sea lions would leave very distinctive marks.
06:26And certainly not the unusual wounds I've been hearing about.
06:33But the fact remains.
06:35Fishermen here have been attacked by something that lives beneath the surface.
06:39This is what I'm going to put on the end of the line.
06:46This mimics small fish in the water.
06:49I'm using wire because the chances are anything that goes after a small fish is going to have teeth.
06:54Just clip that on here.
06:56There we go, that's ready to go.
07:00We motor at speed, so my lures move like small fish fleeing a predator.
07:04Right, all set. Now we just wait and watch.
07:14But I don't have to wait long.
07:16Oh, yep.
07:17So lift, wind down. Lift, wind down.
07:30It doesn't feel very big, whatever it is.
07:37This isn't a fish that's capable of attacking a human, but it's a promising sign.
07:42This is a skipjack tuna, and these are perfect meals for anything larger.
07:49And the fact that these are around, I mean, it's a bit like, you know, if the zebras are around,
07:53you know the lions have got to be there somewhere.
07:55I wonder if I can use this meal-sized fish to my advantage and up my game.
08:01I'm now fishing with one of these skipjacks as bait.
08:04With a whole skipjack tuna on the end of my line, I'm hoping to attract a much bigger predator.
08:11This rod just sprung back.
08:29Doesn't feel like there's anything on there.
08:31This is weird. This is weird.
08:33That was definitely a bite, but the tuna and the end of my leader are gone.
08:38Something's just bitten through a piece of wire.
08:42Anything that can bite through wire must have some serious teeth.
08:47There's clearly a big predator down there.
08:50Well, I'm not going to find out what that was because it's gone,
08:54but I think nothing for it really but to get this line in again.
08:57With another whole skipjack as bait, I'm hoping to lure the culprit back.
09:05Oh, here we go. I saw that on the surface.
09:07Saw that on the surface.
09:11This time, it looks like it's still there.
09:15We used the power of the engine to set the hook.
09:18Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go!
09:23Go! Go! Go!
09:35I'm in the Sea of Cortez in Mexico,
09:39...investigating mysterious attacks on fishermen, unusual bites, and nightmare encounters.
09:48I'm searching the water, trying to lure in a predator, and I'm using a whole four pound fish as bait.
09:55Somebody's just bitten through a piece of water.
09:57My metal leader has already been bitten off, so I know there's some kind of powerful predator out there.
10:05Go, go, go, go!
10:09With a new line in the water, whatever's down there has latched onto an entire skipjack tuner.
10:18Nothing jumping yet, but whatever it was came up on the surface before it made that final hit.
10:29What's happening? It's off, is it off?
10:35Um, what's happened there?
10:39Something has just, uh, torn the, you know, fish. Torn its head off, basically.
10:48The fact that nothing actually jumped out of the water.
10:50The fact that this has just been cut pretty cleanly off the rest of the body.
10:55Um, it's cut through flesh, it's also cut through the, the backbone, and it's cut through the gill plate here.
11:02So, that speaks very much of sharp teeth, and that sort of shape there.
11:07It's like a signature, and the signature says very clearly, shark of some sort.
11:14This would explain my bitten off leader, but I don't think this helps my investigation.
11:23Great whites, hammerheads, and makos are all native to these waters.
11:28But I've already ruled out sharks, because their bite marks are so distinct.
11:33I can't imagine a shark's jaw leaving the unusual bruises and wounds I've been hearing about.
11:38My investigation seems to be going nowhere fast, when one of my reels starts screaming.
11:48Yep, go!
11:55Get it, get it, get it!
11:57Oh!
11:58Wait, wait, wait, wait!
11:59No slack, no slack, no slack, no slack, no slack, no slack, no slack.
12:08We're on the braid now, we're off the nylon, and it's running, it's just running, running, running.
12:13Right.
12:15Nice feeling, oh there it is, there it is.
12:17It's 40, 50 yards off, it's getting close to the boat.
12:23So a striped marlin, this.
12:26See the vertical stripes on the body.
12:30For a humble novice to see fishing, this is a landmark catch.
12:38Marlin are truly iconic fish, and it's the first time I've even seen a striped marlin.
12:47So, right, we've got very little time, we've got to get this back in the water quickly, but this is a striped marlin.
13:02You can see the stripes not so clearly now, vertically on the body, but, you know, this thing, everything tells you it's just built for speed.
13:09With a body as streamlined as a spaceship, the marlin is one of the fastest fish in the ocean, reaching speeds of up to 50 miles an hour.
13:21It's sword-like bill is used for hunting. When it attacks shoals of fish, this weapon stuns the prey.
13:28Look at those eyes, those are big eyes. One very interesting thing about this fish.
13:34A specially adapted muscle provides heat energy to the eye and enables the marlin to capture light more quickly.
13:48Like a high-speed camera, this super-powered vision turns a blur of fast-moving prey into a clear target.
13:55Time to go back. OK.
14:00These natural-born killers are precision marksmen, perfectly adapted to the fast pace of the ocean.
14:09Um, marlin. That is a big predatory fish.
14:12Fishermen pulling in big marlin have been speared by that lethal bill.
14:21But these were accidental encounters, leaving a single distinctive wound.
14:30The stories I've heard speak of multiple wounds.
14:33I'm looking for an animal capable of a sustained attack, a persistent serial killer, or perhaps a pack of predators.
14:44I'm starting to wonder if I'm only skimming the surface of what's down there.
14:50I'm quite literally out of my depth.
14:53Regularly, the depth sander is picking up a thousand feet.
14:58There are times even when that can't find the bottom.
15:01And, um, this is just so different from the kind of fishing that I normally do.
15:05I'm used to fishing rivers and lakes that are tens or at most hundreds of feet deep.
15:11But this is a vast ocean.
15:13Even more than my usual investigations, finding a killer out here is like looking for a needle in a haystack.
15:20As we head back, I wonder if I need a new approach.
15:37Back in Santa Rosalia, commercial fishermen are bringing in their daily catch.
15:42Wherever I am in the world, the fishing docks can provide vital clues.
15:47A rogue's gallery of potential suspects.
15:51Perhaps here I'll find evidence of other big predators that prowl these waters.
15:57These are mackerel feathers. They used to catch mackerel.
16:01Um, which they're just unloading from this barrel here.
16:06Oh, the size of the eye on this fish.
16:11This is what goes for those brightly coloured mackerel feathers there.
16:15Very nice meal-sized fish, this, but, um, no question of this being a man-eater though.
16:22Quite a few nice yellowtail coming in.
16:26They are, of course, predatory fish.
16:29Very muscular they are, but no way are they any danger to anybody in the water.
16:34Over the years, my many trips to docks like this have given me a bit of a sixth sense.
16:43And I'm realising there is something missing here.
16:47One thing that has struck me is all this out here is perfect shark habitat,
16:51but no sharks whatsoever coming in.
16:53And I have to say, I'm just finding that a little bit puzzling.
16:56I have definitely seen evidence of sharks in these waters and shark meat can be highly profitable.
17:03So I'd expect to see them being brought in here.
17:07The fact that nobody is catching them is surprising.
17:11As with any investigation, an absence of evidence can be significant.
17:17And when I ask why they don't fish for shark, one man who doesn't want to be filmed gives me an intriguing lead.
17:24I've just been talking to someone who says, if I really want to know what's going on here,
17:29there's a place I need to see.
17:31It's all a bit cloak and dagger, but no, he was very clear that I need to see this place.
17:38He described a location further down the coast, which he referred to as a cementerio, a cemetery.
17:45The directions lead me down a remote dirt track, and the landscape becomes more barren.
17:58And as I get closer...
18:00You can see lots of vultures up ahead.
18:02..I spot signs of death.
18:04There's something going on here.
18:05I'm on the hunt for a sea creature that has been attacking fishermen off Mexico's Baja Peninsula.
18:23A fearsome predator that inflicts unusual bite marks.
18:27My search for clues to the identity of the beast has led me to a location described as a cementerio.
18:47At first, it doesn't look like there's much here.
18:49This looks like just the kind of place where people throw dead fish, which I suppose you could call a cemetery of sorts.
19:01So this is...
19:05I don't know, what's that? That's a parrot fish or something like that.
19:10There's a strong stench of dead flesh, but I'm still wondering why I've been sent here.
19:15When something catches my eye.
19:18This is different. This is something different here.
19:26Suddenly, I'm surrounded by corpses.
19:30This is a shark. Oh, and I'm almost stepping on something here.
19:33I think this is probably another individual.
19:35There's the pelvic fins and there's one of the claspers.
19:38So this was a male shark.
19:40And this is...
19:41I'm assuming this is from the same individual. This is part of the tail.
19:46This is quite a large...
19:48Quite a large shark. And fresh.
19:50Something over here.
19:55That's a hammerhead.
19:58Things are suddenly starting to add up.
20:01And this creepy location is beginning to make sense.
20:05So, this is quite interesting.
20:10No sharks coming in at the port when I was there.
20:13And also, people very clearly saying nobody's catching sharks.
20:16But somebody is.
20:18And the fact that they're here on this deserted beach, not in the middle of the town,
20:21suggests that it's, you know, a bit on the shady side, shall we say.
20:24I'm guessing there's a local ban on shark fishing.
20:30And they're being caught illegally.
20:33In my experience, fishing bans are put in place when an animal is in serious decline.
20:39This may be a clue for my investigation.
20:43Nature hates a vacuum.
20:44And if the normal top predators are being removed, that could allow something else to take over.
20:51And perhaps that creature is behind the attacks I've heard about.
20:55I've seen a situation like this before.
21:00In the US, the alligator gar is an apex predator whose numbers have been severely depleted.
21:08Coming over.
21:10And this decline has contributed to a horrific invasion.
21:17With nothing to control their numbers, invasive Asian carp have taken over whole stretches of river in the Midwest.
21:25And a threatening disaster in the Great Lakes.
21:31There's up to 13 tons of these fish for every mile in the river.
21:37And I'm wondering if a similar thing could be happening here in Mexico.
21:42A new predator filling the void and wreaking havoc.
21:46Perhaps something much more terrifying than sharks.
21:52I need some local intel to find out exactly what's going on.
22:00Francisco has lived on this stretch of coast all his life.
22:04He tells me that when he was young, the sea was full of sharks.
22:11But people quickly realized that shark meat was very valuable.
22:18Fishermen here started catching them en masse to sell for shark fin soup.
22:22Sometimes using dynamite to bring in hundreds at once.
22:26That's very interesting.
22:31That's confirmed the suspicions that I was having that the shark here are in decline.
22:37They say it's a few decades since there was any number of sharks around.
22:41And yes, there is something else that's moved in and taken over.
22:46Something they call El Diablo Rojo.
22:49Translates as the Red Devil.
22:51Sounds very melodramatic.
22:52And they've given me the address of a fisherman who knows a lot about them.
22:57I may have my first concrete lead, the name of a devil-like beast and a man who can tell me about them.
23:11Is this Diablo Rojo the sea creature that I'm looking for?
23:16The fearsome animal that has been terrorizing these waters?
23:20Which of these animals is most deadly to humans?
23:29Cows, snakes or sharks?
23:32The answer, right after this.
23:37I asked, which of these animals is most deadly to humans?
23:42The answer, cows.
23:44In the US, 20 people are killed every year by cows, mostly workers on cattle farms.
23:48That's more than three times the number killed every year by snakes.
23:53And 20 times the number of people killed by sharks.
24:06I'm in Mexico, hunting for a mysterious sea creature.
24:10The perpetrator of nightmare attacks distinguished by strange bite marks.
24:15I found out that a severe decline in sharks has contributed to a new predator taking their place.
24:22Something the locals call El Diablo Rojo.
24:26The Red Devil.
24:28Could this be the nightmare beast I'm looking for?
24:32I'm just trying to puzzle out the possible identity of this Diablo Rojo, this red devil that I've just been told about.
24:37Now, clearly something pretty terrifying, otherwise why would you give it such a dramatic name?
24:42I've never heard of a red devil before.
24:45But I have come across the term devil fish.
24:48The grey whale was nicknamed devil fish because of its violent behaviour when harpooned.
24:59But although grey whales are big and they are found here, they're not really predators.
25:04I don't think they would attack multiple fishermen or inflict mysterious wounds.
25:08Another possibility is the devil ray. Manta rays are sometimes called devil fish.
25:15And that's down to the peculiar anatomy of their heads.
25:18They have these projections which look like horns.
25:22There are cases of rays plaguing the water when sharks go into decline.
25:26And manta rays are native to the Sea of Cortez.
25:31And they are cast as villains in some legends.
25:35Tales of them circling boats and attacking pearl divers.
25:39But rays are filter feeders.
25:42They don't have the anatomy to cause the unusual bite marks I've heard about.
25:46Another thing that's sometimes known as the devil fish is the kraken.
25:50This is a mythical giant squid that lives deep down in the ocean.
25:53And they say it comes up and it drags down ships.
25:59These highly intelligent beasts armed with barbed tentacles are creatures of mythology.
26:05But I wonder if there's a real creature that might have inspired this myth.
26:14I've tracked down the address given to me by the men at the shark graveyard.
26:18It's the home of a fisherman named Rafael.
26:20He says that when the red devils first appeared in these waters, he decided to try fishing for them.
26:31But it was no easy mission.
26:32Now he grew up here. He's seen sharks. He swung with sharks. No problem at all.
26:44But he's telling me that this animal, the diablo rojo, is extremely dangerous.
26:48He tells me about one of his early devil hunting trips as a young man.
26:55It's 11 o'clock at night. He's got his children with him in a boat.
27:00He loses his fishing lure. But close to where he's anchored, there's another boat with a spare lure.
27:08Rather than actually paddle to the other boat, he just jumped in the water.
27:12He knew there were red devils down there, but he didn't think they would hurt him.
27:19He was wrong.
27:20They attacked him from every direction. He felt the flesh tearing from his stomach and neck as they started to drag him down.
27:31His children managed to pull him back into the boat, covered in blood.
27:48He said if he hadn't been able to get out of the water, that would have been it. He'd have been finished.
27:52There was many. No way of giving a number.
27:57But he says this is something that when you hook one and you're bringing it into the boat, they become cannibalistic.
28:03If one is struggling on a line, others will come in and devour that.
28:07He says it's almost like a piranha feeding frenzy.
28:11Now, the thing about piranhas, from my experience, is if a piranha bites you, they leave a very clear signature.
28:17So I'm just curious, you know, if he's got any mementos of that particular incident.
28:27The attack happened more than 40 years ago, but he still has scars.
28:35This one reminds me of something I've seen before.
28:39The only thing that I've seen in my experience that's anything like that is caused by a puffer fish.
28:44Rafael's scar is too big to be caused by the beak of a puffer fish.
28:50But it is a very unusual wound, which certainly ties in with the other attack stories I've heard.
28:57The other sea creature that has a beak is a squid.
29:01What kind of animal? It has tentacles.
29:06I ask whether this animal has tentacles.
29:09Yes, yes. It's a calamar. I'm talking red.
29:13He confirms. It's a squid.
29:16He gave me a weight, something like 70 or 80 pounds.
29:19That's got to be an animal, I don't know, four or five foot long.
29:22But from what he's saying, you know, we're not talking solitary animals.
29:25We are talking about a squid feeding frenzy.
29:28I've never fished for squid before, and I'm eager to find out how to do it.
29:34When he shows me the lure he uses, it looks more like an instrument of medieval torture than anything I've ever put on a line.
29:42And this is the lure. This is the jig. He says this is luminous.
29:44The squid are attracted to the glow, and their tentacles become caught on the spikes.
29:50These marks here are caused by the beak of the squid.
29:54He makes these up himself. He sort of makes them from bits of other lures.
29:57And he says you often fish with these very deep, getting on for a thousand feet.
30:04I ask him if he can take me hunting for these devils.
30:08But he says I'm a few years too late.
30:11As suddenly as these large predatory squid invaded these waters, they have now mysteriously moved on.
30:19There's something particularly chilling about a beast that is here one minute and gone the next.
30:25But now that Rafael has helped me identify these elusive pack hunters, I'm more determined than ever to track them down.
30:36There are many species of squid, but there's only one that matches the size that Rafael described of four or five feet.
30:45The Humboldt squid.
30:48They're certainly the right colour to be called a red devil.
30:52And they have a beak made of one of the hardest natural substances on the planet, with the bite force of a lion.
31:03And I come across stories of Humboldt squid attacking divers that add to my suspicions that these are the animals I'm looking for.
31:10Another one came right up Miami, grabbed my hand and yanked back so hard that it dislocated my right shoulder.
31:16That's how bad these squid can be.
31:18There are incidences of Humboldt squid attacks in different locations along the Pacific coast.
31:23It's just so terrifying because you know just the thought of being eaten by something is just like something out of a horror movie.
31:34And hundreds of Humboldt squid sightings from California to Alaska.
31:38But as in Mexico, the squid seem to disappear as quickly as they arrive.
31:44With these animals having such a vast and seemingly random territory, pinning them down won't be easy.
31:51The reason they're called Humboldt squid is because they come from the Humboldt current, which is way down here in South America.
31:57It runs along the coast of Chile and Peru.
32:00And I've just come across some pictures of some very large Humboldt squid from a place called Paita in Peru.
32:06So I think I really have to check this place out.
32:08It looks like these alien animals are being caught in Peru right now.
32:14Finally, I feel like I'm closing in on the notorious Diablo Rojo.
32:20Here we go.
32:21I'm on the hunt for a notorious sea creature that's capable of inflicting horrific wounds.
32:38I've narrowed my search to a beast so terrible that Mexican fisherman named it the Red Devil.
32:52Which I've identified as the Humboldt squid.
32:58These ultra-predatory squid move like a plague.
33:02I was told they have now left Mexico, but I've traced them 3,000 miles south to their home territory.
33:09The Humboldt current off the Pacific coast of South America.
33:21I've come to a remote Peruvian fishing town called Paita.
33:26A bustling port and a far cry from the small scale fishing industry I left behind in Mexico.
33:34Clearly, squid have made a mark here.
33:37It's very heavy.
33:39It's very heavy.
33:40They'll get the mud on the coast, too!
33:41They're getting the mud on the coast.
33:42It's very heavy.
33:43It's very heavy.
33:45This is a serious squid lure, it's definitely a squid lure, there's no doubt about that.
34:00But it's very heavy duty and much more robust than the one they saw in Mexico.
34:04These are made out of thick steel, it's not just wire.
34:09And I'm guessing that, well, this is designed for animals of a serious size.
34:16I need to get fishing.
34:19The fishing industry here is one of the oldest in the world, dating back to before the Incas.
34:34With over 700 marine species, Peru is still one of the world's leading fishing nations.
34:40There's a lot of boats here, this really takes you back, you just don't see this kind of
34:46place at all very much in the world now.
34:53I'm taken to a commercial squid fishing vessel whose seasoned crew is out on these waters
34:58year round.
35:00My chances of tracking down Humboldt squid are looking good.
35:10We head out into the vast Pacific Ocean.
35:13To find the squid we need deep water and we have to travel for days.
35:17As all signs of land disappear, I rapidly lose my sense of direction.
35:22It becomes sickeningly apparent that this is a far cry from the rivers and lakes that
35:27I'm used to.
35:31We've all been ill on this trip.
35:33Not just the film crew, you know, the boat crew as well.
35:36I thought the captain had been okay, apparently the captain's been ill.
35:39As the days and nights blur, we continue further out to sea and there's no respite.
35:45The relentless sway of the boat is inescapable.
35:47As soon as you actually go inside, you don't have that reference point of the horizon.
35:52Unless you shut your eyes, you start feeling ill very quickly.
35:57Even the sea-hardened fishermen who do this for a living struggle with the tortuous pitch
36:01of the boat.
36:04But for these men to go to such efforts to find these squid, the catch must be worth the
36:08struggle to get here.
36:13Finally, after what seems like an endless journey, I'm told we're floating above squid territory.
36:20There's no way of reaching the bottom, so we deploy a drift anchor to steady the boat,
36:24and we get our lines out.
36:27Here we go.
36:31The technique is basic, just hand lines and that vicious jig, coated in phosphorescent paint
36:37so it glows in the dark depths.
36:41This ghostly light combined with a scrap of dead fish and the jig's movement should trigger
36:46the squid's natural predatory instinct.
36:50I'm slightly concerned about the side of the boat here.
36:52I mean, no doubt it's all in the name of efficiency, so you can pull squid over easily, but that's
37:00actually lower than my knee.
37:01So I'm thinking if the boat's tipping a bit, if the surface is slippery, I can imagine it'd
37:06be very easy to go over the side.
37:09When Raphael, the fisherman I met in Mexico, got in the water with squid, it was only seconds
37:14before they attacked.
37:17And the fishermen here warned me that when men fall overboard, the squid converge and drag
37:22them down.
37:23And generally they're not seen again.
37:44I'm in Peru, hoping to catch a Humboldt squid to determine whether it is in fact capable of
37:50attacking and killing fishermen.
37:54After three long days out at sea, I finally have something big on the end of my line.
37:59I think I can see it.
38:02There it is.
38:07This feels big.
38:12OK.
38:13OK.
38:14The writhing predator fires ink as a defence mechanism.
38:19OK.
38:20Coming aboard.
38:21OK.
38:22Here we go.
38:23It's just flashing different colours here.
38:25Out of the water, this squid's colour flashes from a devil-like red to inky black.
38:39So this is the beast.
38:42This is a Humboldt squid.
38:44And just what a weird animal it is.
38:47You have the mouth in the middle there, surrounded by tentacles.
38:52And inside there you can see the beak.
38:54I have no doubt this is what caused the scar on Raphael's shoulder, and is the brutal weapon
39:00behind the other unusual wounds I heard about.
39:03It's the key piece of evidence that ties all my stories together.
39:08And they have more weird anatomy.
39:10This is the siphon.
39:12This is what it squirts ink out of.
39:14These bizarre-looking predators are like something out of a horror movie.
39:18An alien animal totally unlike any fish I have ever caught.
39:22Quite an impressive beast.
39:24Going back.
39:25This squid is a decent size, but I'm told they grow twice as long.
39:30Perhaps eight times the weight.
39:33And there's something even more terrifying about these animals.
39:37Within seconds, another line goes.
39:44And they keep coming.
39:46Ah!
39:47Here we go.
39:48Coming over.
39:49Hey!
39:50Luckily that wasn't ink.
39:52Whoa!
39:53There's lots down here.
39:56These cannibalistic devils rise from the depths to attack other squids struggling on the fishing
40:02jigs.
40:03I'm told they hunt in packs of more than a thousand.
40:07Then, as suddenly as they first appeared...
40:14They're gone.
40:15But I'm left in no doubt that these are the very same Diablo Rojo that invaded Mexico.
40:24Whoa!
40:25And they are definitely the animal that has been attacking divers in the US.
40:29Grab my hand.
40:30And then you...
40:31But what about the five dead bodies that started this whole investigation?
40:35Since I was unable to track down the marine biologist or find any hard evidence,
40:39I now suspect that story was a hoax.
40:42But I think this is a rare case where reality is worse than fiction.
40:47Although the story that launched me on this investigation turned out to be made up,
40:52the creature that I found in the end, well, it's something that you just couldn't make up.
40:57It's all too easy to imagine falling into the water, two or three of them, grab hold of you and take you down to the depths.
41:06Anyone killed by Humboldt squid wouldn't wash up on a beach.
41:09They would disappear without a trace.
41:12For me, the thing that's really creepy about them is the fact that they're here one minute, gone the next,
41:17and they can just pop up somewhere completely different.
41:21This is a species that travelled 3,000 miles from Peru to Mexico.
41:27Where is it going to turn up next?
41:30Who knows, it might be coming to a beach near you.
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