River Monsters (2009–2017): Season 3, Episode 4 - Chainsaw Predator - full transcript

My name's Jeremy Wade.

For as long as I can remember,

I've had a passion
that verges on obsession.

Dangerous freshwater fish have
got me well and truly hooked.

Their deadly reputations
have always fascinated me,

as well as their methods
of attack.

I think we've got one.

In rivers around the world,

I've seen everything from
giant, venom-coated stings

to tiny assassins
that drill into flesh.

I've held a fish that could
slice off my arm,



smelled the breath of a beast
that inhales its victims whole,

and felt the hammer blow
of an 80-pound battering ram.

Yet, of all the nasty devices
I've come across,

there is one murderous-looking
weapon that really stands out.

It belongs to a sea monster

that swims hundreds of miles
up rivers...

A monster that has completely
eluded me until now.

Fish on! Fish on!

Wade: Nearly 20 years ago,

on my first fishing trip
to the Amazon,

I was in a hardware store,

looking for rope
and other supplies,

when I caught sight of something

that stopped me
dead in my tracks.



It was about a yard long,

with a profile
just like a chainsaw...

Except that each
vicious-looking point

was fully 2 inches long.

What I'd stumbled upon
was the snout, or rostrum,

of a fish the locals called
the araguaguá.

This is an animal I'd been
vaguely aware of from my youth

but which I'd never
actually seen.

In the comics and adventure
books of my childhood,

this creature was normally
depicted as a sea monster,

usually brandishing
its serrated weapon

at terrified skin divers.

But I don't ever remember
seeing a picture of a real one.

And until that hardware store
in Brazil,

I'd no idea that this large
and wickedly armed fish

might swim up rivers.

Wade: The animal in question

is known is English
as a sawfish.

Giants over 20 feet long
have occasionally been caught.

And legend has it

that these monsters
will even attack boats.

In the 16th century,

the Swedish chronicler
Olaus Magnus states

that this terrifying fish

will "Swim under ships
and cut them,

that the water may come in,

and he may feed on the men
when the ship is drowned."

More recently,

a story from India talks
of a man hacked in two.

If those accounts
sound farfetched,

then more believable perhaps
is this newspaper article

from the 1930s about an attack
off the coast of Florida.

The story goes that a fisherman
harpooned a large sawfish

in shallow water.

But when the brute spun 'round

and struck the boat
with its snout,

the tables were suddenly turned.

Wade: I shudder to imagine
that rack of teeth

scything into human flesh.

Despite severe injuries,

the victim in this instance
appears to have survived.

But I've long wondered if
the animal that attacked him

could be the most fearsome
of any fish to lurk in a river.

As I prepare to go
in search of one,

two questions are
at the front of my mind.

Why is such
a large sea-dwelling predator

coming into freshwater?

And is the sawfish
as deadly as it looks?

Once common
throughout the tropics,

sawfish are now
increasingly hard to find.

Commercial fishing in particular

has taken a heavy toll.

Decades of overkill
have almost wiped them out.

To track down this rare beast,

I'm heading
to Australia's wild northwest.

I've come
to the remote Fitzroy River,

one of the last strongholds

of the so-called
freshwater sawfish.

Somewhere here, so I've heard,

lurks a creature barely changed
since the age of the dinosaurs.

At the mouth of the river,

I venture
into unfamiliar territory.

This is a no-man's-land

of shifting mud
and treacherous currents.

But the dangers I can see
are only half the picture.

Hidden below the surface

are some of the world's
most notorious man-eaters.

Come on.

I've been granted
special permission

to try and catch the critically
endangered sawfish.

This puts me
in a truly privileged position.

Yet in such a vast area,

there's no guarantee
I'll even find one.

Hundreds of square miles
of open water.

It is ridiculous.

The warm, shallow water
at the mouth of the Fitzroy

is prime sawfish habitat.

20 years ago, a local fisherman
snagged an 18-footer

not far from here.

Pretty lively.

Uh...

Yeah. That's something.

Yeah, if I hadn't seen
what was responsible for that,

I might be getting
quite excited there.

I might be thinking
that was something toothy,

but that's crab claw marks.

Everything is hungry down here.

Wade: Out of the corner
of my eye,

I'm aware
of a more sinister predator.

For a saltwater crocodile,

humans as well as crabs
are fair game.

This wouldn't be a good place
to fall in.

Okay.

I got something on there.

This time, I'm hooked
into something meaty.

It's only day one, but I wonder
if I'm about to get lucky.

That's actually running.

Back a little. Back a little.
Back. Back. Back.

Oh, here we go.
Coming up. Coming up.

Okay. Okay.
Hold on. Hold on. Hold on.

I'm gonna take this easy,
'cause I can't actually...

I can't get a positive I.D.
in the water.

It's very muddy water.

Oh, it's a shark.
It's a shark.

This estuary's
just full of predators.

Wade: Bull shark.

I keep well clear of its mouth.

Even a 5-foot juvenile
could bite my hand off.

The adults can reach 13 feet

and probably kill more people
than any other shark.

This is one
of the few sea dwellers

which, like sawfish,
can swim up rivers.

Well, that was a bit of drama.
I'm glad we got that in.

It's always exciting
to get a fish like that in

on light tackle.

But a bit of disappointment...

That's not the fish
that I'm after.

I'm after something that looks
actually quite similar to that,

so I've got it all to do again.

Next time the line goes,

I want it to be a big sawfish,
not a bull shark.

Physically, sawfish resemble
sharks quite closely.

They have
shark-like dorsal fins,

a long body,
and a high, sweeping tail.

In other ways,

they're more like
their true ancestors... rays.

The gills, for example,
sit underneath,

the head is flat,
and the mouth is a narrow slit.

But it's the snout
that intrigues me.

Despite its vicious profile,

few have ever seen it in action.

Malcolm Douglas is an exception.

This real-life Crocodile Dundee

has witnessed nature's
very own chainsaw massacre.

In '67, I was up around Darwin,

and just as we come out
of this creek in the morning,

I saw something.

I saw a big school of mullet

all cruising and all
sort of huddling together.

And I said to my mate, I said,

"Something's stressing
those mullet."

And next thing, this massive saw
come up between them,

and it just went, "Bang!
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Faster than a speeding bullet,
as they say.

And then he just came through
gobbling them up.

And then he turned around again,
and he did that several times.

We just thought that was

the most fantastic thing
that we ever saw.

The saw on that...
I measured it from memory...

Was around about 8 foot long.

- A saw?
- Yeah, the saw itself.

Yeah, it's huge.
I'm not exaggerating.

I'm not prone to exaggeration.

Wade: This high-spec weapon
is stuffed with sensors

that pick up not just
the movement of nearby animals,

but also their electrical aura.

Even in total darkness,
a sawfish can nail its target.

According to Malcolm, they also
use their saw in self-defense.

You nearly had a rack of those
going into your leg.

Yeah, not nice.

As the dry season
comes on here, you get...

The Fitzroy gets
very shallow, right?

And these sawfish
will hang around quite often

in the shallow water.

Now, if you trap a sawfish

between the bank
and the deep channel,

he will come at you
with that saw.

And he'll just lash around like
this. This is his protection.

Now, if you get hit in the leg
or the arm or the stomach,

it's not a pretty sight.

It'd almost be worse
than a crocodile bite

because it's a rip right
through, like this, you know?

And then they'd come back,
and they'd hit you two
or three times.

Right.

Wade: The dry season
is the only time

you can explore
the Fitzroy River,

at least by vehicle.

During the rains,
all of this is underwater.

I head to a deep channel
known as Telegraph Pool.

By moving a few miles inland,

I'm hoping to improve my chances

of catching a sawfish.

Strong tides bring a lot
of smaller fish

into this lower section
of the river,

making it a rich hunting ground
for large predators.

Some are already lining up.

With crocodiles, they say

it's the ones you can't see
that you have to worry about...

Hardly reassuring
when they vanish without trace

into muddy water.

We're just waiting
for nightfall,

but it's good to stay
to the tide, as well.

The tide will be coming up soon.

Apparently, the sawfish move up
with the tide.

If they move up with the tide,
I move down with the tide.

So, I've just got
a couple of baits out.

Yeah, it's all looking
very fishy at the moment.

A few locals
also brave this spot.

Most are after barramundi,

a sport fish prized
for its fighting spirit.

In general, though, anglers
want to avoid sawfish,

which can rip lines
as well as flesh.

To boost my chances,
I've set up two rods.

By sunset, my baits
are still untouched.

And as darkness falls,
the mood grows more sinister.

It's not just the crocs
that are making me edgy.

People have lived here
for tens of thousands of years,

and their spirits seem
to haunt the shadows.

With each passing hour,

I feel more like a trespasser
in someone else's world.

Daylight comes as a relief

and then brings
an unexpected breakthrough.

Do you want a hand with that?

Yeah, please.

Another fisherman up early
before the heat of the day

has accidentally hooked
a sawfish.

This 2-footer is a mere pup,

but an extra pair of hands
still doesn't go amiss.

Were you fishing
for these, or...

- No, barramundi.
- Barramundi. Right.

- And I've caught
everything but.
- Right.

- This is the first one
of these I've seen.
- Okay.

I'm out of range now.
It's only a small one.

Wade: This baby sawfish is
the monster in miniature

and my first chance
to get a safe look

at this bizarre animal.

Wow.

Right. That's the first one
of these I've seen.

Imagine one of these things
20 foot long,

which is what they grow to
when they get into the sea.

But, yeah,
it's just like a shark

if you look
at the back end of it.

Come forward, that's just like
a ray's mouth...

A stingray's mouth.

But, you know,
that is the unique feature.

And even on a small one
like this, just look...

You know, that's quite
a fearsome weapon.

I'm actually aware
this is a small one.

Very good thing to see, because
for a fish like this to exist...

And this is probably
about a year old...

There have to be
breeding-size adults around.

Fantastic.
I wish I caught it myself.

I'm here to catch a monster.

But for now, I just want
to return the pup unharmed.

Just moving the tail to get
the circulation going a bit.

Wade:
Sawfish travel more than
200 miles up the Fitzroy River,

deep into
the arid Australian outback.

I want to know why they swim
so far into freshwater

and how dangerous
they are to humans.

The aborigines have lived
with these predators

for at least 50,000 years.

Sawfish feature
in their tribal dances.

And in one
of their dream-time stories,

the animal uses its huge saw

to gouge out the rivers
of the land.

Well, I'm now over 150 miles
from the coast

and on my way to meet
some of the Bunuba tribe.

They call this stretch of river
darngku, or deep water,

and I can see why.

The white band along the cliffs
is a stark warning

of how far this river rises
during the rains.

For 30 feet above me, the rocks
have been scrubbed clean.

With help from the Bunuba,

I'm hoping to catch
my first sawfish.

But I also want
to find out from them

how dangerous it really is.

Since coming here,
I've already picked up

one story of an attack
from northern Australia.

60 years ago, two fishermen

were smashed clean out of their
boat by one of these creatures.

What spooks me about this story
is not the men's injuries...

Incredibly, they escaped
virtually unscathed.

But according to the report,
the boat's solid wooden hull

was punctured
by the animal's teeth,

such was the force
of one of its blows.

The aborigines have
long hunted sawfish for food

and are still allowed
to catch them.

As an outsider, though,
I'm not sure how they'll take

to me fishing for one
in their waters.

Around here, it's mostly
the women who do the fishing.

So it's their knowledge
I want to tap into.

Mary Aitken is an elder
from the Bunuba tribe.

She grew up on this river

and begins by recounting
the story of a large sawfish

that she caught here
many years ago.

Wade:
How many were you?

And you couldn't take it?

It seems the fish
was almost too big

for the back of Mary's pickup.

So you just got it
on the back of the... yeah.

So, what about children?

When they go fishing here,
they're catching small fish,

and then they get one
of these sawfish on the line,

I mean, do they ever get hurt
by them?

Wade: Then Mary hands me

the largest saw I've ever seen.

The savage potential
of this ready-made weapon

certainly hasn't been lost
on humans.

There are records
of sawfish rostrums

being used as weapons

right across
the western Pacific,

from the Philippines
down through New Guinea

as far as New Zealand.

They'd use it to slice open
the abdomens of their enemies

and also to open up the veins
on the inside of the elbows,

causing fatal bleeding.

And even just a couple of years
ago here in Australia,

a couple of burglars
attacked a man in a caravan

using a sawfish rostrum,
and they put him in hospital.

But whether the sawfish itself
sets out to attack people

is less clear.

So far, the evidence is about
as shadowy as the beast itself.

Wade: By mid dry season,

the Fitzroy has shrunk
from a raging torrent

into a series of quiet pools
with little or no moving water.

This ought
to concentrate the sawfish

and make them easier to find.

But before I go looking,
I'll need plenty of fresh bait.

Mary catches hers with a throw
net and makes it look easy.

It's a method I've seen people
use all 'round the world

but have never tried myself.

What's that? Is that
a bream or something?

Yep.

The theory could hardly
be simpler...

Cast a circle, and your net

covers the greatest
possible area,

thus snagging more fish.

All right.

Yeah. Uh-huh.

Lovely.

With fresh bait on her line,

Mary is quickly
into her fishing.

Meanwhile, I'm getting
into a bit of a muddle.

That was a square.

After a slow start,
I finally won some respect,

and Mary lets me in
on a few good fishing spots

along the gorge.

Sawfish have roamed the earth

for at least
a hundred million years.

Yet the rocks under my feet are
nearly four times this old.

My walkabout takes me to
the top of a limestone cliff...

The remnant
of a once-mighty barrier reef

that lay beneath
an ancient ocean.

Beyond the horizon,

parts of this continent
date back four billion years.

That's almost as old
as life itself.

I'm looking for a stretch
of water with a deep channel,

the kind of place where
a big sawfish might lie up.

I've got the whole river
to myself.

And with limited time,
I'm eager to get fishing.

This is about as simple
as fishing gets, I suppose...

Just using a hand line.

So, there's the hook
down in the water,

a little bit of lead
holding the bait in place,

and this end, just a winder.

And this is what the locals use,
so I'm just giving it a go.

And they'll tend to go away
and just come back

and check the line
after a couple of hours,

make sure it's fastened
to something.

They tend to look
a bit askance at me

sitting actually holding
the line.

But, you know, I've only got
a limited time here.

I want to feel
when something comes along,

make sure the hook sets.

But from their point of view,
I'm wasting energy

and also sitting out in the sun
unnecessarily.

All that remains now
is to sit and wait

for something to find the bait.

As the hours slip by, I try out
several spots along the river.

By midafternoon,

the only animals
I've managed to flush out

are a bunch of cockatoos.

Surprisingly, the shallow pools
are still full of life.

Even in the dry season,

there are plenty of shrimp
and bream to be found.

This will be good ammunition
for later.

As I return to camp, I wonder
if the abundance of food

might explain why sawfish
come so far upriver.

If the pickings are rich enough

and you can adapt
to freshwater, then why not?

Recently in South Africa,

I caught huge adult bull sharks

which were swimming
way into freshwater

for just this reason.

Wade: But if the same
is true of sawfish,

then why aren't
I hearing stories

of giant,
20-foot river monsters?

It occurs to me that even here,

in what's thought to be one
of their last strongholds,

these prehistoric beasts
could be vanishing.

Perhaps darkness will draw
a sawfish out of its lair.

It's often said they're
more active at night.

Just in case I doze off,
I tie an empty can to the line.

Should anything run off
with the bait,

the noise of it moving
will wake me up.

I'm over 150 miles from
the mouth of the river here.

But apparently in the past,
according to Mary,

there have been some big sawfish
caught from this very place.

Wade: A long day baking
in the outback sun

has left me exhausted,

but my overcooked brain
refuses to switch off.

I still have little sense

of how dangerous sawfish are
to people.

Back in that hardware store
20 years ago,

the answer seemed obvious.

Yet for such a large
and viciously armed beast,

I'd have expected
a lot more bad press...

Especially from populated areas

where sawfish were once common.

After all, this is a fish said
to have hacked a man in two.

Wade: After a day of fishing
without success,

darkness has
finally brought me a bite.

My bare hands take the strain
as I wind in the line.

But the fish on the end
is not what I'm expecting.

Bull shark.

A bull shark this far inland
is a real eye-opener.

These aggressive fish
are clearly thriving here,

even during the dry season,

when this part of the river

is little more
than a stagnant pond.

So, a pretty hostile
environment...

You can see why everything in
there basically is tooled up.

You know, the sawfish possibly
needs that weaponry for defense.

Who knows?

Anyway,
I'd better put this back.

I just hope
I don't hook him up again.

There he goes.

Even though I know bull sharks

come up, you know,
in freshwater...

You know, it's still
really strange seeing them here.

But the monster I'm after
is nowhere to be seen.

Wade: It was only recently

that outsiders realized there
were sawfish in this river

and began to study them.

I'm leaving Darngku and heading
a hundred miles back downstream

to hook up with a small
sawfish-research team.

Perhaps their knowledge
can help me in my quest.

I turn off the main highway

to a dusty outpost
called Camballin

and then follow a dirt track
to an abandoned irrigation dam.

For most of the year,

this man-made barrier stops
sawfish swimming upstream.

They accumulate below the dam,

making this an ideal spot
for the research team.

Dr. Dave Morgan,
who leads the research,

is passionate about sawfish.

By tagging and tracking
individual fish,

he's starting to build up a
picture of their secret lives.

But as we head out
to set trapping nets,

we're busy watching our backs.

Crocodiles seem to be
following our activity

with a predatory interest.

This is risky work.

If you get too focused
on the crocs

and take your eye off
what's under your nose,

you can wind up
getting karate-chopped

by a sawfish in the net.

Just trying to do it
from a boat in a deep section,

that's when you often
get hit a lot.

But when you don't want
to get out of the boat...

'cause there's
saltwater crocodiles around.

Then, yeah, you get hit.

I've yet to lock horns
with a sawfish,

but just the thought
of being nailed by a croc

is making me jumpy.

In the dark, murky water,

I can't make out
what's in the net.

Yeah, definitely is a real
kick, kick, kick like that.

No, can you see that?

Croc, bull shark, or sawfish,

this has to be
the lucky dip from hell.

Man:
Yeah, I saw him. Yep.

Just be careful, mate.

It could be a bull shark

or a freshwater,
saltwater crocodile.

Will they get 'round
to the nets?

Will they come and take
the fish out of the nets?

Well, the freshies
generally go for catfish,

but the salties definitely
prefer the barramundi.

I'm starting to wish
I was somewhere else.

Well, they'll churn them
in the net...

Right.

So he'll try
and fight you for them.

Oh.

Shall I attempt to grab that?

Yeah.

- Is that...
- Grab him by the tail.

Just...

Okay.

Well, no sawfish in the net,
but this is a bull shark.

Okay.

Wade: I'd normally be fired up

to find bull sharks
so far upstream in freshwater,

but they're starting
to feel like a plague.

And I wonder how many more

I might have to pull out
from this crocodile soup

before I find a sawfish.

I'm told that the annual flood

was lower than normal this year,

making it hard for sawfish
to move upstream.

At any rate,
the last nets are all empty.

With cruel irony,

daylight brings the threat
of an unseasonal storm.

Out here in the bush,
heavy rain can spell trouble.

The timing is
absolutely crucial.

If I was here in the wet season,
I'd be sitting underwater,

which is precisely why we
come now in the dry season.

Not only
is the river accessible,

but also the fact
that it's down about 30 foot,

the fish are more confined.

The problem is, is that the
weather actually is changing.

We had the wind blowing.
We had rain last night.

And there's real concern
at the moment

that, if there's any more rain,

the tracks leading in here
are gonna become impassable,

so everyone's keeping an eye
on the weather.

If there is signs
of things turning bad,

we're just gonna have to throw
everything in the vehicles

and get out of here,

and that will be
a premature end to my mission.

With a big storm approaching,

the research team has no choice
but to beat a retreat.

Yet it seems there is
still a glimmer of hope.

To stay one step ahead
of the weather,

we head back to Telegraph Pool.

Wade: This is my last chance
to catch the monster

that I've waited
nearly 20 years to see.

While Dave and his team prepare
for another night of trapping,

I return...
Superstitiously, perhaps...

To the exact spot where
I released the baby sawfish.

Maybe this is where my prayers
will finally be answered.

Oh.

Fish on! Fish on!

Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!
Yeah! Yeah!

Good size. Good size.

It's coming in quite close.

It's already quite...

I'm gonna get over
these rocks in here.

I'm gonna need someone
to grab it.

I think it's ready.
It's ready, I think.

Oh! It's a sawfish.
It's a sawfish.

At last, the animal

that's been swimming around
in my head for nearly 20 years.

Yeah.

Here we go.
My first sawfish.

Look at this for a beast.

This thing's nearly 7 foot long.

It's bigger than I am.

And that rostrum on there...

That's a foot and a half long.

It's got 39 of those teeth.

Each one is about an inch long,
wickedly sharp.

You've got that huge dorsal fin,
a very big second dorsal fin,

a very big tail,
and they anchor the body.

And when the body flexes,
it's this head and this rostrum

that really scythe
from side to side.

It's about to tense.
We about to have a splash?

Yeah, here we go.
Yeah.

Yeah.

Wade: This journey began
almost 20 years ago.

In the heart of the Amazon,

I stood staring
at a vicious-looking weapon

and wondered if I'd ever see
its owner in the flesh.

Now, in a remote river
in Australia,

I finally got my hands
on a live sawfish.

So I hold that down and...

The scientists, meanwhile,
think they've figured out

why these creatures
come into freshwater.

It's flat on the rostrum.

Dave's latest measurements show

that they're using
the Fitzroy as a nursery.

Acoustic tag going in, here.

Despite all the predators,

it's still safer here
than in the sea.

Only when they reach
8 or 9 feet long

do sawfish leave the river.

As an adult living in saltwater,

this fish could one day
become a 20-foot giant.

But I came here to find out

if this fish is also a monster
in terms of deed.

Now, there's no doubt that
that fearsome, toothed rostrum

is potentially a lethal weapon,

and it's certainly been used
as such in the hands of humans.

But I can find just no instance
at all of this fish

having attacked
a human being willfully.

In other words,

its monstrous appearance is
not matched by its behavior.

Certainly,
if you're a small fish,

this thing is a deadly weapon.

But from
the human point of view,

the sawfish is
the archetypal gentle giant.

Sawfish are as tough
as they come.

This one has already
shrugged off a shark bite

as well as a recent croc attack.

Yet, in a world full of nets,

the very weapon
it needs to survive

is now liable to get it
snagged and killed.

My only fear as it swims away
is that we may be seeing

the last of these ancient
and extraordinary monsters.