Last of the Giants (2022-…): Season 1, Episode 5 - Jungle Goliath - full transcript
Two giant fish, one heart-pounding mission in the dangerous Amazon jungle that brings Cyril and the crew face-to-face with armed poachers, ravenous piranhas, hunting caimans, massive anacondas and a terrifying flash flood. Their mission: protecting not one, but two of the most massive freshwater giants on the planet: the armour-plated pirarucu, and the gargantuan Piraiba. These elusive giants are under threat from human activity, and the team must find them in order to collect non-intrusive DNA samples for scientists desperate to conserve them, but the jungle won't make it easy.
CYRIL CHAUQUET: Oh.
GEOFFREY ULOTH:
Colin, yeah, we've got a big one.
CYRIL: It's a giant.
Geoff, what's the status on Colin?
GEOFF: He's on his way.
CYRIL: Oh, oh! (grunts)
Watch out, watch out,
watch out, watch out. Watch out.
Stop him. Stop him, guys.
MANU (off screen):
Grab his tail, grab his tail.
-Get it, Cyril.
-CYRIL: Got it. Got it.
I can't hold it, though. I can't hold it.
NARRATOR: Cyril Chauquet
spends his life traveling the world...
-(trumpets)
-CYRIL (off screen): Easy, big guy.
NARRATOR: ...in search of massive fish...
CYRIL: Ahh!
Look at the size of that thing.
NARRATOR: ...no matter the danger.
CYRIL: Look at the amount
of venom on that bark.
Careful!
NARRATOR: He'll do whatever it takes
to see these giants up close.
CYRIL: He could almost swallow me whole.
NARRATOR: But many of these animals
are also in danger...
CYRIL: They're facing
a lot of challenges as fish.
NARRATOR: ...from habitat destruction,
pollution and commercial overfishing.
Now, Cyril and his four man team
of adventure filmmakers
are on a grueling mission
across the globe...
CYRIL: Unbelievable.
-Whoa!
-NARRATOR: ...to help scientists study
these fantastic creatures
and protect them.
CYRIL: We have the choice,
we preserve those fish
or we let 'em go extinct.
NARRATOR: This time, the team
is in British Columbia, Canada.
CYRIL: Watch out, rock!
NARRATOR: A stunning
but untamed and dangerous place.
EMMANUEL GIFFARD:
Man, there's a grizzly right there.
NARRATOR: To help protect North America's
last true giant, the white sturgeon.
COLIN SCHWINDT:
If nothing is done,
these fish are
definitely headed in the wrong direction.
NARRATOR: Part of a huge food web,
the sturgeon's main food source,
the Pacific salmon,
has seen its stocks drop drastically.
GARRETT: There used to be so many.
You used to be able to walk on them.
NARRATOR: To help these animals,
the team will travel deep into the wild
and come face to face with real giants...
CYRIL: Oh, yeah! Oh, my, Lord!
Whoa!
NARRATOR: ...and real dangers.
COLIN (off screen): There's a landslide.
We're worried about
debris and water coming up.
CYRIL: I lost my oar. I'm going over.
NARRATOR: Together, they'll fight
to save the Last of the Giants.
The team is heading to the Fraser River,
the longest river in British Columbia,
which flows to the Pacific Ocean
from deep within the Rocky Mountains.
Their goal, to help a sturgeon specialist
catch and tag mature white sturgeon
in order to protect them.
Data shows troubling trends
in the sturgeon's stocks.
CYRIL: Looks like a good spot.
NARRATOR: And the team travels
toward a remote eddy
that they mapped out the night before.
CYRIL: I'm gonna drive as far as possible.
But I think that to get to the spot
where we wanna go,
there's gonna be some hiking involved.
NARRATOR: The team preps
for a long trek through the forest.
They've each worked with Cyril before.
The director Geoff takes
adventure filmmaking to the next level.
GEOFF (off screen): Oh!
That's one way to study a shark.
NARRATOR: And keeps the crew entertained
when he buckles to peer pressure.
MAN (off screen): I wanna see your face.
GEOFF: Oh!
MAN: Come on, film it.
-GEOFF: Ow! Damn!
-(laughter)
NARRATOR: Chris, the cameraman, has filmed
in some of the most extreme environments.
(gunshots)
-He's been chased by elephants.
-CHRISTIAN PICHETTE: Run!
NARRATOR: And even got shocked
by an electric eel.
(Chris screams)
NARRATOR: Manu, the sound man
has followed Cyril...
-(exhales)
-CYRIL (off screen): Alright, Manu.
NARRATOR: ...into some
seriously dangerous territory.
-CYRIL (off screen): Alright?
-MANU: Yeah.
I heard something in the forest.
Something's coming at us.
NARRATOR: And the survivalist
on the team, Terry,
is a veteran cameraman
who's seen action
on the NBA court and in the wilderness.
TERRY LOWE (off screen):
A bear killed something here.
I can smell it.
CYRIL: Let's go, guys.
(bird chirping)
Yeah, it's getting more dense here.
GEOFF (off screen): You guys,
we're in bear territory,
so keep an eye out.
CYRIL: It's that way.
(exhales)
According to the GPS,
we're not very far,
so I'm gonna prep my rod here.
NARRATOR: Cyril wants to be ready
for when they get to the spot,
but out here, you can't be
ready for everything.
-CYRIL: Whoa guys, watch out, watch out.
-GEOFF (off screen): What? What is it?
CYRIL (off screen):
There's a bear over there.
The black bear.
GEOFF: I think if we make
enough noise, we'll, uh...
CYRIL: Well, keep making noise,
that's the key, right?
Hey, bear. Hey, bear.
GEOFF (off screen): He's gone.
Took off in the woods,
I can still hear him there.
CYRIL: Look, guys, that's his scat.
He's gone. It's safe.
He was afraid.
Ran off into the woods.
I can hear the river down, down there.
TERRY (off screen): Right in the direction
the bear went.
-CYRIL: Exactly.
-GEOFF (off screen): Still with us, Terry?
-CYRIL (off screen): You alright, Terry?
-TERRY (off screen): Yeah, I'm good.
CYRIL: Yeah? Any concern?
TERRY: It's not a grizzly.
CYRIL (off screen):
Yeah, it's not a grizzly,
but black bears can be pretty bad too.
TERRY: Yeah, I know.
NARRATOR: To be safe,
Manu pulls out his bear banger.
MANU: I'm not sure about that trail.
NARRATOR: A bear banger
creates a loud sound,
hopefully scaring
any aggressive bears away.
-MANU: Oh yeah, I see it.
-GEOFF: This is it.
CYRIL: That's it. I think that's the eddy.
So I say we trek down there
and we see what it looks like, right?
MANU (off screen): Let's do it.
CYRIL: Careful on the, on the moss here,
really slippery.
NARRATOR: The crew has found the spot
they mapped,
a big eddy at the bottom of a deep canyon.
Now, the challenge is to get down there.
CYRIL: Yeah, I think here is good.
What do you think, Geoff?
I think down through here
is the better way, right?
GEOFF (off screen): Yeah, I guess.
CYRIL: Before we all go down there
with all the gear and all the cameras,
I'm gonna go down
and see if it's feasible.
GEOFF: And I'm not gonna argue with you.
-Careful, man.
-(Cyril grunts)
NARRATOR: It doesn't take long...
(grunts)
...for Terry to decide...
GEOFF (off screen):
Watch out, pretty steep.
NARRATOR: ...he's not following Cyril.
TERRY: I'm going that way.
NARRATOR: And it's probably a good call.
TERRY (off screen): Careful!
(Cyril grunts)
CYRIL: Watch out, guys, pretty steep.
TERRY (off screen): You think?
-CYRIL: It's doable.
-GEOFF: It is.
CHRIS (off screen):
When's the helicopter coming?
NARRATOR: Terry and Manu
try hiking down through the forest
while Geoff follows Cyril.
CYRIL (off screen): Watch out, watch out,
big rocks coming down.
TERRY (off screen): Ow! (bleep)!
MANU (off screen): You okay?
NARRATOR: Terry just got hit
by a big rock.
MANU: You okay, man?
CYRIL (off screen): Is Terry okay?
Did I really hurt him?
-GEOFF (off screen): Terry, man, you okay?
-TERRY: Yeah, yeah.
CYRIL: You alright, Terry?
TERRY: Bowling ball just came
whipping out of a...
CYRIL: Man, I'm really sorry.
TERRY: Buddy, buddy, it's not your fault.
Don't worry about it.
-CYRIL (off screen): Can you walk on it?
-TERRY: Yeah, I'll be fine.
I'm just gonna walk it off.
CYRIL: And just take it easy, man.
I'm glad you're okay, man.
NARRATOR: Terry is
an experienced adventure cameraman,
and just like the rest of the crew,
it'll take a lot more
than a rock to stop him.
CYRIL: We made it.
It looks like a great spot, guys.
It's a deep pool right next to
fast current and giant sturgeon.
They'll scavenge for salmon
in those eddies.
NARRATOR: But the team
quickly finds a sign
that there may not be
much food around for big sturgeon.
CYRIL (off screen):
That's a drying station.
Hasn't been used in a long time.
It's mainly used for salmon.
Goes to show you how many salmon are left.
NARRATOR: Fish drying stations
were often used
in northern indigenous communities
and were also used here
by the Yale First Nation,
but the declining stocks
seem to have rendered this one obsolete.
CYRIL (off screen): Put it in
the right spot for wind drying,
it's right at the point,
there's a lot of wind.
It's very strategic,
TERRY: It's just a shame
that it's not what it used to be.
CYRIL (off screen): Yeah, it's terrible.
NARRATOR: With less salmon around,
can the river still sustain
massive sturgeon as it once did?
There's only one way to find out.
CYRIL: These fish
are so big and so powerful
that there's no room for error.
You gotta make sure
that everything is perfect,
that your rig and the knots
are very well tied.
Alright, Manu, let's put it to the test.
NARRATOR: Simulating a fish on the line
is a great way for Cyril
to set the drag of the reel.
CYRIL: I'm gonna put
a little bit more drag here.
NARRATOR: But since sturgeon
can grow over 12 feet long,
Manu's gotta work hard
to match their power.
(grunts)
(grunts)
-CYRIL: I think we're good to go.
-MANU: Yeah, it looks solid.
NARRATOR: The Fraser River
is muddy, fast and deep,
and sturgeon hunt along the bottom,
so the team will do the same.
CYRIL: Mm, nice salmon scrap.
Sturgeon's favorite meal.
Hopefully they'll go for it.
NARRATOR: A six ounce weight
will sink the bait to the riverbed
where sturgeon can smell it.
NARRATOR: It's time to wait,
and even with his bruised leg,
Terry keeps filming.
-CYRIL (off screen): You alright, man?
-TERRY: Yeah.
NARRATOR: Their goal
is to find a massive sturgeon,
but the team knows it won't be easy,
and the reason for that
is exactly why they're here.
Last week, they met up with
marine biologist Colin Schwindt.
COLIN: Hey, how's it going, Cyril?
CYRIL: Pretty good, yourself?
NARRATOR: Colin's research
has revealed an alarming trend
in certain sections
of the sturgeon population.
COLIN: The abundance of
a lot of our smaller fish is in decline.
And so if nothing's done,
these fish are definitely headed
in the wrong direction.
NARRATOR: To help stop this decline,
he's been implanting acoustic tags
in sexually mature sturgeon
in order to track their movements
and find their spawning areas
so they can be protected.
CYRIL: And then transmit
the sound signal, right?
-It's through the water?
-COLIN: Yeah.
It's an acoustic signal,
and I've got a series of fixed receivers
that will pick up the acoustic signals
that these tags emit.
CYRIL: Every time
they swim by the stations?
COLIN: Every time they swim by.
NARRATOR: Colin needs
an experienced angler like Cyril
to help him catch these giants.
CYRIL (off screen): Let's do this.
NARRATOR: But Colin isn't looking
for just any old sturgeon.
-CYRIL: So the bigger, the better, right?
-COLIN: Bigger the better.
Minimum size for me is about
two meters, two hundred centimeters.
CYRIL: Two meters.
That's-that's seven feet, right?
COLIN: Yeah, that's a big fish.
CYRIL: Wow, that's a giant fish.
That's a back-breaking fish.
COLIN:
Yeah. That's why I brought you here.
NARRATOR: Colin is working
on the river nearby
and he'll come by boat
if the team calls him.
But first, Cyril needs to get
a big sturgeon on the line.
CYRIL: This is not working at all.
The way the current is made in this eddy
is that it keeps bringing
my bait right here, you know, in the rocks
and really close to shore.
That's not good.
I really need to put it out there.
I see a big swirl
in the middle of the eddy there,
really close to the main current.
That's where the bait needs to be
so it doesn't come back here.
NARRATOR: The sturgeon
is an opportunistic hunter.
To save energy, it sits in the eddy
on the edge of the main current
waiting to pounce on any food
brought down by the river.
But the problem
is casting the bait out that far.
CYRIL: When you cast six ounces of weight
and about the same weight of a... in bait,
especially when you got
a bad shoulder like mine, can hurt.
(groans)
Nothing, Chris, plan B.
CHRIS: Alright, plan B.
NARRATOR: Anticipating this problem,
the team has come up with a possible,
if slightly crazy solution.
CYRIL: What we did is
we attached a 22 ounce sinker
to see if the drone
can actually lift that weight.
CHRIS: Do we have helmets?
NARRATOR: Since the spot
is so far from the shore...
CYRIL (off screen): Okay.
NARRATOR: ...they'll use
the drone to bring the bait out.
CYRIL (off screen): Ooh. Whoa!
CHRIS (off screen): Whoa, yeah, big drone.
CYRIL: Wow.
-TERRY (off screen): Can you control it?
-CHRIS: Yeah.
CYRIL: Man, this thing is powerful.
NARRATOR: It seems to work... in theory.
CYRIL: We can put a real big bait on this.
GEOFF (off screen): Plan B is where we,
uh, take a really expensive drone
that is in theory, not waterproof.
And we fly the bait all the way out there,
like 100 yards out there, maybe.
NARRATOR: As the director,
Geoff's a little nervous.
If something goes wrong,
it could seriously impact filming.
GEOFF (off screen):
We never tried this before.
It may work, but, uh, we may also
end up losing a drone right now.
CYRIL (off screen): You know
the spot, right? I showed you the spot.
-CHRIS (off screen): Yeah.
-CYRIL: When you're above it,
hover over the spot and I'll yank it down.
-CHRIS: Sounds good.
-(laughter)
-CYRIL (off screen): Okay.
-CHRIS (off screen): Alright.
NARRATOR: It's the moment of truth.
CHRIS: Yeah, feed your line.
NARRATOR: And it looks like... it works.
CYRIL: You're headed
exact in the right direction there, man.
Keep going, keep going,
keep going, keep going.
That's pretty good. It's really good.
Really good. Really good.
Okay. Oh, man,
you're on the honey hole there.
You're getting there.
GEOFF: That's the right spot,
that's for sure.
CYRIL: Okay, I'm gonna yank it.
NARRATOR: Now, Cyril has to carefully
yank the line free from the drone.
GEOFF (off screen): Slowly, guys.
NARRATOR: A maneuver
that could send the drone out of control.
CYRIL: One, two, three.
Yes!
(laughter)
CHRIS: Yes!
CYRIL: We're gonna be able to fish.
We're gonna be able to fish right.
Thank you, drone, and thank you, Chris.
Technology assisted fishing.
CHRIS: Exactly.
Geoff, you feel better now?
CYRIL: Hey, man.
CHRIS: Oh, I love it. What a job.
CYRIL (off screen):
Alright, let's catch a fish now.
Come on, fish.
Oh.
Here we go.
Yeah. There we go.
Oh, yeah.
Feels good to have a fish on the line.
(grunts) This fish is not fighting much,
but it's got a lot of weight to it.
You know, sometimes that's what they do.
They don't really fight back
until they start really fighting.
And then you realize
you have a massive fish on the line.
Whoa.
Here we go.
(reel unspooling)
Whoa.
Hey, now it's fighting.
We're on to a big fish, guys.
I just felt...
this fish moving,
and it's got a lot of power
behind its tail.
Okay, I'm gonna try to bring
this fish towards the beach,
to shallow water so we can land it.
Oh, man, he's not ready yet.
NARRATOR: Cyril thinks
this fish might be big enough to tag.
CYRIL: Guys, I think
we might have to call Colin.
GEOFF: I'm on it.
CYRIL: Oh, yeah, this fish is running now.
GEOFF: Colin? Yeah, I think
you should get over here.
-CYRIL: Yeah.
-GEOFF: Cyril's got a big one on the line.
CYRIL: I wanna see this fish.
I wanna see the size of this beast.
GEOFF: Okay. Okay, bye.
-CYRIL: Colin's on his way?
-GEOFF (off screen): Yeah.
CYRIL: Okay, awesome. Whoa.
(grunting)
Starting to feel this fight in my back.
(grunting)
It's right here,
it's right in front of me.
It's a good sized fish.
Yes!
Oh.
(grunts) Oh.
(exhales)
Whoo. (panting)
Oh, beautiful animal. Look at that.
Ah, give me that bait.
There we go.
NARRATOR: Colin needs the fish
to be at least two meters long to tag it.
CYRIL: Beautiful.
NARRATOR: That's close to seven feet.
CYRIL: Okay, you do the nose.
I'll get the fork of the tail.
Make sure we don't lose him.
-GEOFF: It's five foot five inches, it's...
-CYRIL (off screen): Oh, man.
Can you believe that this fish
is way too small for what we need?
GEOFF (off screen): I'm gonna call Colin.
CYRIL: Yeah, call him off
'cause he's on his way here, right?
-GEOFF: Yeah.
-CYRIL: Unbelievable.
These fish have been around
for 150 million years.
That means that these guys
shared the planet with dinosaurs.
Sturgeon feed mainly by smell.
They have eyes, but very tiny eyes.
So they can't really see.
And they also have these,
they're called barbels
and those allow them
to actually taste the food
that they find on the bottom of the river.
They're a little bit like taste buds.
Alright, buddy. Back you go.
NARRATOR: It was a beautiful fish,
but Cyril's a little disappointed.
CYRIL (off screen): Can't believe
this fish was too small.
NARRATOR: Night's falling
and they still need to tag a giant,
they have to push the drone to its limits
with a bigger bait and a bigger weight
so it stays down.
GEOFF (off screen): How much heavier
is that one than the other one, Cyril?
CYRIL: More than double.
GEOFF: Is the drone gonna
be able to handle that?
CYRIL: We'll see.
GEOFF: Okay, let's do it.
NARRATOR:
The new plan makes Geoff nervous,
and Chris has to adapt quickly
to the heavier weight.
GEOFF (off screen): You got this, man.
NARRATOR: Because as daylight fades,
they have time for only one more cast.
CYRIL: Got a little bit
of a tangle, but it's okay.
Don't worry about it.
NARRATOR: The line is twisted,
but they have no time to bring it back.
CYRIL (off screen): Good job. Good job.
Good job. Good job. Good job.
Good job. Good job. Good job. Good job.
-GEOFF (off screen): Nice, Chris.
-CYRIL: Good job. Good job. Excellent.
GEOFF: Looking good.
Whoa, what's happening?
CHRIS (off screen):
Oh, no, it's too much weight.
-(drone beeping)
-Killed the battery.
GEOFF (off screen):
Chris, bring it in. Bring it in.
CHRIS (off screen): I can't, I can't.
-I can't control it, man.
-GEOFF: Chris, bring it in.
TERRY (off screen):
Can you bring it back, Chris?
CHRIS: No, it's out of control.
CYRIL (off screen): Chris, pull up, man.
CHRIS (off screen):
Guys, guys, I'm losing it.
CYRIL (off screen):
Guys, it's gonna go down.
Oh, it's going down. It's going down.
CHRIS: No. No.
Argh! I got a drone on.
CYRIL: Gotta get it out.
GEOFF (off screen): Is it still tangled?
CHRIS: Yeah.
CYRIL (off screen):
I still have it on the line.
Something's stuck here.
CYRIL: Oh, my God,
we wanted to catch a fish
and now we're catching a drone.
NARRATOR: But just as the team
is about to give up...
-CYRIL (off screen): I got it!
-CHRIS (off screen): No, really?
-CYRIL: Yeah!
-CHRIS: Alright!
NARRATOR:
Chris hopes to salvage the drone,
so he removes the battery and memory card.
CHRIS: Yeah, we need to dry it out.
We need fire right now, guys.
CYRIL: Lots of dead trees around here.
-CHRIS (off screen): Got more wood?
-CYRIL: Yeah.
NARRATOR: They need a fire
to dry out the drone and for their camp,
it's too late to head back.
CYRIL (off screen): At this point,
we really gotta make it fast
because it started raining.
So we gotta find some dry stuff.
NARRATOR: They're spending the night
and wanna keep the bears at bay.
CYRIL: Man, it's really wet.
NARRATOR: And no one takes
wilderness survival more seriously...
CYRIL: Good job, man.
NARRATOR: ...than Terry.
CYRIL: Whoa!
(laughing)
Terry is intense.
You'll get to know him.
NARRATOR: As a passionate survivalist,
Terry has a certain way of doing things.
CHRIS: Oh my God, Terry.
Not the flint. Just use a lighter.
NARRATOR: But everything is way too damp
for his signature methods.
Luckily, Cyril has a trick up his sleeve.
CYRIL: It's an old trick I learned
from First Nations a long time ago.
GEOFF: That's a great idea.
CYRIL: You guys think
it's my first picnic?
(Geoff chuckles)
-GEOFF: You're like a beaver.
-(Cyril chuckles)
CYRIL (off screen):
Hey, Terry, check this out, man.
Much easier and faster with a lighter.
I think it's gonna work.
I have faith in this technique.
There we go. I've got a flame.
TERRY: Good job.
NARRATOR: Before long, they have
a large enough fire to last all night.
TERRY: Need a little help?
CHRIS (off screen): (chuckles) Terry looks
like a snake charmer right now.
GEOFF: Man, that thing is really going.
It's like Superman breath.
That's why Terry's part of the team.
TERRY: 'Cause I'm old?
CYRIL: No, 'cause you're full of tricks.
TERRY: 'Cause I'm old.
CYRIL: Yeah, well, yeah, uh, experience.
TERRY: When you get old you know stuff.
Made it this far, you know something.
(laughter)
GEOFF: It was a hell of a first day, guys.
-CHRIS: Yeah. Yeah.
-GEOFF: Freakin' epic.
NARRATOR: Day one ends
and the team is no closer
to achieving their quest.
-CYRIL: I'll make some coffee, guys.
-GEOFF (off screen): Sounds good.
-CYRIL: Yeah?
-MANU: Oh, yeah.
NARRATOR: But with a new day
comes new hope,
even for Chris' drone.
-(laughs)
-CYRIL (off screen): Hey, hey.
CHRIS: Takeoff.
It's like a new drone!
NARRATOR: An unexpected opportunity
has come up for the crew,
a chance to see the sturgeon
in their natural environment
under the water.
A local diver has offered
to take them on a drift dive,
but the Fraser
is much too murky and dangerous.
So they head out
to a nearby tributary with Fernando,
a professional diver
from Brazil living in Canada
who has dived in this
demanding environment before.
The visibility might be better,
but it's not going to be an easy dive.
CYRIL (off screen): The suit
that I'm putting on right now
is called a dry suit
as opposed to a wet suit.
It's a totally different system.
It's a little bit more technical.
It's for cold water diving.
So the idea is that I'm gonna stay dry.
That's why I can wear layers
of clothes underneath, warm clothes,
and water doesn't penetrate
through the suit.
It's a little technical to get in there,
but it's, uh, it's really worth it
'cause you can stay in the water longer.
I'm gonna look like an astronaut.
NARRATOR: So far, the team hasn't found
a sturgeon big enough to tag,
so Cyril wants to learn more
about their habitat
and see how he can apply that
to his fishing.
CYRIL: See, what did I tell you?
NARRATOR: Christian outfits
his full face mask
with a pair of glasses
so he can work underwater.
CYRIL: Just put the knife
on the inside of my leg
so that I can easily reach it
with my right hand like this.
NARRATOR: Now, it's time
for a safety briefing with Fernando.
CYRIL: You wear the thing
Brazilian style, right?
FERNANDO (laughs): Yeah.
CYRIL: Got a little bit
of a thong going on there.
(laughter)
FERNANDO: So this dive is a drift dive.
It's a technical dive.
So the water is super cold,
um, the currents runs pretty fast,
so we cannot swim back,
and the biggest hazard
you're gonna see is, uh, ghost nets.
-CYRIL: Drifting nets.
-FERNANDO: Um... Drifting nets, yeah.
They can be a hundred meters long,
just floating in the water line.
CYRIL: So you can come up
on 'em real fast, right?
FERNANDO: Yes.
And you don't wanna get tangled
'cause if you do,
you're not gonna go back
to the surface.
We always see a lot of debris
in the bottom,
so massive logs, um, I've seen boats.
-CYRIL: Drags?
-FERNANDO: Oh, yeah.
FERNANDO: There's, um,
Kevlar fishing line,
which are strong enough
to hold you underwater.
CYRIL: Wow. You see a lot of stuff.
-FERNANDO: A lot of stuff.
-CYRIL: A lot of scary stuff.
FERNANDO: Exactly.
It's-it's gonna be a really nice dive.
-CYRIL: Alright, man, let's do this.
-FERNANDO: Right on, let's do it.
CYRIL: Alright.
GEOFF (off screen): You're good.
NARRATOR: The three divers head out,
they'll be followed
by the rest of the crew
in a boat driven
by local fisherman Rick Stall.
RICK STALL:
We're losing 'em quick here now.
NARRATOR:
He'll follow the diver's bubbles.
So if they get into trouble,
help can come quickly.
But before they even dive down,
they're met with an ominous sign.
CYRIL: Oh, look at that.
NARRATOR: This dead salmon
is an ominous sign
of what might be waiting
for Cyril and the team down deep.
CYRIL: You alright, Chris?
CHRIS: Yeah. Yeah, I am ready.
CYRIL: Watch out for drift nets.
NARRATOR: The current starts
picking up speed...
dragging the divers across
a graveyard of dead salmon,
a grim reminder of what happens
when salmon fulfill their life cycle.
CYRIL: There's a lot
of dead fish down here.
They've all spawned.
A sturgeon might smell this guy
and come and slurp him up
with its vacuum-like mouth.
-RICK (off screen): See them?
-MANU: Yeah, right there in front of us.
RICK: They just hit 15 feet of water now.
It goes from eight to fifteen,
dumps just into a hole here.
(whistles)
The current's going this way.
You can see their bubbles
are leaving us now a little bit.
NARRATOR: The dive team
picks up more speed
and they finally see
the first sign of life.
FERNANDO (off screen): It's a chum salmon.
NARRATOR: But so far...
CYRIL (off screen): See any sturgeon?
FERNANDO: No.
There's one.
CYRIL: That was a big one.
FERNANDO: Let's go that way.
NARRATOR: The team heads after it
into deeper waters
dropping below 40 feet.
These chum salmon are using their tails
to make nests called redds,
where they'll lay their eggs.
CYRIL: With all these
salmon and nests here,
that's a good sign.
FERNANDO:
There should be sturgeon around.
NARRATOR: The current takes the divers
even deeper and faster,
and that's causing a problem
for the spotters on the surface.
GEOFF (off screen):
Yeah, Cyril, this is Geoff.
Can you come in? Over.
CYRIL: Yeah, go ahead. Over.
GEOFF: Yeah, Cyril, you got in the current
and you just kept going, man,
and, uh, we lost your bubbles.
CYRIL: Copy that. We're staying
in one place for a second.
NARRATOR: Cyril and the dive team
grab a log to fight the current
while the crew topside looks for them.
(Chris grunts)
NARRATOR: Suddenly, Christian gets
tangled up in a drifting fly line.
CYRIL: You okay, man?
NARRATOR: And the current
pulls him away from the team.
CHRIS: It's caught on my mask!
NARRATOR: Cyril tries to pull the line in.
CYRIL (off screen): Chris!
NARRATOR: But Chris is drifting freely,
trying to fix his mask.
CHRIS (off screen):
I've just got to fix this.
NARRATOR: He's in danger
of floating to the surface too quickly,
which could cause serious lung damage.
CYRIL: Fernando, let's go.
NARRATOR: Cyril and Fernando
swim after him.
CYRIL: We're coming, Chris.
NARRATOR: On the surface,
the team waits for news.
GEOFF: I don't know.
CYRIL (off screen):
We're right behind you, Chris.
Grab my hand.
Okay, I got you.
You're good?
CHRIS: Yeah. Thanks, man.
CYRIL: Wow, the current
totally ripped you away.
NARRATOR: The dive team is reunited
and the team on the surface...
GEOFF: Yeah, there he is,
I see the bubbles.
NARRATOR: ...reunites with them too.
CYRIL: I've just got
a few minutes of air left.
And I don't see any sturgeon around.
We've got to do this fast.
NARRATOR: They're running low on air
and they run into several huge salmon
protecting their nests.
CYRIL: Sturgeon would love these guys.
We've got to be getting close.
Is it just me
or are the fish getting bigger?
NARRATOR: The team is rushing now,
and they go over an edge down to 50 feet.
They have mere seconds
to find the fish they're after.
CYRIL: There, look!
Wow!
Beautiful!
NARRATOR: It's a mid-sized sturgeon,
not even a giant,
and it doesn't seem to be afraid
of Cyril or the crew.
CYRIL: That's amazing.
NARRATOR: With only
seconds left in their tanks,
the team enjoys a rare moment
with a white sturgeon in the wild.
CYRIL: Wow, did you see that?
That was amazing.
Chris, good work, man.
We found one.
CHRIS (off screen): Oh, yeah. Amazing!
CYRIL (off screen): Goodbye, buddy.
NARRATOR: It was an incredible encounter
that confirms sturgeon live in deep holes.
RICK: Got 'em.
NARRATOR: And it reminds the team
just how important their mission
to save these fish really is.
It's a new day and time
to get back to the Fraser River.
The team is on their way downriver
where they've heard
there are giant sturgeon
big enough for Colin's study.
And the first stop is with an old friend
from the Yale First Nation,
Chief Robert Hope.
The Yale First Nation is deeply connected
to the sturgeon
and they know
where to find the true giants.
CHIEF ROBERT HOPE:
It's at least eighteen feet long.
-CYRIL: Eighteen feet long?
-CHIEF HOPE: Yeah.
Oh, they're 1,200, 1,500 pounds.
CYRIL: It's not even a fish at this point.
It's a dragon,
it's a monster, it's a giant.
NARRATOR: Sturgeon has always been
a staple of the Yale First Nation.
CHIEF HOPE (off screen):
That was a good cast there, Cyril.
It's exactly where them, uh,
sturgeon are waiting.
NARRATOR: But since Cyril's last visit,
stocks have been in decline,
along with its food source, the salmon.
And if salmon disappear,
the entire ecosystem is threatened.
CHIEF HOPE (off screen):
It's not only the sockeye salmon,
but the Chinook salmon
have been endangered for quite some time.
The, uh, steelhead, uh, the coho stock.
There's gotta be a chain reaction.
There's gotta be an effect on, uh,
the sturgeon stocks as well
and, uh, other things,
you go further down the line
like a killer whale and so on,
you know.
CYRIL: Bears.
The eagles.
CHIEF HOPE: That's right, yeah.
And, uh, certainly it's impacting
our people, you know.
We've survived a long time
right in this very area
and a big reason for that,
because we had fish to eat year round,
but now we do not, you know.
So we, uh, do the best we can.
CYRIL: And we catch a giant sturgeon
so we could put an acoustic tag in it,
follow its migrations
and protect the areas
where those fish, uh, spawn.
It's a little step, but, you know,
it's by taking small steps
that we can eventually get to somewhere.
CHIEF HOPE: In a hope that, uh,
the results of the study
help the sturgeon, uh, in the future.
CYRIL: I hope so too.
You guys, uh, have the, uh,
satellite phones?
MANU: Yeah, it's ready.
CYRIL: Yeah, because
if we catch a giant sturgeon,
then we can call Colin
so he can come and take the fish.
CHIEF HOPE: Oh, yeah. Yeah.
CYRIL (off screen):
There's so many different ways
those fish can bite, you know,
sometimes it can be just a rod tip.
It's very subtle.
You see the rod tip go, boom,
boom-boom, boom, boom, boom.
And it could be a giant fish
that's taking the bait,
whereas sometimes they'll be like, boom!
(imitates reel unspooling)
And the rod, you can,
you barely have enough time
to jump on the rod to pick it up
before it goes into the water.
NARRATOR: They wait over an hour
for a bite, but nothing comes.
CYRIL: No.
NARRATOR: Time to head upriver
where Chief Hope says
there are real giants.
CYRIL: I'm Cyril.
NARRATOR: His relatives Garrett and Perry
agree to take them upriver
to one of their traditional fishing spots.
CYRIL (off screen): Alright, shall we go?
(engine cranking)
NARRATOR: But it looks like
Garrett's motor has got a problem.
Equipment malfunction out here
could be deadly.
(cranking continues)
But luckily, Garrett gets it going.
(engine revving)
CYRIL: Good job, man.
NARRATOR: To get where they're headed,
the team has to pass through
a dangerous stretch of river,
so they split up in two boats
to keep the weight down.
CYRIL (off screen):
But this river is deadly, right?
-GARRETT: Yeah.
-CHIEF HOPE: Dangerous.
No place for fooling around, eh.
You've gotta be serious about it.
CYRIL: Yeah.
Oh, my God.
NARRATOR: They've just entered one of
the river's most frightening sections.
CYRIL: That's a huge one there.
Look at those whirlpools there.
CHIEF HOPE: Yeah, it's a good one.
CYRIL (off screen):
You'd get sucked right under.
-Right?
-CHIEF HOPE (off screen): Oh, yeah. Yeah.
You wouldn't have a chance.
NARRATOR: They are surrounded
by massive whirlpools.
CYRIL: Wow.
NARRATOR: Whirlpools
are rotating masses of water
caused by the meeting
of conflicting currents.
CYRIL: Whirlpools, they're deadly.
You know, they suck your right under,
you know, you're caught in that,
there's no way you can, can get out of it.
It's gonna suck you all the way down.
NARRATOR: Navigating them
requires Garrett's full concentration.
CYRIL (off screen): Wow, that's a big one.
GARRETT: Any closer or not?
I'm just kidding.
Though, the engine, though...
Don't want the engine to fail.
CYRIL: No, 'cause you get
sucked into-into that, right?
-GARRETT: Probably would...
-CHIEF HOPE (off screen): The whole boat.
GARRETT: Probably would sink the boat.
NARRATOR: The team finally
makes it to calmer water,
which gives them a chance
to talk about the declining fish stocks.
GARRETT: They say
there used to be so many stock
that you used to be able
to walk on them, the water.
CYRIL (off screen):
But how does that make you feel
that the stocks are going down
'cause you saw
your grandfather or your parents,
I'm sure, like catching a lot more fish
than you are these days, no?
GARRETT: I imagine they would be
rolling around in their graves.
CYRIL: Yeah, they would.
NARRATOR: After 40 minutes, they reach
one of the Yale First Nation's
favorite spots for giant white sturgeon.
Hopefully, the team
will have better luck here.
CYRIL: Alright, Garrett,
thank you very much.
NARRATOR: Garrett and Perry
will continue upriver,
leaving the team to make a fire
to fight off the cold
while Chief Hope prepares the bait.
CHIEF HOPE:
I don't know what part you'd like to use.
CYRIL: The whole part.
-Don't you have big fish here?
-CHIEF HOPE (off screen): Yep.
Sure, let's put it all on there.
NARRATOR: No drone casting this time.
Chief Hope brings the bait out by boat.
CYRIL: Hey, good job, Bob.
CYRIL: I think you just put it in the,
right in the sweet spot.
CHIEF HOPE: That's right.
That's where I wanna be. By the river.
CYRIL: You're smart.
You got it all figured it out.
CHIEF HOPE:
Nice fire going, the river's... peaceful.
-CYRIL (off screen): Yeah.
-(train horn blowing)
If it wasn't for the trains.
NARRATOR: Now, it's a waiting game.
CYRIL (off screen): Sorry, guys,
we had to go through
these conditions to get to the fish.
GEOFF (off screen): What's a little bit
of weather, right,
when we're trying to help a species
avoid extinction, you know.
I mean, we are on the beach after all.
CYRIL: Yeah,
keep telling that to yourself.
NARRATOR: Another hour goes by
without a single bite.
Crew morale is fading,
and just when they're ready
to stop filming...
CYRIL: Oh, here we, here we go,
here we go.
Here we go. Here we go, guys.
Oh, yeah.
Good bite, good bite,
good bite, good bite.
CYRIL (grunts): Yep.
CHIEF HOPE (off screen): Stay calm.
CYRIL: Here we go.
(grunts)
We're on.
(groaning)
This fish has some weight to it for sure.
(grunts)
It's not a little fish.
CYRIL: Robert, you bring me
to the good spots, man.
CHIEF HOPE: I knew
it was just a matter of time.
We have to be patient sometimes.
(reel unspooling)
NARRATOR: The fish is running hard.
CHIEF HOPE: Gonna need the boat.
CYRIL: I don't think we do,
as we stand here so far.
NARRATOR: If this sturgeon
gets into the main current,
its weight and power
will combine with the rivers
and might run Cyril out of line.
If that happens, chasing it
in the boat will be the only hope.
CYRIL: He's gonna come up
to the surface soon.
Oh, yeah, there he is. There he is.
(grunts)
This fish has some weight to it for sure.
(grunts)
I don't think it's a giant.
A giant would have pulled
that reel already.
NARRATOR: It might not be a giant,
but it may be big enough
for the scientists to tag.
CYRIL (off screen): See the bubbles?
Oh, yeah. There he is. There he is.
I really thought it was bigger.
CHIEF HOPE (off screen): It's a beauty.
CYRIL: It's a beauty, yeah.
Too small to tag though.
CHIEF HOPE: That must be
five feet, six feet.
-CYRIL: Five, six feet, right?
-CHIEF HOPE (off screen): Yeah.
Really short.
NARRATOR: The fish still isn't
big enough for Colin to tag.
He needs sturgeon
close to seven feet long.
CYRIL: It's a beautiful creature.
The anatomy of these fish
is really interesting.
If you look at the head,
it's very, very hard.
And then they have those
bony plates along the back here,
kinda like what crocodiles
have on their skin.
Can you imagine that these fish
have been around
for 150 plus million years?
And now we have the choice,
whether we preserve those fish,
we help 'em, or we let 'em go extinct.
Alright, buddy. You go back.
CYRIL: Wow.
CHIEF HOPE: Good job. Nice fish.
CYRIL: Might not be the fish I need,
the size I need for research,
but it's okay
'cause it's a, it's a sturgeon,
it's such a beautiful creature.
CHIEF HOPE: It's a good feeling
when you see that sturgeon
going back into the wild.
CYRIL: He went back to the same hole
that he came from, right?
CHIEF HOPE: Yeah.
Yeah, it's where he lives.
CYRIL: Oh, yeah. I love it.
-Thanks again.
-CHIEF HOPE: Yeah.
NARRATOR: It's dawn in the Fraser Valley,
and Cyril and his team
are headed downriver
through a more urban environment.
Denser areas of human population
put more pressure on the fish,
but the team's research suggests
there are still giants here.
And once again, the team
must hike down to their fishing spot.
GEOFF (off screen): I don't think
we should go this way
because, uh, someone's
gonna get a leg caught in here
-and it's gonna be me.
-CYRIL (off screen): Go this way then.
-TERRY (off screen): Alright.
-GEOFF: Well, that way is even worse.
CYRIL: Hey, it's just over there.
I can see the river from here.
Oh, yeah, it looks good here, guys.
NARRATOR: The river is wider here,
but the current is still strong
and catching a huge fish
is gonna be a challenge.
Once again, Colin will come by boat
if the fish is big enough.
CYRIL: There are monster sturgeon here,
really, really big fish.
So I brought a conventional outfit
with a lot of line capacity in it.
This is 150 pound braid line.
And I have lots.
You know, if you don't have a lot of line,
you'll just simply lose the fish.
And also this rod is super powerful.
The idea is that I wanna
be able to cast this,
which is a 28 ounce sinker.
There's a lot of current here
so I want the bait
to sit in just one place
'cause otherwise it becomes hard
for the sturgeon to find the bait.
So I want the sturgeon to be able
to pick up on the scent trail
and actually swim straight
to the, uh, to where the bait is.
This will do it.
Alright, let's catch a giant.
NARRATOR: As always, with big fish,
Cyril has to be meticulous
when tying on his rig.
One mistake and he could lose
the giant he's after.
CYRIL: Let's hope they like
this salmon scrap.
NARRATOR: The bait's on the bottom,
it's time to wait and see
if a giant sturgeon sniffs it out.
And it doesn't take long.
CYRIL (off screen): Oh.
(reel unspooling)
Yeah. Here we go.
(sighs) Here we go.
Here we go.
Oh, yeah! Oh, yeah!
Oh, man. Big fish, big fish.
NARRATOR: It's a huge fish,
big enough to tag.
But then something strange happens.
CYRIL: Man, this fish
is barely moving. That's weird.
Oh, man. I knew it. It got off.
Damn.
NARRATOR: Well, back to the drawing board.
Cyril is more determined than ever
to find a massive sturgeon.
But it looks like
it's not going to be easy.
CYRIL: There's so much commercial activity
on this river, it's crazy.
Years, a history of commercial activity.
Especially logging.
See all those big logs?
That's why it's very tricky
landing a fish from here,
especially a massive fish,
'cause all those logs,
there's tons of 'em on the bottom
that have sunk over the years.
Lots of snags for a monster fish
to get into and break me off.
NARRATOR: It takes
over half an hour for the tugs
and all the logs to pass by.
-MANU: Here.
-CYRIL: Oh, nice, man. Good job.
NARRATOR: And without any new bites,
Cyril and the crew need to take a rest.
CYRIL: Oh, here we go,
here we go, got a bite.
(sighs)
Come on. Come on.
He's on. He's on.
GEOFF (off screen):
That's a tank man, that's a tank.
CYRIL (off screen): Wow, look at that.
NARRATOR: Cyril finally
has another fish on the line,
and this one is big.
(Cyril grunts)
CYRIL: It's a heavy fish.
NARRATOR: Inch by inch,
Cyril brings the fish towards shore.
CYRIL: Coming up. Coming up. (grunts)
Oh, it's huge!
Oh, yeah.
Oh, my God, yeah, you see that?
Did you see that tail?
This fish is gigantic.
Look at that.
(grunting)
NARRATOR: This is the giant fish
that Cyril and the team
have been looking for.
CYRIL: Big fish, big fish.
I gotta land it.
Oh! (grunts)
Come on, stop, fish, stop.
NARRATOR: He tries to pull
the fish towards shore.
He needs to end this fight now.
CYRIL: Oh, yeah.
Oh!
Manu, can you help me hold the rod?
MANU: Yeah, I'm coming.
(Cyril panting)
CYRIL: Yeah, thanks, man.
CYRIL: Alright. Okay. Oh.
GEOFF: Colin, yeah, we've got a big one.
NARRATOR: While they wait, Cyril needs
to keep the fish breathing in the water.
GEOFF: Okay, see you soon. Bye.
CYRIL: Geoff,
what's the status on, on Colin?
GEOFF: He's on his way.
CYRIL: He's coming?
GEOFF (off screen): That's what he said.
(grunting)
CYRIL: Watch out, watch out, watch out.
Watch out! Watch out.
Stop him. Stop him, guys.
MANU: Grab his tail, grab his tail!
Get it, Cyril.
-Don't let go, don't let go!
-CYRIL: Got it.
I can't hold it though, I can't hold it.
GEOFFREY ULOTH:
Colin, yeah, we've got a big one.
CYRIL: It's a giant.
Geoff, what's the status on Colin?
GEOFF: He's on his way.
CYRIL: Oh, oh! (grunts)
Watch out, watch out,
watch out, watch out. Watch out.
Stop him. Stop him, guys.
MANU (off screen):
Grab his tail, grab his tail.
-Get it, Cyril.
-CYRIL: Got it. Got it.
I can't hold it, though. I can't hold it.
NARRATOR: Cyril Chauquet
spends his life traveling the world...
-(trumpets)
-CYRIL (off screen): Easy, big guy.
NARRATOR: ...in search of massive fish...
CYRIL: Ahh!
Look at the size of that thing.
NARRATOR: ...no matter the danger.
CYRIL: Look at the amount
of venom on that bark.
Careful!
NARRATOR: He'll do whatever it takes
to see these giants up close.
CYRIL: He could almost swallow me whole.
NARRATOR: But many of these animals
are also in danger...
CYRIL: They're facing
a lot of challenges as fish.
NARRATOR: ...from habitat destruction,
pollution and commercial overfishing.
Now, Cyril and his four man team
of adventure filmmakers
are on a grueling mission
across the globe...
CYRIL: Unbelievable.
-Whoa!
-NARRATOR: ...to help scientists study
these fantastic creatures
and protect them.
CYRIL: We have the choice,
we preserve those fish
or we let 'em go extinct.
NARRATOR: This time, the team
is in British Columbia, Canada.
CYRIL: Watch out, rock!
NARRATOR: A stunning
but untamed and dangerous place.
EMMANUEL GIFFARD:
Man, there's a grizzly right there.
NARRATOR: To help protect North America's
last true giant, the white sturgeon.
COLIN SCHWINDT:
If nothing is done,
these fish are
definitely headed in the wrong direction.
NARRATOR: Part of a huge food web,
the sturgeon's main food source,
the Pacific salmon,
has seen its stocks drop drastically.
GARRETT: There used to be so many.
You used to be able to walk on them.
NARRATOR: To help these animals,
the team will travel deep into the wild
and come face to face with real giants...
CYRIL: Oh, yeah! Oh, my, Lord!
Whoa!
NARRATOR: ...and real dangers.
COLIN (off screen): There's a landslide.
We're worried about
debris and water coming up.
CYRIL: I lost my oar. I'm going over.
NARRATOR: Together, they'll fight
to save the Last of the Giants.
The team is heading to the Fraser River,
the longest river in British Columbia,
which flows to the Pacific Ocean
from deep within the Rocky Mountains.
Their goal, to help a sturgeon specialist
catch and tag mature white sturgeon
in order to protect them.
Data shows troubling trends
in the sturgeon's stocks.
CYRIL: Looks like a good spot.
NARRATOR: And the team travels
toward a remote eddy
that they mapped out the night before.
CYRIL: I'm gonna drive as far as possible.
But I think that to get to the spot
where we wanna go,
there's gonna be some hiking involved.
NARRATOR: The team preps
for a long trek through the forest.
They've each worked with Cyril before.
The director Geoff takes
adventure filmmaking to the next level.
GEOFF (off screen): Oh!
That's one way to study a shark.
NARRATOR: And keeps the crew entertained
when he buckles to peer pressure.
MAN (off screen): I wanna see your face.
GEOFF: Oh!
MAN: Come on, film it.
-GEOFF: Ow! Damn!
-(laughter)
NARRATOR: Chris, the cameraman, has filmed
in some of the most extreme environments.
(gunshots)
-He's been chased by elephants.
-CHRISTIAN PICHETTE: Run!
NARRATOR: And even got shocked
by an electric eel.
(Chris screams)
NARRATOR: Manu, the sound man
has followed Cyril...
-(exhales)
-CYRIL (off screen): Alright, Manu.
NARRATOR: ...into some
seriously dangerous territory.
-CYRIL (off screen): Alright?
-MANU: Yeah.
I heard something in the forest.
Something's coming at us.
NARRATOR: And the survivalist
on the team, Terry,
is a veteran cameraman
who's seen action
on the NBA court and in the wilderness.
TERRY LOWE (off screen):
A bear killed something here.
I can smell it.
CYRIL: Let's go, guys.
(bird chirping)
Yeah, it's getting more dense here.
GEOFF (off screen): You guys,
we're in bear territory,
so keep an eye out.
CYRIL: It's that way.
(exhales)
According to the GPS,
we're not very far,
so I'm gonna prep my rod here.
NARRATOR: Cyril wants to be ready
for when they get to the spot,
but out here, you can't be
ready for everything.
-CYRIL: Whoa guys, watch out, watch out.
-GEOFF (off screen): What? What is it?
CYRIL (off screen):
There's a bear over there.
The black bear.
GEOFF: I think if we make
enough noise, we'll, uh...
CYRIL: Well, keep making noise,
that's the key, right?
Hey, bear. Hey, bear.
GEOFF (off screen): He's gone.
Took off in the woods,
I can still hear him there.
CYRIL: Look, guys, that's his scat.
He's gone. It's safe.
He was afraid.
Ran off into the woods.
I can hear the river down, down there.
TERRY (off screen): Right in the direction
the bear went.
-CYRIL: Exactly.
-GEOFF (off screen): Still with us, Terry?
-CYRIL (off screen): You alright, Terry?
-TERRY (off screen): Yeah, I'm good.
CYRIL: Yeah? Any concern?
TERRY: It's not a grizzly.
CYRIL (off screen):
Yeah, it's not a grizzly,
but black bears can be pretty bad too.
TERRY: Yeah, I know.
NARRATOR: To be safe,
Manu pulls out his bear banger.
MANU: I'm not sure about that trail.
NARRATOR: A bear banger
creates a loud sound,
hopefully scaring
any aggressive bears away.
-MANU: Oh yeah, I see it.
-GEOFF: This is it.
CYRIL: That's it. I think that's the eddy.
So I say we trek down there
and we see what it looks like, right?
MANU (off screen): Let's do it.
CYRIL: Careful on the, on the moss here,
really slippery.
NARRATOR: The crew has found the spot
they mapped,
a big eddy at the bottom of a deep canyon.
Now, the challenge is to get down there.
CYRIL: Yeah, I think here is good.
What do you think, Geoff?
I think down through here
is the better way, right?
GEOFF (off screen): Yeah, I guess.
CYRIL: Before we all go down there
with all the gear and all the cameras,
I'm gonna go down
and see if it's feasible.
GEOFF: And I'm not gonna argue with you.
-Careful, man.
-(Cyril grunts)
NARRATOR: It doesn't take long...
(grunts)
...for Terry to decide...
GEOFF (off screen):
Watch out, pretty steep.
NARRATOR: ...he's not following Cyril.
TERRY: I'm going that way.
NARRATOR: And it's probably a good call.
TERRY (off screen): Careful!
(Cyril grunts)
CYRIL: Watch out, guys, pretty steep.
TERRY (off screen): You think?
-CYRIL: It's doable.
-GEOFF: It is.
CHRIS (off screen):
When's the helicopter coming?
NARRATOR: Terry and Manu
try hiking down through the forest
while Geoff follows Cyril.
CYRIL (off screen): Watch out, watch out,
big rocks coming down.
TERRY (off screen): Ow! (bleep)!
MANU (off screen): You okay?
NARRATOR: Terry just got hit
by a big rock.
MANU: You okay, man?
CYRIL (off screen): Is Terry okay?
Did I really hurt him?
-GEOFF (off screen): Terry, man, you okay?
-TERRY: Yeah, yeah.
CYRIL: You alright, Terry?
TERRY: Bowling ball just came
whipping out of a...
CYRIL: Man, I'm really sorry.
TERRY: Buddy, buddy, it's not your fault.
Don't worry about it.
-CYRIL (off screen): Can you walk on it?
-TERRY: Yeah, I'll be fine.
I'm just gonna walk it off.
CYRIL: And just take it easy, man.
I'm glad you're okay, man.
NARRATOR: Terry is
an experienced adventure cameraman,
and just like the rest of the crew,
it'll take a lot more
than a rock to stop him.
CYRIL: We made it.
It looks like a great spot, guys.
It's a deep pool right next to
fast current and giant sturgeon.
They'll scavenge for salmon
in those eddies.
NARRATOR: But the team
quickly finds a sign
that there may not be
much food around for big sturgeon.
CYRIL (off screen):
That's a drying station.
Hasn't been used in a long time.
It's mainly used for salmon.
Goes to show you how many salmon are left.
NARRATOR: Fish drying stations
were often used
in northern indigenous communities
and were also used here
by the Yale First Nation,
but the declining stocks
seem to have rendered this one obsolete.
CYRIL (off screen): Put it in
the right spot for wind drying,
it's right at the point,
there's a lot of wind.
It's very strategic,
TERRY: It's just a shame
that it's not what it used to be.
CYRIL (off screen): Yeah, it's terrible.
NARRATOR: With less salmon around,
can the river still sustain
massive sturgeon as it once did?
There's only one way to find out.
CYRIL: These fish
are so big and so powerful
that there's no room for error.
You gotta make sure
that everything is perfect,
that your rig and the knots
are very well tied.
Alright, Manu, let's put it to the test.
NARRATOR: Simulating a fish on the line
is a great way for Cyril
to set the drag of the reel.
CYRIL: I'm gonna put
a little bit more drag here.
NARRATOR: But since sturgeon
can grow over 12 feet long,
Manu's gotta work hard
to match their power.
(grunts)
(grunts)
-CYRIL: I think we're good to go.
-MANU: Yeah, it looks solid.
NARRATOR: The Fraser River
is muddy, fast and deep,
and sturgeon hunt along the bottom,
so the team will do the same.
CYRIL: Mm, nice salmon scrap.
Sturgeon's favorite meal.
Hopefully they'll go for it.
NARRATOR: A six ounce weight
will sink the bait to the riverbed
where sturgeon can smell it.
NARRATOR: It's time to wait,
and even with his bruised leg,
Terry keeps filming.
-CYRIL (off screen): You alright, man?
-TERRY: Yeah.
NARRATOR: Their goal
is to find a massive sturgeon,
but the team knows it won't be easy,
and the reason for that
is exactly why they're here.
Last week, they met up with
marine biologist Colin Schwindt.
COLIN: Hey, how's it going, Cyril?
CYRIL: Pretty good, yourself?
NARRATOR: Colin's research
has revealed an alarming trend
in certain sections
of the sturgeon population.
COLIN: The abundance of
a lot of our smaller fish is in decline.
And so if nothing's done,
these fish are definitely headed
in the wrong direction.
NARRATOR: To help stop this decline,
he's been implanting acoustic tags
in sexually mature sturgeon
in order to track their movements
and find their spawning areas
so they can be protected.
CYRIL: And then transmit
the sound signal, right?
-It's through the water?
-COLIN: Yeah.
It's an acoustic signal,
and I've got a series of fixed receivers
that will pick up the acoustic signals
that these tags emit.
CYRIL: Every time
they swim by the stations?
COLIN: Every time they swim by.
NARRATOR: Colin needs
an experienced angler like Cyril
to help him catch these giants.
CYRIL (off screen): Let's do this.
NARRATOR: But Colin isn't looking
for just any old sturgeon.
-CYRIL: So the bigger, the better, right?
-COLIN: Bigger the better.
Minimum size for me is about
two meters, two hundred centimeters.
CYRIL: Two meters.
That's-that's seven feet, right?
COLIN: Yeah, that's a big fish.
CYRIL: Wow, that's a giant fish.
That's a back-breaking fish.
COLIN:
Yeah. That's why I brought you here.
NARRATOR: Colin is working
on the river nearby
and he'll come by boat
if the team calls him.
But first, Cyril needs to get
a big sturgeon on the line.
CYRIL: This is not working at all.
The way the current is made in this eddy
is that it keeps bringing
my bait right here, you know, in the rocks
and really close to shore.
That's not good.
I really need to put it out there.
I see a big swirl
in the middle of the eddy there,
really close to the main current.
That's where the bait needs to be
so it doesn't come back here.
NARRATOR: The sturgeon
is an opportunistic hunter.
To save energy, it sits in the eddy
on the edge of the main current
waiting to pounce on any food
brought down by the river.
But the problem
is casting the bait out that far.
CYRIL: When you cast six ounces of weight
and about the same weight of a... in bait,
especially when you got
a bad shoulder like mine, can hurt.
(groans)
Nothing, Chris, plan B.
CHRIS: Alright, plan B.
NARRATOR: Anticipating this problem,
the team has come up with a possible,
if slightly crazy solution.
CYRIL: What we did is
we attached a 22 ounce sinker
to see if the drone
can actually lift that weight.
CHRIS: Do we have helmets?
NARRATOR: Since the spot
is so far from the shore...
CYRIL (off screen): Okay.
NARRATOR: ...they'll use
the drone to bring the bait out.
CYRIL (off screen): Ooh. Whoa!
CHRIS (off screen): Whoa, yeah, big drone.
CYRIL: Wow.
-TERRY (off screen): Can you control it?
-CHRIS: Yeah.
CYRIL: Man, this thing is powerful.
NARRATOR: It seems to work... in theory.
CYRIL: We can put a real big bait on this.
GEOFF (off screen): Plan B is where we,
uh, take a really expensive drone
that is in theory, not waterproof.
And we fly the bait all the way out there,
like 100 yards out there, maybe.
NARRATOR: As the director,
Geoff's a little nervous.
If something goes wrong,
it could seriously impact filming.
GEOFF (off screen):
We never tried this before.
It may work, but, uh, we may also
end up losing a drone right now.
CYRIL (off screen): You know
the spot, right? I showed you the spot.
-CHRIS (off screen): Yeah.
-CYRIL: When you're above it,
hover over the spot and I'll yank it down.
-CHRIS: Sounds good.
-(laughter)
-CYRIL (off screen): Okay.
-CHRIS (off screen): Alright.
NARRATOR: It's the moment of truth.
CHRIS: Yeah, feed your line.
NARRATOR: And it looks like... it works.
CYRIL: You're headed
exact in the right direction there, man.
Keep going, keep going,
keep going, keep going.
That's pretty good. It's really good.
Really good. Really good.
Okay. Oh, man,
you're on the honey hole there.
You're getting there.
GEOFF: That's the right spot,
that's for sure.
CYRIL: Okay, I'm gonna yank it.
NARRATOR: Now, Cyril has to carefully
yank the line free from the drone.
GEOFF (off screen): Slowly, guys.
NARRATOR: A maneuver
that could send the drone out of control.
CYRIL: One, two, three.
Yes!
(laughter)
CHRIS: Yes!
CYRIL: We're gonna be able to fish.
We're gonna be able to fish right.
Thank you, drone, and thank you, Chris.
Technology assisted fishing.
CHRIS: Exactly.
Geoff, you feel better now?
CYRIL: Hey, man.
CHRIS: Oh, I love it. What a job.
CYRIL (off screen):
Alright, let's catch a fish now.
Come on, fish.
Oh.
Here we go.
Yeah. There we go.
Oh, yeah.
Feels good to have a fish on the line.
(grunts) This fish is not fighting much,
but it's got a lot of weight to it.
You know, sometimes that's what they do.
They don't really fight back
until they start really fighting.
And then you realize
you have a massive fish on the line.
Whoa.
Here we go.
(reel unspooling)
Whoa.
Hey, now it's fighting.
We're on to a big fish, guys.
I just felt...
this fish moving,
and it's got a lot of power
behind its tail.
Okay, I'm gonna try to bring
this fish towards the beach,
to shallow water so we can land it.
Oh, man, he's not ready yet.
NARRATOR: Cyril thinks
this fish might be big enough to tag.
CYRIL: Guys, I think
we might have to call Colin.
GEOFF: I'm on it.
CYRIL: Oh, yeah, this fish is running now.
GEOFF: Colin? Yeah, I think
you should get over here.
-CYRIL: Yeah.
-GEOFF: Cyril's got a big one on the line.
CYRIL: I wanna see this fish.
I wanna see the size of this beast.
GEOFF: Okay. Okay, bye.
-CYRIL: Colin's on his way?
-GEOFF (off screen): Yeah.
CYRIL: Okay, awesome. Whoa.
(grunting)
Starting to feel this fight in my back.
(grunting)
It's right here,
it's right in front of me.
It's a good sized fish.
Yes!
Oh.
(grunts) Oh.
(exhales)
Whoo. (panting)
Oh, beautiful animal. Look at that.
Ah, give me that bait.
There we go.
NARRATOR: Colin needs the fish
to be at least two meters long to tag it.
CYRIL: Beautiful.
NARRATOR: That's close to seven feet.
CYRIL: Okay, you do the nose.
I'll get the fork of the tail.
Make sure we don't lose him.
-GEOFF: It's five foot five inches, it's...
-CYRIL (off screen): Oh, man.
Can you believe that this fish
is way too small for what we need?
GEOFF (off screen): I'm gonna call Colin.
CYRIL: Yeah, call him off
'cause he's on his way here, right?
-GEOFF: Yeah.
-CYRIL: Unbelievable.
These fish have been around
for 150 million years.
That means that these guys
shared the planet with dinosaurs.
Sturgeon feed mainly by smell.
They have eyes, but very tiny eyes.
So they can't really see.
And they also have these,
they're called barbels
and those allow them
to actually taste the food
that they find on the bottom of the river.
They're a little bit like taste buds.
Alright, buddy. Back you go.
NARRATOR: It was a beautiful fish,
but Cyril's a little disappointed.
CYRIL (off screen): Can't believe
this fish was too small.
NARRATOR: Night's falling
and they still need to tag a giant,
they have to push the drone to its limits
with a bigger bait and a bigger weight
so it stays down.
GEOFF (off screen): How much heavier
is that one than the other one, Cyril?
CYRIL: More than double.
GEOFF: Is the drone gonna
be able to handle that?
CYRIL: We'll see.
GEOFF: Okay, let's do it.
NARRATOR:
The new plan makes Geoff nervous,
and Chris has to adapt quickly
to the heavier weight.
GEOFF (off screen): You got this, man.
NARRATOR: Because as daylight fades,
they have time for only one more cast.
CYRIL: Got a little bit
of a tangle, but it's okay.
Don't worry about it.
NARRATOR: The line is twisted,
but they have no time to bring it back.
CYRIL (off screen): Good job. Good job.
Good job. Good job. Good job.
Good job. Good job. Good job. Good job.
-GEOFF (off screen): Nice, Chris.
-CYRIL: Good job. Good job. Excellent.
GEOFF: Looking good.
Whoa, what's happening?
CHRIS (off screen):
Oh, no, it's too much weight.
-(drone beeping)
-Killed the battery.
GEOFF (off screen):
Chris, bring it in. Bring it in.
CHRIS (off screen): I can't, I can't.
-I can't control it, man.
-GEOFF: Chris, bring it in.
TERRY (off screen):
Can you bring it back, Chris?
CHRIS: No, it's out of control.
CYRIL (off screen): Chris, pull up, man.
CHRIS (off screen):
Guys, guys, I'm losing it.
CYRIL (off screen):
Guys, it's gonna go down.
Oh, it's going down. It's going down.
CHRIS: No. No.
Argh! I got a drone on.
CYRIL: Gotta get it out.
GEOFF (off screen): Is it still tangled?
CHRIS: Yeah.
CYRIL (off screen):
I still have it on the line.
Something's stuck here.
CYRIL: Oh, my God,
we wanted to catch a fish
and now we're catching a drone.
NARRATOR: But just as the team
is about to give up...
-CYRIL (off screen): I got it!
-CHRIS (off screen): No, really?
-CYRIL: Yeah!
-CHRIS: Alright!
NARRATOR:
Chris hopes to salvage the drone,
so he removes the battery and memory card.
CHRIS: Yeah, we need to dry it out.
We need fire right now, guys.
CYRIL: Lots of dead trees around here.
-CHRIS (off screen): Got more wood?
-CYRIL: Yeah.
NARRATOR: They need a fire
to dry out the drone and for their camp,
it's too late to head back.
CYRIL (off screen): At this point,
we really gotta make it fast
because it started raining.
So we gotta find some dry stuff.
NARRATOR: They're spending the night
and wanna keep the bears at bay.
CYRIL: Man, it's really wet.
NARRATOR: And no one takes
wilderness survival more seriously...
CYRIL: Good job, man.
NARRATOR: ...than Terry.
CYRIL: Whoa!
(laughing)
Terry is intense.
You'll get to know him.
NARRATOR: As a passionate survivalist,
Terry has a certain way of doing things.
CHRIS: Oh my God, Terry.
Not the flint. Just use a lighter.
NARRATOR: But everything is way too damp
for his signature methods.
Luckily, Cyril has a trick up his sleeve.
CYRIL: It's an old trick I learned
from First Nations a long time ago.
GEOFF: That's a great idea.
CYRIL: You guys think
it's my first picnic?
(Geoff chuckles)
-GEOFF: You're like a beaver.
-(Cyril chuckles)
CYRIL (off screen):
Hey, Terry, check this out, man.
Much easier and faster with a lighter.
I think it's gonna work.
I have faith in this technique.
There we go. I've got a flame.
TERRY: Good job.
NARRATOR: Before long, they have
a large enough fire to last all night.
TERRY: Need a little help?
CHRIS (off screen): (chuckles) Terry looks
like a snake charmer right now.
GEOFF: Man, that thing is really going.
It's like Superman breath.
That's why Terry's part of the team.
TERRY: 'Cause I'm old?
CYRIL: No, 'cause you're full of tricks.
TERRY: 'Cause I'm old.
CYRIL: Yeah, well, yeah, uh, experience.
TERRY: When you get old you know stuff.
Made it this far, you know something.
(laughter)
GEOFF: It was a hell of a first day, guys.
-CHRIS: Yeah. Yeah.
-GEOFF: Freakin' epic.
NARRATOR: Day one ends
and the team is no closer
to achieving their quest.
-CYRIL: I'll make some coffee, guys.
-GEOFF (off screen): Sounds good.
-CYRIL: Yeah?
-MANU: Oh, yeah.
NARRATOR: But with a new day
comes new hope,
even for Chris' drone.
-(laughs)
-CYRIL (off screen): Hey, hey.
CHRIS: Takeoff.
It's like a new drone!
NARRATOR: An unexpected opportunity
has come up for the crew,
a chance to see the sturgeon
in their natural environment
under the water.
A local diver has offered
to take them on a drift dive,
but the Fraser
is much too murky and dangerous.
So they head out
to a nearby tributary with Fernando,
a professional diver
from Brazil living in Canada
who has dived in this
demanding environment before.
The visibility might be better,
but it's not going to be an easy dive.
CYRIL (off screen): The suit
that I'm putting on right now
is called a dry suit
as opposed to a wet suit.
It's a totally different system.
It's a little bit more technical.
It's for cold water diving.
So the idea is that I'm gonna stay dry.
That's why I can wear layers
of clothes underneath, warm clothes,
and water doesn't penetrate
through the suit.
It's a little technical to get in there,
but it's, uh, it's really worth it
'cause you can stay in the water longer.
I'm gonna look like an astronaut.
NARRATOR: So far, the team hasn't found
a sturgeon big enough to tag,
so Cyril wants to learn more
about their habitat
and see how he can apply that
to his fishing.
CYRIL: See, what did I tell you?
NARRATOR: Christian outfits
his full face mask
with a pair of glasses
so he can work underwater.
CYRIL: Just put the knife
on the inside of my leg
so that I can easily reach it
with my right hand like this.
NARRATOR: Now, it's time
for a safety briefing with Fernando.
CYRIL: You wear the thing
Brazilian style, right?
FERNANDO (laughs): Yeah.
CYRIL: Got a little bit
of a thong going on there.
(laughter)
FERNANDO: So this dive is a drift dive.
It's a technical dive.
So the water is super cold,
um, the currents runs pretty fast,
so we cannot swim back,
and the biggest hazard
you're gonna see is, uh, ghost nets.
-CYRIL: Drifting nets.
-FERNANDO: Um... Drifting nets, yeah.
They can be a hundred meters long,
just floating in the water line.
CYRIL: So you can come up
on 'em real fast, right?
FERNANDO: Yes.
And you don't wanna get tangled
'cause if you do,
you're not gonna go back
to the surface.
We always see a lot of debris
in the bottom,
so massive logs, um, I've seen boats.
-CYRIL: Drags?
-FERNANDO: Oh, yeah.
FERNANDO: There's, um,
Kevlar fishing line,
which are strong enough
to hold you underwater.
CYRIL: Wow. You see a lot of stuff.
-FERNANDO: A lot of stuff.
-CYRIL: A lot of scary stuff.
FERNANDO: Exactly.
It's-it's gonna be a really nice dive.
-CYRIL: Alright, man, let's do this.
-FERNANDO: Right on, let's do it.
CYRIL: Alright.
GEOFF (off screen): You're good.
NARRATOR: The three divers head out,
they'll be followed
by the rest of the crew
in a boat driven
by local fisherman Rick Stall.
RICK STALL:
We're losing 'em quick here now.
NARRATOR:
He'll follow the diver's bubbles.
So if they get into trouble,
help can come quickly.
But before they even dive down,
they're met with an ominous sign.
CYRIL: Oh, look at that.
NARRATOR: This dead salmon
is an ominous sign
of what might be waiting
for Cyril and the team down deep.
CYRIL: You alright, Chris?
CHRIS: Yeah. Yeah, I am ready.
CYRIL: Watch out for drift nets.
NARRATOR: The current starts
picking up speed...
dragging the divers across
a graveyard of dead salmon,
a grim reminder of what happens
when salmon fulfill their life cycle.
CYRIL: There's a lot
of dead fish down here.
They've all spawned.
A sturgeon might smell this guy
and come and slurp him up
with its vacuum-like mouth.
-RICK (off screen): See them?
-MANU: Yeah, right there in front of us.
RICK: They just hit 15 feet of water now.
It goes from eight to fifteen,
dumps just into a hole here.
(whistles)
The current's going this way.
You can see their bubbles
are leaving us now a little bit.
NARRATOR: The dive team
picks up more speed
and they finally see
the first sign of life.
FERNANDO (off screen): It's a chum salmon.
NARRATOR: But so far...
CYRIL (off screen): See any sturgeon?
FERNANDO: No.
There's one.
CYRIL: That was a big one.
FERNANDO: Let's go that way.
NARRATOR: The team heads after it
into deeper waters
dropping below 40 feet.
These chum salmon are using their tails
to make nests called redds,
where they'll lay their eggs.
CYRIL: With all these
salmon and nests here,
that's a good sign.
FERNANDO:
There should be sturgeon around.
NARRATOR: The current takes the divers
even deeper and faster,
and that's causing a problem
for the spotters on the surface.
GEOFF (off screen):
Yeah, Cyril, this is Geoff.
Can you come in? Over.
CYRIL: Yeah, go ahead. Over.
GEOFF: Yeah, Cyril, you got in the current
and you just kept going, man,
and, uh, we lost your bubbles.
CYRIL: Copy that. We're staying
in one place for a second.
NARRATOR: Cyril and the dive team
grab a log to fight the current
while the crew topside looks for them.
(Chris grunts)
NARRATOR: Suddenly, Christian gets
tangled up in a drifting fly line.
CYRIL: You okay, man?
NARRATOR: And the current
pulls him away from the team.
CHRIS: It's caught on my mask!
NARRATOR: Cyril tries to pull the line in.
CYRIL (off screen): Chris!
NARRATOR: But Chris is drifting freely,
trying to fix his mask.
CHRIS (off screen):
I've just got to fix this.
NARRATOR: He's in danger
of floating to the surface too quickly,
which could cause serious lung damage.
CYRIL: Fernando, let's go.
NARRATOR: Cyril and Fernando
swim after him.
CYRIL: We're coming, Chris.
NARRATOR: On the surface,
the team waits for news.
GEOFF: I don't know.
CYRIL (off screen):
We're right behind you, Chris.
Grab my hand.
Okay, I got you.
You're good?
CHRIS: Yeah. Thanks, man.
CYRIL: Wow, the current
totally ripped you away.
NARRATOR: The dive team is reunited
and the team on the surface...
GEOFF: Yeah, there he is,
I see the bubbles.
NARRATOR: ...reunites with them too.
CYRIL: I've just got
a few minutes of air left.
And I don't see any sturgeon around.
We've got to do this fast.
NARRATOR: They're running low on air
and they run into several huge salmon
protecting their nests.
CYRIL: Sturgeon would love these guys.
We've got to be getting close.
Is it just me
or are the fish getting bigger?
NARRATOR: The team is rushing now,
and they go over an edge down to 50 feet.
They have mere seconds
to find the fish they're after.
CYRIL: There, look!
Wow!
Beautiful!
NARRATOR: It's a mid-sized sturgeon,
not even a giant,
and it doesn't seem to be afraid
of Cyril or the crew.
CYRIL: That's amazing.
NARRATOR: With only
seconds left in their tanks,
the team enjoys a rare moment
with a white sturgeon in the wild.
CYRIL: Wow, did you see that?
That was amazing.
Chris, good work, man.
We found one.
CHRIS (off screen): Oh, yeah. Amazing!
CYRIL (off screen): Goodbye, buddy.
NARRATOR: It was an incredible encounter
that confirms sturgeon live in deep holes.
RICK: Got 'em.
NARRATOR: And it reminds the team
just how important their mission
to save these fish really is.
It's a new day and time
to get back to the Fraser River.
The team is on their way downriver
where they've heard
there are giant sturgeon
big enough for Colin's study.
And the first stop is with an old friend
from the Yale First Nation,
Chief Robert Hope.
The Yale First Nation is deeply connected
to the sturgeon
and they know
where to find the true giants.
CHIEF ROBERT HOPE:
It's at least eighteen feet long.
-CYRIL: Eighteen feet long?
-CHIEF HOPE: Yeah.
Oh, they're 1,200, 1,500 pounds.
CYRIL: It's not even a fish at this point.
It's a dragon,
it's a monster, it's a giant.
NARRATOR: Sturgeon has always been
a staple of the Yale First Nation.
CHIEF HOPE (off screen):
That was a good cast there, Cyril.
It's exactly where them, uh,
sturgeon are waiting.
NARRATOR: But since Cyril's last visit,
stocks have been in decline,
along with its food source, the salmon.
And if salmon disappear,
the entire ecosystem is threatened.
CHIEF HOPE (off screen):
It's not only the sockeye salmon,
but the Chinook salmon
have been endangered for quite some time.
The, uh, steelhead, uh, the coho stock.
There's gotta be a chain reaction.
There's gotta be an effect on, uh,
the sturgeon stocks as well
and, uh, other things,
you go further down the line
like a killer whale and so on,
you know.
CYRIL: Bears.
The eagles.
CHIEF HOPE: That's right, yeah.
And, uh, certainly it's impacting
our people, you know.
We've survived a long time
right in this very area
and a big reason for that,
because we had fish to eat year round,
but now we do not, you know.
So we, uh, do the best we can.
CYRIL: And we catch a giant sturgeon
so we could put an acoustic tag in it,
follow its migrations
and protect the areas
where those fish, uh, spawn.
It's a little step, but, you know,
it's by taking small steps
that we can eventually get to somewhere.
CHIEF HOPE: In a hope that, uh,
the results of the study
help the sturgeon, uh, in the future.
CYRIL: I hope so too.
You guys, uh, have the, uh,
satellite phones?
MANU: Yeah, it's ready.
CYRIL: Yeah, because
if we catch a giant sturgeon,
then we can call Colin
so he can come and take the fish.
CHIEF HOPE: Oh, yeah. Yeah.
CYRIL (off screen):
There's so many different ways
those fish can bite, you know,
sometimes it can be just a rod tip.
It's very subtle.
You see the rod tip go, boom,
boom-boom, boom, boom, boom.
And it could be a giant fish
that's taking the bait,
whereas sometimes they'll be like, boom!
(imitates reel unspooling)
And the rod, you can,
you barely have enough time
to jump on the rod to pick it up
before it goes into the water.
NARRATOR: They wait over an hour
for a bite, but nothing comes.
CYRIL: No.
NARRATOR: Time to head upriver
where Chief Hope says
there are real giants.
CYRIL: I'm Cyril.
NARRATOR: His relatives Garrett and Perry
agree to take them upriver
to one of their traditional fishing spots.
CYRIL (off screen): Alright, shall we go?
(engine cranking)
NARRATOR: But it looks like
Garrett's motor has got a problem.
Equipment malfunction out here
could be deadly.
(cranking continues)
But luckily, Garrett gets it going.
(engine revving)
CYRIL: Good job, man.
NARRATOR: To get where they're headed,
the team has to pass through
a dangerous stretch of river,
so they split up in two boats
to keep the weight down.
CYRIL (off screen):
But this river is deadly, right?
-GARRETT: Yeah.
-CHIEF HOPE: Dangerous.
No place for fooling around, eh.
You've gotta be serious about it.
CYRIL: Yeah.
Oh, my God.
NARRATOR: They've just entered one of
the river's most frightening sections.
CYRIL: That's a huge one there.
Look at those whirlpools there.
CHIEF HOPE: Yeah, it's a good one.
CYRIL (off screen):
You'd get sucked right under.
-Right?
-CHIEF HOPE (off screen): Oh, yeah. Yeah.
You wouldn't have a chance.
NARRATOR: They are surrounded
by massive whirlpools.
CYRIL: Wow.
NARRATOR: Whirlpools
are rotating masses of water
caused by the meeting
of conflicting currents.
CYRIL: Whirlpools, they're deadly.
You know, they suck your right under,
you know, you're caught in that,
there's no way you can, can get out of it.
It's gonna suck you all the way down.
NARRATOR: Navigating them
requires Garrett's full concentration.
CYRIL (off screen): Wow, that's a big one.
GARRETT: Any closer or not?
I'm just kidding.
Though, the engine, though...
Don't want the engine to fail.
CYRIL: No, 'cause you get
sucked into-into that, right?
-GARRETT: Probably would...
-CHIEF HOPE (off screen): The whole boat.
GARRETT: Probably would sink the boat.
NARRATOR: The team finally
makes it to calmer water,
which gives them a chance
to talk about the declining fish stocks.
GARRETT: They say
there used to be so many stock
that you used to be able
to walk on them, the water.
CYRIL (off screen):
But how does that make you feel
that the stocks are going down
'cause you saw
your grandfather or your parents,
I'm sure, like catching a lot more fish
than you are these days, no?
GARRETT: I imagine they would be
rolling around in their graves.
CYRIL: Yeah, they would.
NARRATOR: After 40 minutes, they reach
one of the Yale First Nation's
favorite spots for giant white sturgeon.
Hopefully, the team
will have better luck here.
CYRIL: Alright, Garrett,
thank you very much.
NARRATOR: Garrett and Perry
will continue upriver,
leaving the team to make a fire
to fight off the cold
while Chief Hope prepares the bait.
CHIEF HOPE:
I don't know what part you'd like to use.
CYRIL: The whole part.
-Don't you have big fish here?
-CHIEF HOPE (off screen): Yep.
Sure, let's put it all on there.
NARRATOR: No drone casting this time.
Chief Hope brings the bait out by boat.
CYRIL: Hey, good job, Bob.
CYRIL: I think you just put it in the,
right in the sweet spot.
CHIEF HOPE: That's right.
That's where I wanna be. By the river.
CYRIL: You're smart.
You got it all figured it out.
CHIEF HOPE:
Nice fire going, the river's... peaceful.
-CYRIL (off screen): Yeah.
-(train horn blowing)
If it wasn't for the trains.
NARRATOR: Now, it's a waiting game.
CYRIL (off screen): Sorry, guys,
we had to go through
these conditions to get to the fish.
GEOFF (off screen): What's a little bit
of weather, right,
when we're trying to help a species
avoid extinction, you know.
I mean, we are on the beach after all.
CYRIL: Yeah,
keep telling that to yourself.
NARRATOR: Another hour goes by
without a single bite.
Crew morale is fading,
and just when they're ready
to stop filming...
CYRIL: Oh, here we, here we go,
here we go.
Here we go. Here we go, guys.
Oh, yeah.
Good bite, good bite,
good bite, good bite.
CYRIL (grunts): Yep.
CHIEF HOPE (off screen): Stay calm.
CYRIL: Here we go.
(grunts)
We're on.
(groaning)
This fish has some weight to it for sure.
(grunts)
It's not a little fish.
CYRIL: Robert, you bring me
to the good spots, man.
CHIEF HOPE: I knew
it was just a matter of time.
We have to be patient sometimes.
(reel unspooling)
NARRATOR: The fish is running hard.
CHIEF HOPE: Gonna need the boat.
CYRIL: I don't think we do,
as we stand here so far.
NARRATOR: If this sturgeon
gets into the main current,
its weight and power
will combine with the rivers
and might run Cyril out of line.
If that happens, chasing it
in the boat will be the only hope.
CYRIL: He's gonna come up
to the surface soon.
Oh, yeah, there he is. There he is.
(grunts)
This fish has some weight to it for sure.
(grunts)
I don't think it's a giant.
A giant would have pulled
that reel already.
NARRATOR: It might not be a giant,
but it may be big enough
for the scientists to tag.
CYRIL (off screen): See the bubbles?
Oh, yeah. There he is. There he is.
I really thought it was bigger.
CHIEF HOPE (off screen): It's a beauty.
CYRIL: It's a beauty, yeah.
Too small to tag though.
CHIEF HOPE: That must be
five feet, six feet.
-CYRIL: Five, six feet, right?
-CHIEF HOPE (off screen): Yeah.
Really short.
NARRATOR: The fish still isn't
big enough for Colin to tag.
He needs sturgeon
close to seven feet long.
CYRIL: It's a beautiful creature.
The anatomy of these fish
is really interesting.
If you look at the head,
it's very, very hard.
And then they have those
bony plates along the back here,
kinda like what crocodiles
have on their skin.
Can you imagine that these fish
have been around
for 150 plus million years?
And now we have the choice,
whether we preserve those fish,
we help 'em, or we let 'em go extinct.
Alright, buddy. You go back.
CYRIL: Wow.
CHIEF HOPE: Good job. Nice fish.
CYRIL: Might not be the fish I need,
the size I need for research,
but it's okay
'cause it's a, it's a sturgeon,
it's such a beautiful creature.
CHIEF HOPE: It's a good feeling
when you see that sturgeon
going back into the wild.
CYRIL: He went back to the same hole
that he came from, right?
CHIEF HOPE: Yeah.
Yeah, it's where he lives.
CYRIL: Oh, yeah. I love it.
-Thanks again.
-CHIEF HOPE: Yeah.
NARRATOR: It's dawn in the Fraser Valley,
and Cyril and his team
are headed downriver
through a more urban environment.
Denser areas of human population
put more pressure on the fish,
but the team's research suggests
there are still giants here.
And once again, the team
must hike down to their fishing spot.
GEOFF (off screen): I don't think
we should go this way
because, uh, someone's
gonna get a leg caught in here
-and it's gonna be me.
-CYRIL (off screen): Go this way then.
-TERRY (off screen): Alright.
-GEOFF: Well, that way is even worse.
CYRIL: Hey, it's just over there.
I can see the river from here.
Oh, yeah, it looks good here, guys.
NARRATOR: The river is wider here,
but the current is still strong
and catching a huge fish
is gonna be a challenge.
Once again, Colin will come by boat
if the fish is big enough.
CYRIL: There are monster sturgeon here,
really, really big fish.
So I brought a conventional outfit
with a lot of line capacity in it.
This is 150 pound braid line.
And I have lots.
You know, if you don't have a lot of line,
you'll just simply lose the fish.
And also this rod is super powerful.
The idea is that I wanna
be able to cast this,
which is a 28 ounce sinker.
There's a lot of current here
so I want the bait
to sit in just one place
'cause otherwise it becomes hard
for the sturgeon to find the bait.
So I want the sturgeon to be able
to pick up on the scent trail
and actually swim straight
to the, uh, to where the bait is.
This will do it.
Alright, let's catch a giant.
NARRATOR: As always, with big fish,
Cyril has to be meticulous
when tying on his rig.
One mistake and he could lose
the giant he's after.
CYRIL: Let's hope they like
this salmon scrap.
NARRATOR: The bait's on the bottom,
it's time to wait and see
if a giant sturgeon sniffs it out.
And it doesn't take long.
CYRIL (off screen): Oh.
(reel unspooling)
Yeah. Here we go.
(sighs) Here we go.
Here we go.
Oh, yeah! Oh, yeah!
Oh, man. Big fish, big fish.
NARRATOR: It's a huge fish,
big enough to tag.
But then something strange happens.
CYRIL: Man, this fish
is barely moving. That's weird.
Oh, man. I knew it. It got off.
Damn.
NARRATOR: Well, back to the drawing board.
Cyril is more determined than ever
to find a massive sturgeon.
But it looks like
it's not going to be easy.
CYRIL: There's so much commercial activity
on this river, it's crazy.
Years, a history of commercial activity.
Especially logging.
See all those big logs?
That's why it's very tricky
landing a fish from here,
especially a massive fish,
'cause all those logs,
there's tons of 'em on the bottom
that have sunk over the years.
Lots of snags for a monster fish
to get into and break me off.
NARRATOR: It takes
over half an hour for the tugs
and all the logs to pass by.
-MANU: Here.
-CYRIL: Oh, nice, man. Good job.
NARRATOR: And without any new bites,
Cyril and the crew need to take a rest.
CYRIL: Oh, here we go,
here we go, got a bite.
(sighs)
Come on. Come on.
He's on. He's on.
GEOFF (off screen):
That's a tank man, that's a tank.
CYRIL (off screen): Wow, look at that.
NARRATOR: Cyril finally
has another fish on the line,
and this one is big.
(Cyril grunts)
CYRIL: It's a heavy fish.
NARRATOR: Inch by inch,
Cyril brings the fish towards shore.
CYRIL: Coming up. Coming up. (grunts)
Oh, it's huge!
Oh, yeah.
Oh, my God, yeah, you see that?
Did you see that tail?
This fish is gigantic.
Look at that.
(grunting)
NARRATOR: This is the giant fish
that Cyril and the team
have been looking for.
CYRIL: Big fish, big fish.
I gotta land it.
Oh! (grunts)
Come on, stop, fish, stop.
NARRATOR: He tries to pull
the fish towards shore.
He needs to end this fight now.
CYRIL: Oh, yeah.
Oh!
Manu, can you help me hold the rod?
MANU: Yeah, I'm coming.
(Cyril panting)
CYRIL: Yeah, thanks, man.
CYRIL: Alright. Okay. Oh.
GEOFF: Colin, yeah, we've got a big one.
NARRATOR: While they wait, Cyril needs
to keep the fish breathing in the water.
GEOFF: Okay, see you soon. Bye.
CYRIL: Geoff,
what's the status on, on Colin?
GEOFF: He's on his way.
CYRIL: He's coming?
GEOFF (off screen): That's what he said.
(grunting)
CYRIL: Watch out, watch out, watch out.
Watch out! Watch out.
Stop him. Stop him, guys.
MANU: Grab his tail, grab his tail!
Get it, Cyril.
-Don't let go, don't let go!
-CYRIL: Got it.
I can't hold it though, I can't hold it.