River Monsters (2009–2017): Season 1, Episode 4 - European Maneater - full transcript

My name is Jeremy Wade.

I'm an explorer, a biologist,
and a fisherman.

Look at this!

There it is!

I've caught many
extraordinary fish

from rivers
all around the world...

Oh, oh, oh!

Fish that can be described
as real monsters.

Normally, I have to travel
halfway 'round the world

to find my quarry...

Here we go!



The biggest,
some would say baddest,

freshwater fish on the planet.

It's not often
I hear of a river monster

in my own backyard.

But this is exactly
what's happened.

A report in a German newspaper
says swimmers

are being attacked
in a lake outside Berlin.

This isn't a far-off,
exotic place.

A river monster within 10 miles

of a 21st-century
European capital...

Can it really be true?

It's an opportunity
not to be missed.

I'm already packing
my equipment.

I have my suspicions as to
the identity of the culprit.



And if I'm right, it's a fish
with a monstrous reputation,

chronicled since medieval times.

There it is! There it is!
There it is!

The wels is Europe's largest
freshwater fish,

capable of reaching
over 200 pounds.

I've been doing some research

into this predatory member
of the catfish family.

And I'm finding
that ever since records began,

Europe seems to have had
its very own

well-documented
freshwater man-eater.

It appears the wels catfish
is actually no stranger

to making front-page news.

There are stories
about this species

going back
literally for centuries

portraying it
as a man-eating monster.

I've been doing a bit
of research.

Quite frankly, I had no idea
it had such a reputation.

Back in the 1500s,
a human head and a hand

with gold rings
found inside the stomach.

1630, the corpse
of a 7-year-old child.

Body of a woman.

Two girls devoured.

It just goes on and on.

But all this
is just so tantalizing.

There are no hard facts
and figures unless, you know,

you count something like that.

If that was the equivalent
of your front-page story

in the 16th century,
would you go in the water?

It would be too easy
to dismiss these tales

as the work of superstitious,
unscientific medieval minds.

Attacks and human body parts
turning up in wels' stomachs

have been reported
across Eastern Europe,

from Russia to Poland,
through the ages

right up to the present day.

I recently came across this
report in a German newspaper

of swimmers in a lake
being attacked

by what is thought to be
a large wels catfish.

I'm on my way to Germany
to investigate these attacks

and maybe solve the mystery
of a serial killer

with its roots
in Europe's medieval past.

Germany is at the forefront
of urban expansion.

Although steeped in history,

it is now coated
in glass and steel,

hardly the place
for a man-eating monster.

Schlachtensee is a lake

just 10 minutes
from Berlin's city center,

and it's just become
Germany's very own Loch Ness.

This is where
the attacks are happening.

Over a mile long
and up to 700 feet across,

the lake was formed
in the last ice age.

These cold waters have always
been a refuge for wels catfish,

and falling to over 25 feet
in places,

it's plenty deep enough
to hide an absolute monster.

The attacks were localized,

concentrated in two small areas.

Strangely, areas, according
to the local fishermen,

not traditionally
the places to hunt for wels.

So just what happened?

I'm going to ask
one of the victims, Jonas Fei.

What exactly did you do
when you came down that day?

Maybe two or three months ago,

I was swimming 10 or 20 seconds
out on the lake.

Suddenly, something big bit me.

I don't know what it was, but it
was a very big shock for me.

Pain and shock.

It hurts very much, of course.

- Almost exactly here?
- Yes, right here.

In a freshwater lake
so far from the sea,

the last thing you would expect
is to get attacked by a fish.

It's just not supposed
to happen.

Being bitten by a wels
is to experience the power

of two hard plates packed with
hundreds of needle-sharp teeth.

Huge jaw muscles create
a crushing force.

A bite is like being grabbed
by a vise

covered in coarse sandpaper.

Before this happened, you
used to quite enjoy coming here.

Of course.

Every day I would swim in here.

But after that, yeah,
I don't swim again.

Normally, about 100 or 200
people are swimming here.

- So people have been put off.
- Yes, yes.

Of course.

But Jonas wasn't
the only victim.

In almost the identical place,

Katerina and her friend Clara
had an encounter

that has spooked them
out of the water for good.

Just on a normal summer day,

and we wanted to swim
a little bit and meet friends,

so we went to the lake.

We were swimming in the water,

just treading water
and talking to each other.

And there was something
swimming around our legs,

but we couldn't really
define it.

I think it was like
a snake in the water.

Yeah.

Then, suddenly...

there was something on my leg.

Then there was a wound
on my leg.

There was blood.

There were two parts...
That part here,

and the other one
on the other side.

I went to hospital
with my mother.

They reacted really shocked,
the doctors,

because they've never seen
anything like that before.

And there were other attacks,
the same pattern each time...

Swimmers bitten on their legs,

sent terrified
out of the water, bleeding.

What I want to find out
is what provoked these attacks,

and are wels catfish
really capable

of what they stand accused of?

Let's have this.

To find out
what's going on below,

I'm working
with my cameraman, Simon,

and a mini submarine.

We have also enlisted the help
of Dr. Christian Wolter

from the Berlin Fisheries
to give me an expert opinion.

We're here to examine
the scene of the crime

and see whether knowledge
of the biology of the wels

could explain
what exactly happened

to trigger such aggression.

That's about 10 meters out,
isn't that?

That is about where the boy
said he was attacked.

What we could do
is take it down there.

So just over a meter.
It's only about... Yeah.

You're straight in weed
at a meter depth.

Yeah.
That's okay.

I'd have thought
you'd be out of your depth.

You could stand up
in that water almost.

Yeah.

So it's weedy and shallow.

But for Dr. Wolter,

this is just the information
he needs

to understand what is going on.

The wels were just doing
what every parent does...

Protecting their offspring.

The swimmers had trespassed
into their nursery.

So, is there anything special
or unusual

about where they took place,
do you think?

It's a common spawning place.

That's why it might be
the reason

why it occurred
so close to the bank.

The place that we've heard
about the attacks happening,

that would be
a potential spawning place?

Catfish is a plant spawner.

They build nests in the plants
where they lay their egg,

and then they guard in there.

Then it's the only explanation

that it was during
the breeding time

that they had the nests there,
were guarding the nest,

and attacked something
which comes too close.

For this particular catfish,

it was a huge stress
to guard the nest

and have
all those swimmers around.

So it was actually
a provoked attack.

It was protecting the nest.

Freshwater crayfish
and other fish

will eat eggs
from an unguarded nest.

To prevent this,

the male catfish sits over
its 300,000 yellow eggs,

protecting them from
all comers, large or small.

There are
two essential qualities

that make a man-eater.

Wels catfish
certainly have the attitude,

but do they have the capacity?

Do they literally
have the stomach for the job?

As a younger angler,
I caught smaller wels.

But how big do they need to get

to pose a serious threat
to a human?

There's no point
fishing over the attack sites.

Breeding is over.

I've hooked up with
local fisherman Horst Statugy.

He knows where the wels
are likely to be now.

Me too.

But first we've got to get over
the language barrier.

Yeah. Um...

Um...
Oh, hey, right!

Ah!
Oh, I understand!

He's a butcher.
Okay.

So now just fishing.
Fishing?

- Huh?
- Right.

Okay.

One glove, no good.
Not enough. Always with two.

One glove, the fish can twist
and twist you around.

So we have two gloves.

Finally,
with the best spots pinpointed,

we want to start fishing
at dusk.

So this is the place to fish.

Wels are night stalkers.

Their bodies are bulging
with sensory receptors.

The lateral line
that all fish have

allows them to sense
water vibrations.

But catfish also have
extra receptors in their skin.

Those tentacles
are more than just feelers.

They can taste the water
for slight chemical changes,

any clue that leads them
to a meal,

which can be anything
from fish to crustaceans,

even water birds.

When you're up against
these super senses,

fishing gear for wels
needs to be tough.

But you also need
a bit of delicacy.

I've got very strong,
80-kilo breaking strain,

braided line there.

So you can literally
just hang on.

You don't have to let them
take any line at all.

You just hang on
and try and stop them

getting anywhere near that wood.

Float that slides,
but only up as... whoops...

Only up as far as the knot.

Going down to a fairly big
single hook.

And something on that hook
that smells tasty,

so a dead fish as bait

should hopefully
draw a large catfish in.

The Schlachtensee catfish
prove elusive,

but my trip has not been wasted.

I have confirmed that these fish

have an aggressive attitude.

It seems that these attacks
in Berlin

weren't predatory
in their intent

but defensive, territorial
behavior at breeding time.

But that's academic as far
as the victims were concerned.

They came away with bleeding
wounds on their legs,

which underlines
the chilling truth...

A large wels catfish has both
the size and the fearlessness

to be a potential man-eater.

If there's one place
where I'm gonna find out

just how big
the wels catfish grows

and how potentially dangerous
it is,

it's here, the Rio Ebro
in northern Spain.

The fish was introduced...

It's been here
a little more than 30 years.

But in that time, you know,

they're catching fish
bigger than I am.

I mean, they're growing massive.

So although part of me
is a little bit dubious

about coming here because it is
an artificial situation,

I'm also quite excited
because I think

there's a very good chance
that in the next few days

I'm gonna see a seriously
big fish on the end of my line.

Northern Spain, the River Ebro.

In 1974,
a German scientist came here

and released some wels
into this river.

Ever since, not only
have they grown in numbers

but also in size.

The wels has become Spain's
very own Frankenstein monster.

There are three reasons
why the wels catfish

are growing so big
in this river.

It's a mixture of man-made
and natural.

For a start, you've got three
of these huge dams,

and it just means
there's so much more water,

more space for the fish
to live in.

On top of that,
this water is hot.

The fish,
being a cold-blooded animal,

can just feed and grow
for more months of the year

than they do in Eastern Europe
and in Berlin.

This place was stuffed with fish
anyway, particularly carp.

The anglers are coming in.

They're throwing in
huge amounts of bait

and just sending the whole
system into hyperdrive.

This river has a policy
of catch and release.

So every year, the biggest fish

are even bigger
than the year before.

Monsters of over 200 pounds
already prowl these waters.

Wels can live to 80 years.

Such fish are a massive lure
to fishermen

from all over the world.

To test just how voracious
these catfish are,

I head into one of the Ebro's
swollen tributaries.

My guide tells me
the fish are lurking

right in at the margins.

They're waiting to ambush fish
in the current

and also to grab anything
that drops in from the banks.

Very energetic, active fishing,
quite precise as well.

On the move,
not sitting around, waiting.

And it's the kind of fishing

where you're left in no doubt
if you've got a bite.

You're gonna see it,
feel it, hear it,

as something just launches
itself at this

and sort of wrenches on the rod.

Ah! Yes, yes, yes, yes!

Whee, going downstream.
Watch the oar.

Watch the oar.

All right.

Ah!

Gone.
Gone, gone, gone, gone.

Hey.

I'm not doing very well.

Everything is happening
too quickly.

This is the last place
I'd expect to find

a fat, wallowing catfish.

But it shows how
you can misjudge these guys.

I'm learning that there's more
to wels' behavior

than I thought.

Ah!
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!

Open the reel!
Open the reel!

Off, off, off, off, off.
It's off again.

Aah!

It's off.

Literally took
within about a second

of the lure hitting the water
about 6 inches from the bank.

This water is cracking along
at such a rate.

This is like a fast
running pace.

That's the place.

Let it sink a little bit
and then twitch a little bit.

You see that?
That's coming direct.

The fish is in the water,
we let it sink, and pow.

Absolutely.

Two strikes on that fish.
Damn!

The wels have made themselves
totally at home here,

not just in the main channels

but throughout
the whole river system.

As apex predators,
they have a confidence

that I'm about
to witness firsthand.

These fish are scared
of nothing.

Look at this.

That's a big fish.

I could almost reach down
and grab its mouth.

Do you have a calamari?

There's a catfish here.
It's big.

It's 140 pounds plus.

It is 2 feet beneath me.

The bank goes down here.

I am looking into its mouth.

I could almost reach down
and touch it.

Well, the fish has backed off.
I think he could see me.

I'm gonna throw this
really hard.

No reaction.

No reaction. The fish is just
melting away backwards.

This is a really rare sight.

That fish is 7 foot long,
it's about 140 pounds, at least.

And it was in the margins,
and I could see the whole fish.

There it is.

That is... That's a sight.
That is a rare sight.

That is a big fish.

If I got down on my knees then,

I could've patted him
on the head.

Mouth like that,
right underneath me.

And looking down on its back,

this wonderful,
light camo pattern,

this disruptive
sort of black and white.

Threw a stone to see
if there would be a reaction.

No. He just reversed back, and
then under the boat and away.

I really like seeing fish
like that.

It's fantastic.
Really good.

Any other fish would have been
spooked off by that stone.

It would have disappeared
in a flash.

And that guy is not even
a really big one.

I'm on the banks
of the River Ebro in Spain

hunting down giant wels catfish.

They're estimated to put on
up to 10 pounds a year.

If that's true, it won't
be long before an Ebro wels

reaches the man-eating
proportions

of medieval folklore.

If I'm after a man-eater,

I need to catch, at the very
least, a man-sized fish,

one that falls on the fat side
of 150 pounds.

It's time to rig up.

Rather than casting, we drop
our baits over 100 yards out,

just short of the sunken trees

along the flooded river channel.

Take up the slack.

Then, with
the high-tech alarms set,

I can enjoy the Spanish sun.

And now we wait.

This is not
my preferred fishing technique.

I like to feel the line,
be in contact with the bait.

But wels are not
delicate feeders,

and besides, it's hot here.

Yes. Here, here!

And it's about to get hotter.

Start taking line, taking line.

Start taking line.

This is my first
supersized Spanish wels.

And immediately,
it feels seriously big.

This is physical,
physical stuff.

A serious burst from that fish
when it first took.

It's actually taking line on us.

Stick it out.

My forearm
is almost cramping up.

It's a good sign.

- You got the fish, haven't you?
- I think.

If I could bring him back.

Yeah.
Real beauty of a size.

These Spanish wels are hunting
in broad daylight.

They really are breaking
their programming.

And these fish even seem
used to being handled.

My first fish is 140 pounds
and measures 6 foot, 9 inches.

If these fish are putting on
10 pounds a year,

then in 20 years,

this already massive creature
could weigh as much

as 340 pounds, more than double
its present size.

And if they do live
until 80 years,

I'll let you do the maths.

The only thing that will
restrict them is food.

But there is
one food supply here

that is in huge quantities...
Other catfish.

The wels is not just
a man-eater.

It's a cannibal.

Just getting sort of a cool,
scientific look at this animal.

The first thing,
obviously the thing to do,

start at the business end...
The head.

I mean, the main thing is just
this very, very wide mouth,

about 10 inches across
on this animal.

And you've got needlelike teeth.

They are sharp as well.

You put your hand in there,
and they'll draw blood.

But in terms of getting a grip,
just perfect.

If they clamp down tight
with those sort of jaw muscles,

you're not gonna get out
of that.

They're just purpose-built
for lurking on the bottom

and grabbing stuff
that comes above them.

They're gonna know
that stuff is there,

the prey, because their eyes
are on top of their head.

But more to the point,
they've got these.

And these are just, you know...

This is like
extrasensory perception.

You can tell
what's going on in the water.

These will pick up vibrations
and also chemicals

in very, very sensitive, very
small quantities, in both cases.

On the side, you've got...

Very pronounced on this
animal... the lateral line,

And this is their super organ,
the super-touch organ.

It just picks up vibrations
in the water,

often, again,
at a very low level.

And, also, you can see here
these sort of marks on the skin.

I think these are probably
wounds from another fish,

possibly when this fish
was spawning

and they got a little too rough,

a little bit
sort of overenthusiastic.

Stomach here.
There's the vent there.

So actually,
if it swallows something...

This fish could potentially
swallow something that long.

It goes to the back
of the throat, which is here.

It opens up this sort of
sphincter muscle there,

and it could swallow something
about two foot long.

So, no problem accommodating
those medieval accounts

of babies and small children
in the belly of the beast.

It looks like wels catfish
can swallow prey

roughly a third
of their own body length.

So if these fish in the Ebro
keep on growing,

it's possible that they could
reach a size

where they will have
man-eating potential.

Fact is following close
on the heels

of what was once
thought to be fiction.

Looking at this fish,
it is the perfect predator.

I mean, they do eat anything...
Literally anything...

But they are perfectly equipped
to predate

and also
to come from underneath.

You know, that is just...

a mouth on the end of a solid,
sinuous piece of muscle.

Anyway, I can't hold him
much longer.

Wels, like all catfish,
could live

quite a long time out of water
if kept cool and wet.

This guy seems quite reluctant
to leave.

Shall I leave him there?

Just rub his belly.

In a split second,
the fish turns.

I'm just quick enough to escape.

That was the first catfish
attack on a human on camera.

I was just wondering,
"Is he gonna move?"

And he did
sort of double 'round.

I have heard stories of them
having a bite

at somebody who's caught them.

I thought,
"That's not gonna happen to me."

There's no mark there,
there's no mark there,

but it has happened.

I fish on into darkness.

And I get another surprise.

It's just pulled me on my ass.

Fish on.

Me pulled towards the water.

I thought I was gonna
go in there.

There's nothing...

That's a sizeable fish,
sizeable fish.

With so many fishermen around,
the only inconvenience

these fish suffer
for their midnight feasts

is a little bit of manhandling.

Imagine being in a river
at night

with one of these things
swimming around your legs.

I don't know how big it is yet.
I can see it's big.

- Right?
- Yep.

148, I think.

147.147.

How wide?

It's about 9 inches, isn't it?

Mm-hmm.

This fish is almost as heavy
as I am.

I mean, it is... This is quite
a monstrous beast.

And the power, as well...
I felt the power.

The thing nearly pulled me
in the river.

You know, definitely
a fierce predatory animal,

and some of these stories

about them maybe attacking
swimmers... I don't know.

I can believe them now,
having actually seen

the size of one of these things
actually up close.

I'm still short of my target
150-pound beast.

These creatures really are ugly
out of the water.

I want to see them
in their natural element.

But that means
getting into the water.

Cameraman Simon and I
are going to try an experiment.

I want to see and film
a wels catfish underwater.

I want to see exactly how
Europe's biggest

freshwater predator operates
in its element.

What I really want to see
is the moment

when the wels
gets to strike its prey.

It isn't gonna be easy.

This is something that very,
very few people get to see.

But I do have a few ideas
about what I can use

to tempt the fish in.

This is the camera, and this is
what's gonna be behind the boat.

And about 3 feet behind this
is gonna be the lure,

so it's gonna be looking back.

Thing is, this is actually
quite a lump of a camera,

even though it's a small camera,
so I think... Here we go.

Here we go.
Floatation.

- Two, if we need them.
- Two tanks.

And to stop it wibble-wobbling
around, because we're angling...

There we go... one of those.

And that will just keep it
flying straight and level.

And we'll lob that
off the back of the boat,

and we'll see the lure, and
hopefully we'll see something

come up and grab the bait.

I'll need to hang on.

Otherwise,
if something big takes this,

the whole monitor
could go overboard.

This is actually working well.
I've got the lure in picture.

It's bang in the middle
of the screen.

I'm actually watching.

Normally it's just there,

and you've no idea
what's happening.

I can actually see my lure
out behind the boat.

A fish.
I think it was a carp.

Yeah.

Oh.

We're bumping over the bottom.

Oh, dear.
What's going on there?

Right, need to...
In a bit, in a bit, in a bit.

It's bumping.
It's bumping.

I've lost the lure, haven't I?

I've lost the lure.

I think the camera might've been
bashed around a bit, though.

Aah!

Not robust enough,
unfortunately,

to withstand being bashed
along the bottom.

But other than that,
actually doing very well.

Before that,
there was this gray shadow

that appeared from nowhere
which sort of came and went.

It could have been a catfish

investigating it and shying off
at the last minute.

Or it could have just been
a rock going past. I don't know.

What I'm about to see
is another unexpected aspect

of these fishes' behavior.

What we're doing is we're doing
something called clonking,

and it's sending a sound wave
down into the water.

And we can see on the sonar...

- Oh, yeah.
- Yeah, yeah?

- This is a fish.
- Oh, yes, yes, yes.

- Catfish.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

On your lures.

Oh, there it is!
I've got it!

There's a catfish!
There's a catfish!

- See him?
- Yeah.

It's right under the lure!

- Yeah.
- Fantastic!

- I see him on the sonar.
- Yeah, yeah.

There he is. There he is.
Tentacles.

- It's big?
- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Right.
What's happened now...

And it's coming now, right
in the middle of the screen.

Fantastic.

Look at that.

He's attacking the camera.

What this has just demonstrated

is that when you've got
splashing,

when you've got commotion
on the surface, the catfish...

They live on the bottom.

They will come up
to investigate.

Ah, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Bottom of the screen.

There it is! There it is!
There it is!

Look at that!
There it is!

Oh, he's come off.

Come off.

This is amazing... getting
a fish on camera taking a bait,

attracted in
by sound and vibration.

Like sharks to a plane crash,
these fish fear nothing.

It even attacks the camera.

It's been really good, though,

just to actually see
what I've seen on the screen.

Very, very rare
to see this fish behavior.

So I feel sort of quite
privileged to have seen that.

Although we didn't get a fish
into the boat,

I actually feel
it was a successful day

because I feel
that I've actually learnt a lot

about the behavior, particularly
how they react to vibration,

to commotion on the surface.

Here's this fish
that lives on the bottom.

But if it hears something,
it comes up,

and the tentacles are waving,
and it investigates.

Without the camera
under the water,

you just assume
that nothing is happening.

As soon as you put
the camera there,

dangling under the boat, you're
making the noise with the clonk,

they're coming up
into the middle of the water,

and they want to know
what's going on.

Everything I've seen so far...
The reaction of the wels catfish

to a bait in the water...
Confirms its aggression

as a top predator
and also its fearlessness.

Combine that with supersizing,
and you've got a creature

that you really wouldn't want to
get too close to in the water.

What I want to know now
is just how big

a wels would need to be
to tackle me in the water.

I've said
they look like giant slugs.

But in their element, they're
like super-sensitive sharks.

Time for another experiment.

Like most people, if I jump
in the water, I don't sink.

I float,
even after a heavy lunch.

And it's not too difficult.

I'm flapping my arms
a little bit and me legs.

But the question is,

how big would a fish need to be
to pull me under?

Right.

I've got one dive weight on
at the moment... 4 1/2 pounds.

And I can support it, actually.

That's harder.
It's harder.

9 pounds now,
doubling the rate of paddling.

But I can still just about
keep myself on the surface.

Right, I can support 9 pounds

with a bit of flapping
and flailing of my legs.

We've just weighed this rock.

This is gonna make it
up to 20 pounds.

I'll just see how I do

against that combined weight
in the water.

That was actually
very interesting.

20 pounds of weight
attached to me,

I could just about
keep my head above water.

It was a struggle.

I reckon another 5 pounds,
and I'd have just gone,

no matter how much
my arms and legs

would have been flailing around.

And that's interesting,
'cause if you ask most people

how big a fish would have to be
to pull a body underwater,

they'd say probably

something about the same size
as that person.

Now, I weigh about 175 pounds.

And on land,
I can take care of myself.

But in the water, you know,
a fish would just have to exert

a pull of 25 pounds,
about 1/7 of my body weight.

And I wouldn't stand a chance.
I'd just be gone.

And if I took a lungful of water
underneath there,

then nobody would ever
see me again.

Okay, that just goes to show

that it doesn't need to be
a huge fish to pull me under.

Let's have a closer look
at pulling power.

That 147-pounder
pulled me off my feet

and almost into the water.

How much force can I generate?

I couldn't even pull
in our director,

and she's half my weight.

She's a match for me
even one-handed.

So I could be pulled
under the water by a fish

just half my size...
75 to 100 pounds.

And the thing about the Ebro

is that the river
is just full of fish

that size and much bigger,
which possibly explains

why you don't see
very many people swimming.

And I'm starting to get
seriously worried.

Even if I'm on land,
how am I going to do

in a one-on-one fight
against a 200-pounder?

Oh!

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,
oh, oh, oh, oh!

Ah!

Ah!

If this one pulls me over,
I'm in real trouble.

I'm nearly tipping forward
over that edge,

and I'm just gonna move a bit.

My groin is starting to ache.

There it is.

The rod's jammed in.

It's just physical stuff...
Physical work.

It's coming up.

Strong fish, but I think,
yeah, it's tiring.

Tiring, tiring.

There it is!
There's the fish!

Hey!

Good grief!

My crotch is killing me.

And there it is.

But does it weigh
more than 150 pounds?

Get a measure of the beast.

That is 7 foot... 1, 2, 3, 4...

7 foot, 4 inches.

Let me open the mouth.

You can actually hear the echo
coming out of the mouth there.

Hello, hello!

I can see its gullet opening
and closing.

If I was so inclined,

I could put my fist down there
quite easily.

That is an eating machine.

The whole thing is nearly 8 foot
of just solid, rippling muscle.

If that grabbed hold
of your leg,

that's an unpleasant-enough
thought.

But if that decided
not to let go,

and you were swimming,
you'd be history.

I'm about 175 pounds
on a good day or a bad day,

depending how you look at it.

This fish could be
more than that.

Yeah.

74 kilos.

That's about 163 pounds.

Not quite as big and fat
and ugly as I am.

What I find really hard
to credit is,

when I was doing those
experiments where I was trying

to see how much force
I could exert in the water,

and there was somebody on
the bank with a spring balance

just hooked 'round their finger
reading off,

"Okay, 30 or 40 pounds."

This thing in the water is
almost pulling me off the bank.

I was having to dig in and act
like I was in a tug-of-war.

How something with nothing solid
to actually grab hold of

can exert that force
in the water,

you know,
I find quite mind-boggling.

It is very,
very impressive indeed.

And now it's time
to let this guy go.

Let's see how he reacts.

Fish has recovered a bit.

Maybe a bit more than I have.

I'm gonna put it
back in the water.

If it does have a go at me, I'm
gonna actually stand my ground,

a bit like an elephant...
See if it's a false charge,

or will it actually go
and grab my leg?

This is what
I'm trying to remember...

That this fish
is bigger than I am.

It's got a few inches on me.

I've got a few pounds on this
fish, but I'm in the water.

My extra weight
actually counts for nothing.

It's the fish's environment.

Sinking down towards my foot.

Back!

I think my reflexes overruled
what I wanted to do,

which was stand my ground.

But I can visualize it too much,

what might be going on
down there,

what might be going through
its mind.

So don't tangle with these guys
in their environment

is the message.

Wels catfish are predators
with a lot of attitude.

Two of the fish that I caught

turned on me
while I was releasing them.

Back!

But as far as eating people,
a wels will swallow anything

that fits inside
its monstrous gut.

Ah! Yes, yes, yes!

And if that includes you, well,
it's no respecter of species.

It seems that if they ever
went away,

these medieval monsters
are now back,

alive and well and still growing

in the River Ebro
in northern Spain.

This is quite a monstrous beast.

If I came back here
in 20 or 30 years,

I think it's possible
there could be something in here

that is bigger than anything
that's ever existed before.

And in the
not-too-distant future,

a baby-snatching,
man-eating wels

could once again make
the front-page news.

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