River Monsters (2009–2017): Season 3, Episode 3 - Silent Assassin - full transcript

Wade:
My name is Jeremy Wade,

biologist and extreme fisherman.

I've hunted down freshwater
monsters all over the world...

Hey!

Investigated
macabre human deaths

and savage attacks.

Aah!

It is not often
that I come across a fish

I've not heard of before,

especially when it could be

among the largest freshwater
fish I have ever tackled.



I am heading to the remote
northeast corner of Argentina

to catch a monster that
somehow got under my radar...

There it is, there it is,
there it is, there it is,
there it is, there it is!

A creature responsible
for horrific injuries...

It will dissolve the flesh.

Ohh!

Even death.

Recently, I heard rumors
of a giant freshwater fish

that, if true, would be
a brand-new species to me,

one that I never knew existed

in a country
that I know little about.

I'm in Argentina.

I'm on my way
to the Paraná River.

It's the second-biggest
river system in South America



after the Amazon.

I know other rivers
in South America very well

and the creatures
that live in them,

but this river is very little
known in the outside world,

and it's also new territory
for me.

And most important,
this river harbors a killer.

A little while ago,
I heard about a child who died

as a result of encountering
something in the water.

A 12-year-old girl was playing
close to her village

on one of the remote islands
set in this huge river.

She had entered the water
countless times before,

but this time,
it would be different.

This time, there was something
waiting in the shallows

only yards from the bank.

The attack was brief
but ferocious.

Aah!

Aah!

She stood no chance
against such weaponry.

Aah! Aah! Aah!

She died soon after
in her mother's arms...

Killed by a freshwater monster.

The evidence from the death
points to one suspect...

Shallow water, piercing barb,
and speed of attack

all suggest a stingray.

But this is freshwater,
and I wasn't aware

that there were stingrays
in this river.

The Paraná River
rises in southern Brazil

and travels through Paraguay,
into Argentina,

before emptying
into the Atlantic

3,000 miles from its source.

The outback town of Bella Vista

lies on the banks
of this great river

500 miles from the sea.

Before the arrival
of the Spanish,

this corner of Argentina

was the land
of the Guarani people.

It is now the home of gauchos,
farmers, and fishermen.

It still has the air
of a frontier town here.

This is where I am basing myself

on my quest for a leviathan.

I meet up with some fishermen

to find out more
about the death of the girl

and the creature that
I am pitting myself against.

Mm-hmm.

And I discover
a lot more than I expected.

They tell me about a small boy
who was playing in the river

only a short distance from his
mother when he was attacked.

Boy: Aah!

There was a commotion
in the water, then silence,

and the boy's lifeless body

floated in the shallows
right where he'd been playing.

What they are describing
is a ray

but not one
I've ever come across.

They call it chucho de río,
or river dog.

I've caught giant rays before,
in Thailand...

A massive creature
with a tail like a bullwhip.

But what they're describing
here sounds very different.

And unlike
that estuarine monster,

the chucho de río
has made its home

500 miles from the sea.

And what really makes
this monster different

is that it has killed.

But how? What makes this animal
uniquely dangerous?

I visit the regional hospital
to meet Dr. Gomez,

a surgeon who knows
all about stingray wounds.

It's not a clean cut.

You've got these serrations
on the spike,

so what happens...
It makes a mess when it goes in,

and then it also rips the flesh
when it comes out.

The two children
most likely died

because the barb punctured
an artery or vital organ,

and they quickly bled to death.

But that is not
the only cause of death

from this massive stingray.

Dr. Gomez draws the barb,

with its backward-facing
serrations and venom.

Dr. Gomez:

So, the mucus
that's on the spine,

it doesn't
just contain bacteria.

There is actually
a venom there...

Resulting in deep, putrid wounds

laced with toxins.

The entire outer skin
produces a necrotic venom

which becomes more concentrated

around the tail
and along the barb,

meaning it is literally cloaked

in a venom that destroys tissue.

I head out,
knowing that I'm on the trail

of a creature
with such a fearsome reputation

that the local fishermen
refuse to fish for them.

Jose, my boatman,
is an accomplished fisherman.

He has the all-important
local knowledge

that I always depend on.

His help will be essential

if I am to navigate
this labyrinth

and find the hidden monster.

This river
is a very, very big river.

I was really quite taken aback
by the size of it,

but, as always,
you've got features.

This is a little channel.

And what we've got,

we've got a real push of current
out here.

But, then, that current
sort of eddies around.

There's a nice slack
on that side there,

and it's exactly
the kind of place

where any kind of fish
would hang out

and, then, the predators are
gonna hang out, feeding on them.

Rays are members
of the shark family

but have flattened bodies
and winglike fins.

As yet, I've not been able
to find out any accurate data

about the size
of the chucho de río,

but the fishermen here tell me
they grow very big.

I want to know how big.

Stingrays patrol
the river bottom,

predating on small fish
and invertebrate,

which they locate using sensors

that detect the prey's
minute electrical field.

My gear is too heavy to cast,
so I have to adapt.

For bait,
I'm using armored catfish,

which I float out
underneath a bottle

and I release by pulling
sharply on the line.

Jose has a handline
attached to the bottle,

which he retrieves
after the bait has dropped.

Perfecto.

I've not got very much lead on.

There's quite a surge
of current here,

but the whole thing
that I was trying to do

was to use the current
to take it down

and then pull it off just
in the slack beside the current,

and that's exactly
what'll happen to a food item.

If you're having to use
loads of lead to keep it down,

then it's not the kind of place
where food is gonna settle.

But I've got a nice sort
of slack bow in the line,

which tells me that that bait
is in a good place.

This is the same rod
that I took to South Africa,

where I caught
two 500-pound bull sharks.

In Thailand,

I felt the full force
of the ray's strength...

It's spinning the boat.
It's taking the boat down.

But also the disappointment
of losing what, to this day,

could be the biggest fish
I've ever had on my line.

Ohh!

I am not going to let
the same thing happen again.

So, armed with what I learned
out there,

I prepare
to catch myself a monster.

Oh, here we go, here we go.

Here we go,
here we go, here we go.

That's...

Something's
really after that there.

Something's really after it.

There's a disturbance
at the surface.

And then nothing.

Hmm. I may or may not
have a bait left.

Jose thinks that could have been
a small ray,

maybe having trouble
getting the bait in its mouth.

Here we go,
here we go, here we go.

That's actually fairly unusual.

When I attempted
to set the hook there,

there was nothing there,

but I left the bait in position,

and literally,
within a minute or so,

something was back at it, so
it suggests there's lots of...

Lots of fish down there.

So just check that I've, uh...

Got the bait.

Ah.

There we go.

So, the bait is actually gone.

Something
actually pulled it off.

Whatever is down there
seems to be onto me.

It's gone very quiet.

I'm forced
to try another location.

Yeah, well, that bait lasted...

About a minute,
something like that.

It started off
as a vicious tapping,

and then off it went.

One after another,
my baits are stolen.

Yeah, well,
that's not gonna catch anything,

though that isn't new, eh?

Something down there
is outsmarting me,

removing the bait even before
I can get it to the bottom.

You know,
always there's this conflict

between do I just stick it out,

carrying on doing
what I'm doing...

Or do I change something?

And you have to sort of reach
a happy medium with that.

You have to sort of
give something a good go,

but be prepared to change

if, you know, it looks like
you're doing something wrong.

Something on there, I think.

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

Wow.

Right, what's happened there

is that the bait's
been chopped in half,

and then I foul-hooked a piranha
in the back.

I think it's fairly clear

that this is what's been
taking my bait.

And, you know,
talk about caught red-handed.

There's the evidence.

Chunky, chunky piranha.

I've not actually caught
this kind of piranha before.

They call it palometa here.

It's very similar
to the red-belly
piranhas in the amazon.

It's got
that orangey throat area,

very, very solid, muscular head.

Um...

It's a very serious piranha,
that.

There are killers of all sizes
patrolling this river.

But it is said that the people
who live along its banks

fear stingrays
more than any other.

Mm.
It's a great viewpoint here.

Whenever possible,
I like to look down on a river.

You really can just see
so much more.

And what's really apparent here

is what looks like
the opposite bank

when you're down
at water level...

Actually, that's just an island.

There's loads of islands here.

What's also interesting here,

I can see there's a couple
of houses dotted around.

And I think it's very important

that I go and talk
to those people.

These are the people
who can tell me

not just where to go
and try to catch fish,

but they might have heard,
as well,

about these incidents
that I've heard about.

These people
live a nomadic existence.

During the wet season,

their ranches
are submerged underwater.

They spend months
cut off from the outside world.

At a ranch on an island,
I talk with a group of gauchos

who explain the dangers
of living in such isolation,

alongside one of the river's
most feared predators.

Yes, you know,
there are stingrays here.

I just asked,

"Do you know anybody
who's ever been wounded by one?"

"Yes, yes, you know,
not just people,

but also cows and horses, too."

He said
they have known horses to die

as a result of a blood vessel
being punctured.

But also, they've had other
horses die from infection.

He says it's almost
as if the horses are crying

because the pain is so bad.

The first place I've stopped...
Yes, there are rays here,

and not just people
but also large animals

have actually been killed
by these rays.

I'm after a creature
that can kill a horse...

yet is virtually unknown
to the outside world.

Rays have a finely tuned
sensory system

which they use to locate prey.

But these sensors could also
detect my thick line and hook.

So by changing to finer gear,

I hope to fool the ray
into taking my bait.

I'm gonna scale down, and, uh...

That's just a bit finer.

Still very strong... 175-pound
breaking strength, that.

This is the main line here.

It's not gonna create
a lot of drag

when it moves through the water.

The current's not gonna
pick it up.

I'm actually quite pleased
with that setup.

I give it one more go

in the hope
that, as evening falls,

the piranhas will stop feeding.

Nothing, nothing.

That's very odd.

Stop.

Ding, dun, dun, dun.

Piranhas are still active
by the look of it.

Cursed by piranhas.

It is vital to understand
the behavior

of the other fish in the river
besides your quarry

in order to avoid
the other species,

like the omnipresent piranha.

To remove these sight hunters
from the equation,

I begin fishing at night.

I set my line,

now confident it is past
piranha feeding time.

Nothing.

So much for that plan.

Another one bites the dust.

But I feel as though the noose
is tightening.

I am closing in.

So I further fine-tune
my approach.

I discard the bottle
and begin casting,

dropping the bait
quickly to the river bottom,

reducing the amount of time

it's hanging around in midwater.

Now will I finally be rid
of the curse of the piranhas?

There. See that?

It feels like a piranha,

but it's too big for a piranha,
I think.

Wade: Ah. Look at that.

So much for piranhas
not feeding at night.

These Paraná River piranhas

are among the largest
and most ferocious

I have ever come across.

And it's so big, I can't really
get my hand around it.

I've encountered
piranhas before.

I know that,
in the right conditions,

they are capable of attacking
and devouring the largest prey

in seconds.

I don't think I particularly
want to fall in here.

Piranhas. Big piranhas.

But also active at night.

It shows just how hungry
everything is in here.

I fish for hours...

That's really kicking.

Ah.

I think that's a...
Is that a piranha?

Only to pull in
one piranha after another,

each as big as the last.

That could be time to call it...

Call it a night
if these guys are active.

But it's hard to give up

when I know the monster
stingray must be down there.

Wonder what this is.

Ooh.

Ooh, look at that.

So, this is a sort of...

This is a predatory catfish.

This is a small one.
These things grow...

Oops.

Ohh. They grow over 100 pounds.

So, you know,
5 or 6 foot long...

But, I mean...

The thing about this fish for me
is, you know, it's a catfish,

but it's a very athletic,
streamlined catfish.

It's a catfish
that hunts actively.

This one's got
quite spiky fins there,

so I ought to be careful.

Ohh.

Ow!

That's just dug its spine
right in the back of my hand.

That went right... oh, my God.

I've handled these fish actually
like loads of times before.

This is the first time I've been
stabbed by one of these.

It kicked, and it just...

That was its pectoral spine
going in the back of my hand.

Although painful,

these catfish spines
do not have a venom.

What this is making me think
about is I'm gonna have to try

and deal with a stingray
at night.

And, you know, just a moment's
loss of concentration

with a small catfish...

And that's the result.

In the Amazon,

stingrays are known
as "wish you were dead" fish

because of the agonizing pain
following a stab from the barb.

Even though stingray meat
is good to eat

and a large ray
could feed many people,

fishermen here
refuse to hunt them.

The next morning, I meet
fellow fisherman Donal Pereira,

who hooked one accidentally.

A momentary lack
of concentration,

and he felt the full force
of the stingray's barb.

So, he was actually fishing
for one at the time,

so he wasn't walking
in the water.

He actually had one on the line

from the...
Fishing from the bank.

And then when he pulled it in,
he lifted it up,

and suddenly,
it just whipped its tail around.

This happened 30 years ago,

and there's still
a very obvious scar there.

And he's telling me,
and I've sort of...

I didn't believe it at first.
Like, I wanted to hear it again.

Six or seven years to heal.

It was suppurating
for that amount of time.

You know, from just one moment
of being stabbed,

six, seven years
of a nasty wound

taking all that time to heal.

Necrosis can lead to gangrene.

The death of one cell
quickly cascades,

spreading
to the surrounding cells,

killing everything around it.

Following envenomation,

the victim suffers severe pain,
vomiting, paralysis, tremors,

even heart failure...

And, if not treated, death.

As I head back to my boat,

I come across a macabre sight...

My first encounter
with the chucho de río.

But this is not the way
I was hoping to see it.

The lad in the boat just said,
"What a monstrous animal."

It is very much like an alien.

It doesn't look like
any normal fish.

The guts have been taken out.

No tail.
Tail's been hacked off on this.

And this is actually a
fish that I didn't know
existed until I came here.

I've known for ages that you get
stingrays in freshwater,

but this particular species...

We're talking about
a very short time

that I've known this existed,

and here is the evidence
in the flesh.

I mean,
there's no doubt about it.

This is a very, very
creepy-looking fish.

You've got these fine denticles

all over the body
like miniature teeth.

Some of them are more enlarged.

As we get to the tail,
look at that.

That's starting to get
some really serious, sharp,

lumpy denticles there.

You know, that's quite apart

from the spine
you've got on the back,

which is just, like, this
sort of dirty, serrated blade.

So, I mean, this animal,
it's not just the tail...

This is just, like, a...

Very lethally armed animal.

This stingray is much bulkier

than the one
I caught in Thailand,

which was flatter, more slight.

That's a good 48-inch wingspan.

The power of this massive body
is transmitted to the tail.

Just measuring
the size of the tail,

as well as the size
of the animal.

4 inches across, so that's quite
a serious club-like weapon,

never mind
the big spike in the end.

One tipped
with tissue-destroying venom.

Now, to find out the true
weight of the chucho de río.

It's registering
just over 200 pounds there,

and of course
it's missing the tail,

and it's missing all the guts,

and it's been out in the sun
dehydrating and bleeding.

So it's something like 225
when this was alive.

You know, I think we can be
fairly safe about that.

A genuine river monster.

But if the stories are true,

then there are even bigger
fighters out there.

That is what I'm after...
To see for myself

the weaponry and the behavior

that makes this creature
a killer.

This body of water is vast.

I've been here now
for nearly two weeks,

and Jose and I have scoured
the area without any results,

so I can't restrict myself
to fishing just at night.

I have to get a bait
in the water as often as I can.

The river's got a very different
character to it today.

There's this wind
blowing upstream,

and what that does,

it's creating
these standing waves here

about 3 foot high.

It actually turns into
quite an intimidating place.

And there is so much
competition for food,

especially from
the ever-present piranhas

feeding 24/7.

Well, I just cast the bait out,

and there was instantly
something on the bait...

But it just felt like piranhas.

It was like
like that coming through,

whereas, what I actually want is
something that just goes

Feels like a piranha.

But the Paraná River
is full of surprises.

Ah.

It's a different kind
of catfish.

This looks like
a new species for me,

although it's very similar to
one I've caught in the amazon.

Yeah, there we go.

That's a different fish.

And again,
it's just another fish

that is going to,
you know, polish off my baits.

You know, it really is a problem

actually just having a bait
down there

that's gonna survive long enough
for the stingray,

which is very much
the top predator

that'll come along and find it.

Big strikes often come
when you least expect them.

So I have to stay prepared
for when my rod bends double

with the weight
of a 250-pound monster.

Here we go.

That's a fish.
There's a fish on.

This is by far the biggest fish
yet to take my bait.

It's coming close. Here he is.

There it is.
There it is. There it is.

That's a stingray.

At last, my first glimpse
of a live chucho de río.

He's off the bottom,
but there's trees down here.

Although
this is only a juvenile,

it is still armed
with a deadly barb

and tissue-destroying venom.

That's a long way off yet,
but...

I don't want to bring this
into the boat,

so I ask Jose
to head for the nearest beach.

I put on knife-proof
kevlar gloves

to protect me against the barb.

I'll just pull it up.

As soon
as it's out of the water,

its tail is aiming for me.

I noticed that this ray

is a heavier build
than other rays I've caught...

and the tail much shorter,

more like a dagger than a whip.

I'm gonna see
if I can get a look at that.

The ray's tail
is coated with toxic venom.

Just gonna see
if I can get any mucus off here.

General fish slime.

That's just sort of slime,
that's mucus,

but living in there you've got
a cocktail of bacteria.

I'm actually thinking about
what those cowboys were saying.

They've had horses die
from fatal bleeding

but also from the infection
when they've stepped on a ray.

That's actually one heavy beast.
And that's the...

I'm just feeling
the weight of this animal now,

and this is a small one.

I'm just thinking,
a weapon like that

with 400, 500, maybe 600 pounds
behind it.

You know, it's like
somebody coming at you

with a medieval mace, in a way.

It's like a club
with a nail in it.

Anyway, let's get it back.

Easing it
into slightly deeper water.

Now, just looking at the pattern
of this, and just, you know,

it does just completely
disappear into the background.

It really does bring home

how dangerous potentially
these things are

when you just see

how they're just almost
invisible in the water.

That was actually a small one.

What I want to see now
is a big one of those,

but if I do get one,

I think I'm really gonna
have my hands full.

I've been trolling this river
now for 10 days straight,

and I'm beginning to think

that the only giant ray
I'm going to see

is the one
hanging on the riverbank.

So I'm fishing all the hours
I can to maximize my chances.

Look at that. Dorado.

Jose and I fish
all over the river.

This is a mandube catfish.

Mystery bait remover.

That's another night
with no stingrays.

They're proving elusive.

I've caught everything
except what I came for.

Now I try something
that I wouldn't normally do.

I've got a second rod out.

A lot of people in the town

are giving me advice,
what I need to be doing,

and one of the things
that keeps cropping up

is, "You haven't got
enough lines in the water."

I don't totally hold with that.

I don't necessarily believe

that two rods gives you
double the chance,

but it all comes down

to just one bait
being in the right place.

Even though I've given in
to using two rods,

only one is really strong
enough to land a monster.

If the lighter rod
happens to hook a fish,

I could be outgunned.

That's a good fish.
That's a good-sized fish.

This feels like a ray.

Uh...

Just my luck, the fish took
the bait on the lighter outfit,

which isn't really
up to the job.

This is bigger
than the last one, for sure.

In Thailand, a giant ray

snapped a rod that
wasn't right for the job...

Something I really don't want
to happen again.

On the limit of what this gear
can hold, really.

Yeah, that's moving.
It's moving.

Plus, it looks like

the river bottom is littered
with dead trees.

One snag, and this fish is gone.

I'm off a very snaggy island
at the moment.

If we can just slowly,
slowly go down in the current,

then we're clear of that,
and we're...

We're then adjacent to a beach.

And also,
the current's slack there.

We can just very slowly coax it
into shallow, slack water.

Because the ray took the bait
on the weaker rod,

I have limited pulling power.

So I'm in for the long haul.

It's now been on
well over an hour.

At last, I've got past

the piranhas, catfish,
and dorado.

But the creature
on the end of the line

might be twice my size,

and it isn't going to
give itself up easily.

2 hours and 10 minutes now.

This is becoming
a war of attrition.

Which will crack first...

The ray, the rod, or me?

Ooh, yes. Yes.

After 11 grueling days
of fishing,

I've hooked what could be

the biggest totally freshwater
river monster

I've ever had on my line.

It feels like it has come
unstuck from the bottom

a couple of times,

but most of the time
it's just a dead weight.

Every now and again,
there's a slight movement,

it rises, and then
it sort of sticks down again.

Rays stick themselves
to the bottom.

Prying them off is like pulling
the plug out of the river.

This just feels like
a dead weight... a dead weight.

It could be in a tree.
It could be in a tree.

It's using all its bulk
and the flow of the river

to defeat me.

What I'm gonna do is just take
the boat upstream a little bit,

and I'm just gonna apply
some pressure

just from the other side,

'cause if it is in a snag,
possibly...

If I can just get
a different angle on it.

Jose has to maneuver
very precisely

in the strong current.

That's the tail hitting
the line. Tail hitting the line.

With a fish like this,
I'm not in control.

All I can do is react.

Three hours.

This is my longest battle ever,

beating even
the South African bull shark

that took 2 hours
and 45 minutes.

My back and arms
are now burning.

That is fish, I think.

That is fish, that is fish,
that is fish, that is fish.

It's back. My maneuver worked.

So, a bit of tactics there.

Nothing was happening.
Nothing, nothing, nothing.

And I think it might have just
hooked the line 'round a branch,

so we just changed the angle
of the pull slightly.

Look at that.
There it goes. There it goes.

That's good. That's good.

I want to get it to the beach
where I can handle it safely,

but that means coaxing it
200 yards further downstream.

We've got literally
just 10, 15 feet from the bank.

As the creature tires,

I have it
exactly where I want it.

There it is, there it is,
there it is, there it is,
there it is, there it is!

Finally, after perhaps
the most punishing battle

I have ever had,

I land one
of the biggest, strongest,

and most alien freshwater fish
I've ever seen.

The thing I really want to do
with this one, though,

is get a closeup of the tail.

I mean, obviously,
not too close.

And to think this is a fish

that until recently
I didn't even know existed.

The chucho de río is unlike
any other ray I've come across.

Okay, 50"...

Nearly 53".

Which would make it
easily 250 pounds.

But what really makes
this species stand out

is that it is a killer

with a weapon as brutal
as a medieval mace,

like a club fortified
with rusty nails,

which it drives in
with its massive bulk.

I might actually
just kneel on top of the animal.

Uh...

Okay.

That's what I wanted to look at.

The dead animal I saw
had its tail chopped off.

This one has its sting intact.

It's got two stings on there,
and, also, by the look of it,

you know, this can come
a long way on either side.

It's also very flexible.

So I wouldn't want
to get anywhere near this.

Time to put this
back in the water.

My arms are just aching so much.

I've been fishing solid
for 11 days.

If this feels anything
like I do, it's very tired.

What I'm about to do know
is actually very significant,

because this is a fish...

And I always like
to return fish alive...

But this is a fish

where, you know, the locals
don't give it any quarter.

This stingray has evolved to
survive in totally freshwater.

In fact, it is now thought

to be incapable
of living in the sea.

Just bent over it here,

I'm just not seeing
the shape of the fish at all.

I've just got
this huge, broad back

with this amazing pattern on it.

As fish go, it has to be one
of the strangest fish there is.

And in a river, as well... you
know, the size of this thing.

I've been fishing the world's
rivers now for four decades,

but landing a monster like this
makes me wonder

what else is out there
still to discover.