Factual
The information contained here is strictly embargoed from all press use and non commercial publication until 00.01 Tuesday 10 November 2009
The Amazon river is known for containing some of the world’s most ferocious beasts. But the catfish family have bloodthirsty and varied methods of catching their prey. In this programme, biologist and extreme angler Jeremy Wade investigates if they are the Amazon’s biggest river monsters and whether tales of catfish swallowing people whole could be true.
Jeremy travels to Brazil to find out the truth behind a macabre tale of a fisherman’s death. Fearing accusations of murder, local fishermen took the corpse of a colleague to the police station in the exact state in which they found it; just a pair of legs protruding from the mouth of a vast catfish. Jeremy tracks down Seu Walmir, one of the witnesses to the event who explains how the fisherman jumped into the river to free one of the nets from a rock. He says, “Nothing more was seen until four hours later when this huge fish appeared on the surface…The fisherman was half inside the mouth of the fish, just the legs of the fisherman sticking out…They got it in and clubbed it to death. They left his body inside the fish and then went to Manaus as fast as possible.”
The murderer was identified as a piraiba, the largest species of catfish found in the Amazon, which can grow up to nine feet long and weigh up to 500lbs. But Jeremy says, “Even having heard this horrific story from an eyewitness, someone who was actually there. I still find it really hard to believe that there are fish here capable of doing that. And what I want to do is actually see with my own eyes how big the fish are in these Amazon rivers.”
Jeremy visits a river junction up a tributary of the Amazon. He says, “People only think of predatory fish living in the sea, but here I am about 1000 miles from the ocean staking out a crime scene to catch a man-eater.”
After struggling for 20 minutes Jeremy gets the better of a large jau catfish, a species some fisherman claim can be just as dangerous as the larger piraiba. Holding the large fish Jeremy says, “This is a fish that’s adapted for strong water. And if one of those was to grab you there’s not a great deal you could do about it.”
Still in search of the larger piraiba catfish, Jeremy decides to fish the largest river junction in the world, the meeting of the waters near Manaus. The meeting of the Rio Negro with the Rio Solimoes to form the mighty Amazon is more than a mile wide, and over 200 feet deep in places. Jeremy joins local fisherman Julio Cavalcante, who has caught a 211-pound piraiba at the meeting of the waters. Julio believes the best time to catch the catfish is when they come out to feed at night, but without anything coming for the bait, and a thunderstorm setting in, Jeremy decides he needs ‘to go further away from civilization if I’m to get the mother of all the catfish’.
But before he continues his search for a large piraiba, Jeremy investigates the candiru, which is very different in size, but can be just as deadly. It usually targets a big fish as its host, drinking blood from its gills, but occasionally they make mistakes and Jeremy has tracked down the victim of the one fully documented case of a man urinating in the river who had a fish swim up his urinary tract.
Silvio tells his story to Jeremy who translates:“While he was relieving himself suddenly he just had a bit of a shock and the first thing he knew was that the fish was already inside. Only just the end of its tail was out.”
The fish may have entered Silvio in search of a blood meal, but little did it know that its mistake would result in an unprecedented medical procedure lasting two hours. The fish was sent to the National Institute of Amazonian Research to be formally identified, and Jeremy takes Silvio back to meet the very fish that caused him so much pain.
Jeremy resumes his hunt for the biggest catfish in the Amazon, the piraiba, when his fishing guide, Flavio, spots a truly graphic example of over ambitious Amazon predation. Jeremy explains: “We’ve just seen this payara floating down the river, quite a big one, still alive. We thought it was dead to start with. On investigation, it’s got another one down its throat. And Flavio’s just grabbing hold of the tail of it and pulling it out. Look, it’s the tail of another fish. So this fish almost choked to death on, on something just too big to swallow really.”
Buoyed by the discovery that biting off more than you can chew might not be such an uncommon occurrence in the Amazon, Jeremy tries fishing a different spot with a rapid at the top and a deep hole with a clean bottom which is a particular place for piraiba.
Suddenly Jeremy feels something. “There’s something down there. Just grabbed the bait, bent the rod, and then let go… That is a fish on. I think it’s coming towards me.”
The fish is so strong that it’s only after a struggle of nearly half an hour that Jeremy gets better of it. But it’s worth the wait as Jeremy’s catch is revealed to be a large piraiba. Examining the fish he says: “Looks a bit like a shark and it has a reputation to match. This is a big one, but they do go bigger. This is a man-sized fish, but they go bigger than man size. They go a size big enough to swallow a man.”
Having met these monsters of the Amazon, Jeremy concludes that stories of man eating catfish might not just be fisherman’s tales.
“The maximum recorded weight for a piriaba is three times the size of my catch. But if what I’ve heard is to be believed, the true giants could be twice that again. In my investigation, I’ve seen how, in these murky waters, catfish sometimes make mistakes. And I’ve seen firsthand how, in the Amazon, fish will bite off more than they can chew.”
Last edited: Wednesday, 28 October 2009
