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River.Monsters.S01E06.Amazon.Flesh.Eaters
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00:00no fish inspires the same terror as the shark in the monster's mouth getting thrown around
00:13we've got sharks in Australia that hit hard they don't leave anything but at least these
00:24killers are confined to the oceans or are they it seems one species of shark has been trespassing
00:34from saltwater into my territory freshwater operating where people thought no danger existed
00:44as an angler and biologist my aim is to work out how this is possible and just how far inland these
00:51sharks will bring their reign of terror my mission is to find out whether it's safe to get back in
00:59the water even if you're miles from the sea
01:21I'm a specialist in hunting down giant freshwater animals using a combination of logic local
01:27intelligence and intuition I've faced shoals of piranha in South America and man-eating catfish
01:34in Asia sharks though are a different target altogether these creatures are the stuff of
01:44legend Jaws the iconic 70s story describes ferocious man-eaters with a taste for human flesh but the
01:55report of a shark operating in inland lake is truly terrifying to investigate I'm heading to Australia
02:03I'm going to plug you I'm going to plug you I'm going to put some money where it is 50 bucks 50 bucks 50 bucks
02:17let me give me this yeah you need it I need that for the race yeah
02:32I'm doing it go down ok
02:46they begin a swimming race across the 500 yard wide lake
02:57Dave takes the lead
03:02and reaches the safety of the shore.
03:06Beau, however, is still out on the lake.
03:12In trying to catch up, he strays into deeper water.
03:22In an instant, he disappears.
03:24Dave returns to the water, but there is no sign of this frame.
03:36Beau's sudden disappearance had all the hallmarks of a shark attack.
03:42But few could imagine this apparently safe backwater
03:45to be a hunting ground for sharks.
03:49Even here, where there are the deadliest snakes,
03:51massive crocs, the most poisonous spiders,
03:54this incident rang alarm bells.
03:58We just don't expect to be attacked by a shark on an inland lake
04:03in an urbanised area like the Gold Coast.
04:09In Australia, there are three species of shark
04:11commonly responsible for attacks on people.
04:15The Great White,
04:17the Tiger Shark
04:19and the Bull Shark.
04:21Australians know Vic Hislop as the shark man.
04:28Like Quint from Jaws,
04:31Hislop has fought a series of battles with sharks,
04:34including this two-and-a-half-tonne Great White.
04:38We've got sharks in Australia that hit and hit hard.
04:41They don't leave anything.
04:42They're so good at what they do, they pull somebody under, you don't see any more.
04:47Someone's got to be looking at that exact spot to see it happen.
04:51The Great White is a notorious man-eater.
04:54But some experts think the Bull Shark is a far more deadly threat altogether.
04:58It's a very robust animal, very rough and tough.
05:03Because of the structure of its teeth, it can't just bite through a big chunk of meat.
05:08It has to bite and start shaking out crazy.
05:10And of course somebody's like a rag doll in its mouth getting thrown all over.
05:15And that immediately also instigates all sorts of fear reactions.
05:19You know, you're in the monster's mouth getting thrown around.
05:22Stocky in shape, savage in character, the Bull Shark is built like a street fighter,
05:31with a level of raging aggression that gives it its name.
05:36Pound for pound, it's top of the league of man-eaters.
05:41Statistically, a Bull Shark's attack is more likely to result in death than a Great White's.
05:47And the authorities believe that it's a Bull Shark that killed Beaumarten in this canal system.
05:57This complex of waterways was built during the 70s and 80s and is bigger than Venice, Italy.
06:03160 miles of canals and over 30 lakes.
06:08This is an area with just thousands of apartments, houses right down on the waterfront.
06:13And most of the people here just think of these canals as a perfectly safe place to swim.
06:20What puzzles me is how any shark could have made its way here,
06:25so far from where we expect to find it, the open ocean.
06:29To work that out, I'm heading 60 miles south to the coast.
06:33There were 15 shark attacks in Australia in 2008.
06:40But there's one, well reported in the press, that is central to my investigation.
06:4616-year-old Brock Curtis Matthew is setting off with his friend Peter Edmonds for some early morning bodyboarding.
06:52We got there maybe, he's caught at eight, eight o'clock-ish.
06:57They've chosen a location next to the mouth of the Richmond River.
07:02This is a popular surfing spot, often used by these close friends.
07:09But this morning, after several days of heavy rain, they have the beached themselves.
07:17We were maybe like halfway to where we were going to go in the water.
07:21I turned around and came back in.
07:24And he kept going.
07:26While Brock covers their possessions in case of more rain, Peter heads out.
07:33He's around 35 yards from the surf line.
07:36But as Brock goes to rejoin his friend, he glimpses a dark shape.
07:42I saw this big round, weird circle thing.
07:48What Brock had seen was a shark.
07:56He has no idea it is attacking his friend.
08:02All he can see from 25 yards away is some splashing.
08:07I was just thinking, what's he doing?
08:09Something's not right.
08:14Brock approaches as quickly as he can.
08:21When I got really close, I couldn't see any blood.
08:24And then, like, once I grabbed him and stuff, I noticed his leg.
08:33Risking his own life, Brock carries his now unconscious friend towards Shaw.
08:41He had taken a first aid course at school.
08:44There was a slight pulse when I first checked it.
08:48Like a beat.
08:50Beat.
08:52Beat.
08:54Beat.
08:59In a state of shock, he calls the emergency services.
09:03The lady's gonna die.
09:06I just said, can you come down and help me quickly?
09:09My friend's been attacked by a shark.
09:11From the shape and the size of the wound to Peter's thigh,
09:15the attacker appears to be a bull shark.
09:16The attacker appears to be a bull shark.
09:26Some nine feet long.
09:33After the attack, lifeguard Stephen Leahy was one of the first on the scene.
09:37It was obvious that it was high-impact, it was hard-hitting, and there was just a large amount of flesh removed from his upper thigh.
09:45Lee here has worked to save lives on these beaches for over 15 years.
09:51But in this case, tragically, Peter had lost too much blood.
09:54There was just absolutely nothing that we were going to do that would save this boy's life.
10:04Dr. Vic Pedimors is the first person medical teams turn to when they believe there's been a shark attack.
10:14It's estimated that a shark bite applies a force of over four tons per square inch.
10:21The most important thing for a shark is to get that lower jaw in.
10:26Because those are the hooking teeth, that sort of latches in.
10:29So once it's got its lower jaw in, the upper jaw can clamp down.
10:33If that lower jaw has got in properly, it only needs one bite and it'll take the muscle straight off.
10:40Because of the site of this incident, the lifeguard already had this attacker's identity in mind.
10:45Knowing that the attacks happened just here, we always had in the back of our mind that this was going to be a bull shark incident.
10:54It's likely that the shark could confuse Peter for his common prey.
10:59A large fish.
11:01Perhaps even another shark.
11:05Nothing can ever compensate a family or friends for such a cruel loss.
11:09But if there is anything to be salvaged from this terrible episode, it might be in identifying the warning signals that accompany a bull shark attack.
11:22Bull sharks have been observed congregating around river mouths after heavy rain, attracted by the supply of freshwater fish being washed out to sea.
11:30We know the bull sharks will always hang around the river mouth after periods of heavy rain and when there are lots of fish around.
11:39The beach where the attack occurred is only 60 metres away from the entrance of that river mouth.
11:43The bull shark that killed Peter Edmonds had been attracted to this shoreline because of its proximity to freshwater.
11:53We're well and truly aware that there's just so much for the bull shark to live on in our freshwater systems.
12:00And that's part of the uniqueness of the bull shark.
12:02It can easily cope in saltwater and in our oceans, but it's just as comfortable in our river systems.
12:07Perhaps this knowledge might prevent others being caught, like Peter, in the wrong place at the wrong time.
12:19As a biologist, I want to better understand the physiology and particular affinity bull sharks have for freshwater.
12:27I need to catch one.
12:29I must have fished literally thousands of destinations all over the world.
12:33But this time I think I'm out of my depth.
12:39I've never tried to catch any kind of shark, let alone a bull shark.
12:46A hundred miles north of where Peter was killed, in sight of land, I join a fishing charter boat, out after sharks.
12:54With four rods set, I know I'm in with a good chance.
12:57Oh yeah.
12:58Right.
12:59There we go.
13:00There we go.
13:01That is a bull shark.
13:02Hammered quite a big mullet, a couple of pound mullet, and just took off.
13:03I think we're ready to bring it to the back of the boat, actually.
13:04OK.
13:05This one's none too happy to see me.
13:07But after the hook's out, it becomes easier to handle.
13:10It's four and a half feet long, around a third of the length they can reach.
13:11Boat's rolling around a little bit at the moment, side onto the tides, and then we're going to
13:12go to the boat.
13:13There we go.
13:14There we go.
13:15That is a bull shark.
13:16There we go.
13:17That is a bull shark.
13:18Hammered quite a big mullet, a couple of pound mullet, and just took off.
13:19I think we're ready to bring it to the back of the boat, actually.
13:20OK.
13:21This one's none too happy to see me.
13:23But after the hook's out, it becomes easier to handle.
13:24It's four and a half feet long, around a third of the length they can reach.
13:37Boat's rolling around a little bit at the moment, side onto the tide, and rolling a little bit.
13:41So with something like this, mouth full of teeth, got to be a wee bit careful.
13:45The teeth are partially obscured by thick gums, but the tips are as sharp as scalpels.
13:51That's good to actually see one of these animals close up.
13:55Get my hands on one.
13:56That's what I wanted.
13:59But what sets this species of shark apart is its extraordinary ability to operate in both
14:04salty and fresh water.
14:10The bull shark is the only species of shark that can do this.
14:15Some scientists speculate that the bull shark is capitalising on this adaptation to dominate
14:20new feeding grounds in land.
14:24The bull shark is unique because it's actually much more capable than other sharks in regulating
14:30the amount of salts and urea in its body tissues.
14:35Bull sharks constantly test the salt content of the water with tiny sensors mounted all over the body,
14:41similar to the way we use our taste buds.
14:45Then a special organ, the rectal gland, acts like an on-off valve, releasing or retaining
14:52salt as required.
14:54It's really incredible how capable they are at doing that.
14:59But it's obviously energetically very costly.
15:02And that's why we tend to find the bigger animals capable of changing very quickly,
15:09whereas the smaller animals tend to stay within a relatively narrow band of salinity.
15:17This amazing adaptation gives the bull shark a deadly access-all-areas freedom to roam,
15:23bringing its violence to our once peaceful inland waters.
15:27A predator that can operate in rivers and adjoining lakes all around the world,
15:33responsible for fatal attacks from Australia to South Africa,
15:38from Florida to New Jersey.
15:45Here, in 1916, four people were killed and one was severely mutilated in a ten-day spree of attacks.
15:52This provided the inspiration for the most famous shark story of all, Jaws.
16:01But what is so terrifying is that two of these deaths occurred 15 miles up an estuary,
16:07at Matawan Creek, in a place that everyone thought was safe.
16:13Man-eaters are supposed to be found in untamed places.
16:18But this unstoppable predator seems to be bringing its savagery into the very heart of our civilised world.
16:33Is there nothing in place to stop these deadly predators?
16:36I'm here to meet Tony Hamm.
16:41He manages the shark control program on the Gold Coast in Australia.
16:46We're planning to make an inspection of the shark nets just off the main beach.
16:52This section of the beach is called Main Beach on the other side of the spit.
16:56It's a fairly heavily populated beach.
16:58In summer you'd have anywhere upward of 50,000 or 60,000 people between here and surface paradise.
17:03Right.
17:04And then from surface down further, probably double that number.
17:07It's a big beach just running up with sort of all the hotels and sort of tourist amenities behind it.
17:12Exactly.
17:13But branching off here are a number of canal estates and large lakes.
17:17And what's happened is it's basically extended the river habitat.
17:21And so we have bull sharks here pretty constantly.
17:24They're a part of this.
17:25Right up inland?
17:27Yeah.
17:28So bull sharks will actually live all the way up and including into freshwater reaches of some rivers.
17:33So they're definitely in there.
17:34And when you get in the water, if you get in the water, you could only be just a matter of yards away from one, I suppose.
17:40Literally feet.
17:41And you wouldn't know they were there unless, you know, you actually see it or it bumps into you or actually does have a bite at you.
17:50Around the spit and about 500 yards off the beach, the swell has picked up.
17:54This shark net is pretty much the only line of defence along a two and a half mile long beach.
18:02The idea is to remove sharks that come in close to the shore.
18:06But looking at it, I can see no reason why bull sharks wouldn't easily go under it or around it and then head on relentlessly into the canals.
18:16After all, the net is only 200 yards long and just 20 feet high.
18:22Some think that these measures are in fact literally worse than useless.
18:28Shark nets in Australia are a false sense of security for tourism.
18:33They kill everything we love out there.
18:35They kill dolphins, turtles, dugong.
18:37But more important, the big sharks have learnt to feed off those nets.
18:42They're now a feeding ground.
18:44It costs millions of taxpayers dollars for a waste of time.
18:49Just a false sense of security. It's a joke.
18:53If Hislop is correct, bull sharks are being lured towards the shore and then inland, into the canals and lakes.
19:00And because, inevitably, they'll meet more people inland, this species has to be a far greater threat than other man-eating sharks, which remain out at sea.
19:16On Miami Lake, the day after Bo Martin's disappearance, a search begins, led by Bo's father.
19:25Exhaustively, he combs the perimeter of the lake.
19:29For two days, there is no sign of Bo.
19:38On the morning of the third day, after the police have given up the hunt, he begins to search from his kayak.
19:44He happens upon the body of his son, part in and part out of the water.
20:00The only reason his body had surfaced, the gases resulting from decomposition, causing his body to inflate.
20:07The autopsy revealed that Bo had been struck three times by a bull shark.
20:20One devastating bite on his left thigh, proving fatal.
20:29This predator had slipped with ease from the sea into the brackish water of Miami Lake.
20:37Once inside, it had been free to go about its business unseen, until the killing of Bo Martin revealed its deadly presence.
20:52But just how much further inland, into fresh water, are these predators capable of going?
20:5980 miles inland from the ocean, trainer Alan Treadwell is taking his finest trotting horse, Glenburn's Arm, for exercise in the river.
21:12I'd swum there for eight, nine years. Never a problem. It's a very popular picnic spot.
21:18This part of the river is a secluded oasis, popular with families as a swimming hole.
21:26But on this day, Treadwell has the river to himself, for his training programme.
21:31He wants to build up his horse's muscle strength, without straining its legs.
21:36Glenburn's Arm, a six-year-old gelding, weighing a thousand pounds, has won seven times over a three-year career.
21:48With the help of his stable hand, Alice Holden, Treadwell ties a half-inch rope to the horse's halter.
21:53With it, he can control the horse from the bridge.
22:01As far as Treadwell can see, from 20 feet up on the bridge, everything appears to be going to plan.
22:07The horse was swimming, I had control of the horse.
22:12But suddenly, something startles it.
22:15The horse looks like it's going to drown.
22:20Then, all of a sudden, I saw something hanging off the back of him.
22:24Alan!
22:26As the horse rolled over, the colour lightened, and it went to a white underneath, whatever it was.
22:32Whatever this creature is, it has the force to hold onto, and the power to submerge a 1,000-pound horse.
22:40The horse is in trouble. We had a problem.
22:45I've got to get this horse out of there.
22:47Whatever's wrong, if I can get him out of the water, I can control it. He won't drown.
23:04If we hadn't have got him out, I don't believe he would have survived.
23:07Trainer Alan Treadwell was able to pull his horse to safety.
23:11If the victim had been a human, a fifth of the size of this horse, there would be no hope of surviving the attack.
23:22The horse, Glen Burns Arm, was treated by a veterinary surgeon, who photographed the wound.
23:29I want to meet up with Alan Treadwell to find out if this attack can be attributed to a bull shark.
23:37Hello Alan.
23:39Good day. How are you?
23:40I'm all right, thanks. This is the boy, is he?
23:42Yeah, this is him.
23:44Can I say hello?
23:45Say hello.
23:46Hey.
23:48So he's not just an ordinary horse, is he? He's a bit of an athlete.
23:51He's a bit of an athlete, yeah, he has been.
23:53Or used to be.
23:54Yeah.
23:55Yeah.
23:56Can we see the wound at all? Can you show me where it was?
23:58Yeah, I can do.
24:00Yeah.
24:01It's healed pretty well.
24:02Yeah.
24:03That's where it was on the flat there.
24:04Right.
24:05So looking at him now, I mean...
24:06He looks fine.
24:07He looks fine.
24:08But I mean, did he recover fully or...?
24:09No, I don't think so.
24:11Actually, he swells up in the fatlock after a hard run.
24:15Right.
24:16Which virtually makes it impossible to race him.
24:19So in effect, this actually finished his career?
24:21It has done, yes.
24:22It still seems to be a bit awkward in that one back leg.
24:25I don't know what happened to it.
24:26It's impossible to say.
24:27So, you know, possibly there's some sort of, you know, deep muscle damage, some...
24:32Yeah, it could be.
24:33That's exactly right.
24:34Yeah.
24:38Although there had been no reports of sharks this high up the Brisbane River before,
24:42Alan Treadwell believes that what he saw was a shark.
24:46Yet he only glimpsed the white shape for a fraction of a second.
24:51I want to take a logical approach to discover exactly what happened here.
24:58My first strategy is to measure the salt content of this stretch of the Brisbane River.
25:04The water's saltiness lessens the further upriver you go.
25:13I've taken a reading of seawater with this machine and the reading I get is about 17.
25:18Down the other end of the scale, anything less than about one is fresh water.
25:22So the fact that I've just got a reading of less than 0.5, this is fresh water.
25:27I know bull sharks can get into fresh water.
25:36Everything points to this being a shark attack.
25:40Except for one thing.
25:43There's a good reason why I don't think they could be responsible for this particular incident.
25:47Look at this, just five miles down the river is this man-made barrier and it just goes right across the river.
25:54Mount Crosby Weir is a dam that has been in place for over a hundred years.
25:59The difference in height between the water on the ocean side and the upriver side is 12 feet.
26:07Now I can understand how something might possibly get up from the sea to here, but how's it going to get over that?
26:18So what else could it be?
26:20I think there might be a clue in something Alan Treadwell told me.
26:29Although on the surface the wound to Glenburn's arm has healed,
26:33underneath the skin there is such profound muscle damage that he can no longer race.
26:37That is exactly the case with attacks made by another animal entirely, the saltwater crocodile.
26:50When a crocodile bites its victim, it deposits bacteria in the wound that cause long term muscle damage.
26:57The most distinctive thing about a saltwater croc is that big gnarly head with those big, actually blunt, but long penetrating teeth.
27:08Saltwater crocodiles will live in freshwater, saltwater, brackish water, mineral water.
27:13They don't care.
27:16Once a crocodile reaches 13, 14 feet and up, you're dealing with an animal that can take down a one tonne water buffalo.
27:26It seems more likely that the creature which attacked Glenburn's arm is not a shark, but a crocodile.
27:33What they prefer is deep, dark, murky water because they are the masters of camouflage.
27:40That's how they get their prey.
27:42They will launch from an invisible position, up out of the water, grab whatever it is they're targeting, drag it back into the water in the blink of an eye.
27:51Just the kind of water where the attack happened.
28:01There's one problem with this idea.
28:04While crocs were once found this far south, none have been seen any closer than 150 miles away in the last 20 years.
28:12I would be surprised that a crocodile who is big enough to take on a horse, A, would go unnoticed for long periods of time, you know, way outside its range.
28:26And B, in that situation, would miss.
28:32You know, if it's in deep water, it's a large animal and it's gone in to really have a go, you'd be the luckiest horse alive.
28:41When all avenues seem closed, I turn to the least unlikely option in my pursuit of the truth.
28:52If the attacker wasn't a crocodile, it has to be a shark.
28:56Yet I need to be certain, if this is the truth, it has far reaching repercussions.
29:04It would show conclusively that savage bull sharks can and will launch attacks in fresh water.
29:12It would mean there is no kind of water that's safe from these predators.
29:19But I'm looking for proof.
29:21I want to show scientist Vic Pedimore's the wounds inflicted on this racehorse.
29:28He's one of the world's leading experts on shark bites.
29:34So what do you make of that?
29:39Well, I would definitely say it looks like a shark bite of some description
29:42because of these gaps between the tooth and the way that it seems to have scratched down on the hindquarter of a horse.
29:51That is the bite in more context.
29:55Wow. I think this is just a hit with an upper jaw and a slip down.
30:01Can you get any idea from that, roughly how big the shark might have been?
30:04This isn't much of a crescent, which suggests that the jaw must have been fairly big.
30:10Assuming that that was the sort of, this part of the jaw that hit it like that.
30:17So the curve is quite gentle.
30:18So the curve is very gentle.
30:20So if you think of it as hitting like that.
30:22Now if you look at this tooth there, that tooth there.
30:28It's a fairly close match.
30:30It's not too far off a match.
30:33And this is 2.75 metres in length.
30:38Eight or nine foot.
30:39It's a very similar sort of curvature.
30:42And it links in with our knowledge of bull sharks.
30:45One would expect a bigger bull shark up in the very fresh water component of the river.
30:53This evidence suggests that the creature that attacked Alan Treadwell's horse is a bull shark.
31:01Over eight feet long.
31:10And by hunting through the government archives.
31:13I now know how these animals managed to get over the weir.
31:17The Brisbane River has flooded repeatedly with one extreme occurrence in 1974.
31:24The city itself was inundated.
31:27But so too was the surrounding area.
31:31Including the Mount Crosby Dam.
31:33It seems that as the flood subsided, a colony of bull sharks, some growing to over eight feet long, were locked in.
31:43Far up river.
31:47And if this can happen here, it can happen anywhere that bull sharks roam.
31:51The danger they present isn't restricted to Australia.
31:57Bull sharks have been observed moving up the Mississippi River as far as St. Louis.
32:04And there has even been an attack reported in Lake Michigan.
32:08To fully understand this threat, I want to get my hands on one of these big predators in fresh water.
32:18But to do that, I need to learn some specialist techniques from an expert in catching big sharks.
32:25Hello there.
32:30You Terry?
32:32Yeah, yeah.
32:33Terry.
32:34Nice to meet you.
32:35Hello there.
32:37On March the 14th, 2007, just here in the river Mouth, Terry Hesse caught a nine and a half foot long female bull shark.
32:45Estimated to weigh over 500 pounds.
32:48This all looks like pretty serious stuff.
32:51Yep, we'll free our rods and reels.
32:53We'll be using one of these.
32:54Nice Tiago 80s.
32:56Completely blown away with the idea of needing to use that in a river.
33:00These guys are serious.
33:02I'm impressed.
33:04They're fishing in this busy working port on the frontier between sea and fresh water.
33:09I mean, one thing I'm noticing already is attention to detail.
33:12They've got a comprehensive plan to outwit the super sensory capacity of this shark.
33:20Bull sharks, like all sharks, have tiny pinholes on their snout called the ampullae of Lorenzini, used for detecting electrical fields.
33:29They're so sensitive that they can detect the electrical impulses of a fish's heartbeat.
33:34Sharks with wider heads, like the bull shark, have more of these pinholes, and therefore they can lock onto prey more accurately.
33:47To avoid giving off any electrical signals to the shark, Terry masks all but the metal hook point in plastic and cable ties this to the eel.
33:55Beautiful.
33:58Next, Terry's making sure he capitalises on the shark's smell sense by using fresh bait.
34:04Two thirds of this shark's brain is devoted to sniffing out prey.
34:10And by fishing at night, we're choosing the most likely time for sharks to go hunting.
34:15It's in the dark when the super sensory bull shark has the edge over fish that rely more on vision.
34:26Terry begins the journey across the river mouth to place the baits.
34:31Bull sharks have been reported to ram kayaks, taking the paddle splash and rudder movements for the thrashing of the fish in distress.
34:44Terry's okay, but in getting these baits set in the dark, I've injured my index finger.
34:49It's going to make things difficult.
34:53I'm just hoping that this and the disturbance from the busy port doesn't damage my chances.
35:06At 2.30am, with the tide high, the line begins to run.
35:13In the heart.
35:17No, off.
35:19It's all right?
35:21Yep.
35:23Shuffling down.
35:25At the moment, it just feels like there's a boat on the end.
35:28It's just a dead weight.
35:30I've just changed the ratio there.
35:32Yeah.
35:33Yeah, that's pulling, that's pulling, that's pulling.
35:35It is coming my way.
35:37And with nearly 200 yards of line taken in, whatever it is, reaches the shore.
35:43Holy .
35:45What is it?
35:46That is huge.
35:48It's one of the best fish I've ever seen.
35:50Like something from 20,000 leagues under the sea, it certainly isn't a shark.
35:54But what on earth is it?
35:55It's not a shark, but it is an exceptional fish.
36:05It's just remarkable.
36:07That is something, isn't it?
36:10I've never seen anything like this in my life before.
36:13It's what they call the Queensland Groper.
36:16This is a monster.
36:17I mean, it's not the monster I was after, but this is a monster.
36:19What about the girth?
36:20Yeah.
36:21Two foot one.
36:22Its girth is four foot three inches.
36:23Four foot three inches.
36:24Four foot three inches.
36:26This is a protected marine fish, normally found on reefs, but they're known to come into river mouths like this on rare occasions.
36:38Look at that.
36:40This fish, Ethan Terry and Ben haven't seen anything like this anywhere like this size, you know, so it's just an amazing catch and particularly from a river.
36:48Just, you know, this thing really is a river monster.
36:53Groupers have an extraordinary trick.
36:56This 250 pound male actually started life as a female.
37:01When there are too few males in a spawning group, a female will switch sex to keep breeding numbers up.
37:11Time though for this gender bender to head back home.
37:13To me, that just underlines even more than before, that, you know, we just have no idea at all what is down there in our rivers.
37:23It feels amazing to catch a fish like that, but it's not what I'm here for.
37:31Armed with the knowledge I've gained from Terry, I'm driving 50 miles up river from brackish water to fresh water.
37:39I'm fishing at night.
37:43I'm fishing with the freshest bait.
37:46So.
37:48And I'm putting out two rods.
37:50Here we go, look.
37:52Something.
37:54Something had that.
37:56Didn't have that look in its mouth.
37:57So whatever it was, it's still out there.
38:02And I'm really out of bait now.
38:04So.
38:05That's annoying.
38:09Finally, I'm in luck.
38:10I've got to take on the other rod.
38:14And keep it away from there's some trees and stuff on the side there.
38:17Yeah, it's a shark.
38:19It's a shark.
38:21Up we come.
38:23This is a shark in a river.
38:26Okay.
38:27This may be a small one, but for me this is, in some ways, more unsettling.
38:32Up onto the grass.
38:34I already know there are big females in this river.
38:38Catching one like this implies they're breeding here.
38:41That body is just solid muscle.
38:43You just feel it.
38:44When it decides to flex, that's just got so much strength there.
38:47This one didn't swim all the way from the ocean.
38:50It was most likely born in brackish water just downstream.
38:55And while only 18 months old, it seems to be thriving in fresh water.
39:01It's a scary thought that this river will be its hunting ground for life.
39:06Another 15 years.
39:10At 3 feet 6 inches long and 15 pounds in weight,
39:14this one could triple in length and become 30 times heavier.
39:17I'm just trying to imagine this thing two or three times the length in this water.
39:25It's quite a frightening prospect, you know, in a river, a small river.
39:29Anyway, this one's going back.
39:30I've been able to prove without question that bull sharks are trespassing on my patch.
39:40In fresh water.
39:42More than 80 miles up an Australian river.
39:45But critically, what I've learned is that they have the capacity for brutal attacks in fresh water almost anywhere.
39:52There are few limits to where this shark will operate.
39:58More and more it seems that this fresh water jaws is bringing its savagery into our once tame backyard.
40:06Along metropolitan canals, up quiet rivers, and on tranquil lakes, the bull shark is looking for its next meal.
40:20It's just a question of who and when.
40:23And when.
40:24And when.
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