Budiey
Extreme angler Jeremy Wade to visit Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore this May to promote the latest season of Discovery Channel’s RIVER MONSTERS. For five exciting seasons, globally renowned angling guru and biologist Jeremy Wade has been taking fans and angling enthusiasts on spine-chilling monster fishing adventures like no other. This May, in conjunction with the upcoming premiere of RIVER MONSTERS 6, Jeremy will make his way to Southeast Asia for Discovery Channel’s ”River Monsters Live In Asia” tour where he will stop by Jakarta (Thursday, May 22), Kuala Lumpur (Saturday, May 24 at Sunway Pyramid) and Singapore (Sunday, May 25) to share stories of his brand new adventures from the new season, his encounters with monstrous freshwater beasts in Asia, tips on how to catch a monster fish and last but not least, to meet his fans! From Friday, May 23 to Sunday, May 25 at Sunway Pyramid, fans in Malaysia will also get to enjoy a stunning photo exhibition featuring some of Jeremy’s most epic RIVER MONSTERS moments. For details on the tour and how to get up close with Jeremy, visit www.discoverychannelasia.com and www.facebook.com/DiscoverySEAsia.
Jeremy Wade Of River Monsters Live In Asia
About RIVER MONSTERS 6
The Amazon River is the hunting ground for a terrifying line-up of the world’s most ferocious RIVER MONSTERS; a river this dangerous will not give up its secrets without a fight…Extreme angler, freshwater detective and biologist Jeremy Wade takes viewers on an all-new spine-tingling, mystery-filled freshwater monster hunting expedition in RIVER MONSTERS 6. Premiering Tuesday, July 8 at 10:00 p.m. on Discovery Channel (Astro Channel 551), the six-part series is one of his most challenging, with Jeremy having to travel over the course of a year to extremely remote locations across the Amazon to get to the bottom of inexplicable mysteries surrounding some of the deadliest human attacks by the most vicious RIVER MONSTERS on the planet.
The amount of water flowing through the Amazon is greater than the flow of Ganges, Congo, Mississippi, Nile and Yangtze – combined. These tropical waters are so abundant that the concentration of fish species is 10,000 times that of the ocean, and this includes some very real RIVER MONSTERS. “I’ve been fishing the world for decades, but it’s the Amazon that keeps calling me back,” notes Jeremy. “Now, I’m returning to solve the mission of a lifetime to spend an entire year going farther, deeper and more remote than I’ve even been before.”
From the politically charged intersection of Brazil, Colombia and Peru, to the remote and secluded home of a rainforest tribe, Jeremy is crisscrossing the continent to tackle each incident and reel in each dangerous catch. This season’s mysteries include:
• Man-Eating Monster: All over the Amazon are stories of a monster fish that grows so large, it is believed to have swallowed men whole. Locals call it the lau-lau, but after 20 years of searching, from Peru to Brazil and Colombia, the evidence Jeremy needs – a single colossal specimen, stills eludes him. Now, he has discovered a secret, untouched location deep in Guyana’s remote rainforests where he suspects they may be thriving. Embedding himself in the wild jungle, this time it is different: he is not coming back until he catches it.
• Brazil – Amazon Apocalypse: In 1981, more than 200 passengers perished without a trace when the Sobral Santos – supposedly the safest river boat – sunk in the middle of the night in the deepest part of the Amazon, many rumoured to have been eaten alive in the water. If this was in fact the work of a river monster, this catastrophe would have a greater death toll than all of Jeremy’s other investigations – combined. Jeremy goes to extreme lengths to crack the mystery, travelling hundreds of miles across the Amazon, Rio Negro and Padauiri rivers to unearth the beast behind this massive attack.
• Bone Crusher: When a corpse with highly unusual injuries is found, Jeremy instinctively knows that he is on the trail of possibly a new monster. He soon learns the dead body is only the tip of the iceberg – there has also been a spate of unexplained disappearances and people have seen a huge unknown creature patrolling the water. Could all these three factors be connected? To solve this mystery, Jeremy confronts one of his biggest fears and encounters a river monster that he has never dealt with before.
• Jungle Terminator: Three mysterious deaths in Peru, Colombia and Brazil leave Jeremy with no choice but to cross dangerous borders and pass through territories of warring tribes to live with the Matis – a mysterious, secretive tribe, deep in the Brazilian Amazon. It seems they have a unique and death-defying way of catching these culprits. Can they get Jeremy closer to the terrifying beast he has come this far to find?
• River Of Blood: A brutal underwater mutilation of a young man leads Jeremy to a face-to-face confrontation with one of South America’s greatest freshwater fighting fish that slashes and stalks its prey while living in one of Argentina’s most dangerous waterways.
• Body Snatcher: In the remote rivers of Guyana, Jeremy is on the hunt for a new candidate for largest freshwater ‘fish’ in the world – a predatory freshwater mermaid. Could there be some truth behind the legendary Water Mama, which is said to be responsible for chilling reports of people vanishing, with their bodies never to have been found? Locals believe this long-haired, white-skinned creature lures people from the surface and drags them down into the depths.
RIVER MONSTERS 6 is a weekly murder mystery, following Jeremy’s worldwide search for harrowing tales of man-eating freshwater beasts with the hope of finding out whether these freshwater mysteries are tall tales or frightening facts. For fans who are hooked and cannot wait for the new season to reel in, relive the most petrifying moments of RIVER MONSTERS seasons 1 to 5 daily, Mondays to Fridays, starting May 12 through to June 30 at 8:00 p.m.
RIVER MONSTERS 6 encores every Wednesday at 3:00 p.m. and Sunday at 3:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m.
Jeremy Wade
Biologist, Extreme Angler and Host of RIVER MONSTERS
The world’s most fearless fisherman, Jeremy Wade, is a biologist, teacher, writer and television host who has been travelling to the world’s most remote rivers for more than 25 years. He has encountered some of the strangest and most petrifying fish out there and has risked his life more than once to document the stories of hundreds of fish and the cultures where they live.
Jeremy grew up in southeast England on the banks of the Suffolk Stour, where his fascination with the underwater world and the desire to see “what’s around the next bend” began. His first overseas trip was to the mountain rivers of India in 1982, and since then, has increasingly spent his time tracking down large and little-known fish in rivers around the world – particularly in the Congo and the Amazon rainforests.
“I don’t see myself as a particularly expert angler,” he says, “but I am able to get into the kinds of places where outsiders don’t normally go and seem to have enough energy after I get there to put a line in the water. Teaming up with local fishermen is vital to my success, and what’s great about this approach is that you get to see and explore diverse human cultures too.”
In between catching fish (or, on some journeys, not catching fish), Jeremy has also managed to catch malaria, be detained as a suspected spy, narrowly escape drowning, avoid gun-toting renegades and survive a plane crash. In 1992, he co-wrote Somewhere Down the Crazy River – a book that is considered to be one of the classics of angling literature. He has also written on travel and natural history for a host of publications, with his latest River Monsters: True Stories of the Ones That Didn’t Get Away which was published in 2011.
His first television series, JUNGLE HOOKS, filmed in 2002 for Discovery Channel, was one of the most-watched shows on multichannel television when it was released and has since been seen by audiences around the world. RIVER MONSTERS, his most recent and most iconic series, is one of the most-watched series in the history of Discovery Channel.
Jeremy holds a Degree in Zoology from Bristol University and a postgrad teaching certificate in biological sciences from the University of Kent. When he is not beside a remote river, Jeremy lives in the countryside of Somerset, England.
RIVER MONSTERS 6
THE AMAZON’S DEADLIEST SUSPECTS
ARAPAIMA
The arapaima, pirarucu or paiche is a genus of bonytongue native to the Amazon River in Brazil. They are the largest freshwater fish of South America. Arapaima can typically reach lengths of more than eight feet and over 200 pounds (over 90 kilogrammes). The maximum-recorded weight for the species is 440 pounds (close to 200 kilogrammes), while the longest recorded length was 15 feet (over 4.5 metres).
The arapaima is torpedo-shaped with large blackish-green scales and red markings. It is streamlined and sleek, with its dorsal and anal fin set back near its tail and its scales have a very hard outer layer, with a corrugated surface under which lie several layers of collagen fibers. This structure gives the fish its ability to flex while remaining heavily armoured and enables it to live in piranha-infested lakes, where no other animals could survive.
ANACONDA
Eunectes murinus, commonly known as the green anaconda, is a non-venomous boa species found in South America. It is the largest, heaviest and second longest (behind the reticulated python) known snake species. The typical mature green anaconda can grow up 16 feet long (close to 5 metres), weighing between 65 and 150 pounds (29 to over 68 kilogrammes). It is the largest snake native to the Americas, found in countries including Colombia, Venezuela, the Guianas, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, the island of Trinidad and as far south as northern Paraguay.
Anacondas live in swamps, marshes and slow-moving streams, mainly in the tropical rainforests of the Amazon and Orinoco basins. They are cumbersome on land, but stealthy and sleek in the water. Their eyes and nasal openings are on top of their heads, allowing them to lie in wait for prey while remaining nearly completely submerged.
ELECTRIC EEL
The electric eel (Electrophorus electricus) is the only species in its genus, capable of generating powerful electric shocks of up to 600 volts used for hunting and self-defence. Despite its name, it is not an eel, but a fish. Electric eels inhabit fresh waters of the Amazon and Orinoco River basins in South America, in floodplains, swamps, creeks, small rivers and coastal plains.
They often live on muddy bottoms in calm or stagnant waters. They feed on invertebrates, although adult eels may also consume fish and small mammals. The electric eel is known for its unusual breeding behaviour. In the dry season, a male eel makes a nest from his saliva into which the female lays her eggs. As many as 3,000 young will hatch from the eggs in one nest.
GOLDEN DORADO
The golden dorado (Salminus brasiliensis) is a large river fish found in central and east-central South America. It lives in warm freshwater habitats in southern Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Bolivia, and northern Argentina and in the river basins of the Paraguay, Uruguay, Chapare and Mamoré Rivers. The golden dorado is highly sought after by anglers, both for its delicious taste and fighting ability. The aggressive nature of the dorado, its high jumps and great fighting stamina have created a competitive market among anglers from all corners of the world, traversing South American waters in hopes of hooking a dorado.
PIRAIBA
In the Amazon River, there are legends of goliath catfish that grow to over 10 feet long (over 3 metres) and reach nearly 600 pounds (over 272 kilogrammes). These giants are the catfish belonging to the Brachyplatystoma genus. The Piraiba is the largest catfish in this genus and is notorious for its voracious eating and solitary lifestyle habits. Piraiba have an appetite to match their massive bodies. Fishermen who have caught these massive giants have found small monkeys, birds, cats and even other catfish in the stomachs of these giants. Some legends even claim that humans have been found in the stomachs of these enormous fish. Like other catfish, the Piraiba are active at night between midnight and around six in the morning and they dominate the Amazon with their sheer size, and offer fishermen an exciting, challenging catch. They also play a crucial role in scavenging the bottom of the Amazon as the “cleanup crew” of the largest river system on Earth.
RED-BELLIED PIRANHA
The red-bellied piranha or red piranha (Pygocentrus nattereri) is a species of piranha native to South America, found in the Amazon River Basin, coastal rivers of northeastern Brazil and the basins of the Paraguay and Paraná. They are omnivorous foragers and feed on insects, worms, crustaceans and fish. Red-bellied piranhas often travel in shoals (large groups) as a predatory defense, but rarely exhibit group-hunting behavior. The red-bellied piranha has a popular reputation as a ferocious predator, despite being primarily a scavenger. As their name suggests, red-bellied piranhas have a reddish tinge to the belly when fully grown, although juveniles are a silver colour with darker spots. They grow to a maximum length of 13 inches (about 33 centimetres) and a weight of approximately eight pounds (over 3.6 kilogrammes).
RIVER MONSTERS 6
SOME OF JEREMY’S MOST MEMORABLE MOMENTS
1) MIGHTY GOONCH, INDIA
“The Goonch is an immense fish that took several weeks to catch. The main crew had long gone home – only a cameraman and myself were left. I ended up jumping into the flooded river by myself and it was a calculated risk that paid off. If I hadn’t, that fish would have escaped and we wouldn’t have had any film.”
2) HANZAKI / SALAMANDER, JAPAN
“There’s a funny story behind my gurgling yells as I come out of the water holding this fish. Because I didn’t bring a weight belt, I’d hung some rocks from my waist to overcome the buoyancy of my wetsuit so I could get down to the Hanzaki’s hidey-hole. But after I grabbed the fish, I forgot about the rocks and I thought the things bashing my legs were the Hanzaki’s big brother and father coming after me. That’s so very embarrassing.”
3) DIVING FOR SNAKEHEADS, THAILAND
“We weren’t allowed to rod fish for snakeheads, so we ended up doing it a much harder way – by spear. I had no confidence at all that we would get one of these fish from this place, but the local spear fisherman was an absolute star.”
4) RECORD-BREAKING RIVER BULL SHARKS, SOUTH AFRICA
“In South Africa, I caught two of the biggest male bull sharks ever recorded at nearly 10 feet long (over 3 metres) and weighing in around 500 pounds (close to 227 kilogrammes). From following their movements after they were returned (thanks to the acoustic tags we fitted), we got a surprising new insight into bull shark behaviour. Although they would swim very close to people in the water, they left them alone. They were looking for fish on anglers’ lines and weren’t even tempted to be man-eaters.”
5) ARAPAIMA ENCLOSURE, SOUTH AMERICA
“It was amazing to see such large fish flying through the air so close to me and it was made all the more memorable when it included the element of danger. One of these Arapaima fish head-butted me in the chest once and it still hurt six weeks later. In this enclosure, I didn’t have enough hands to keep the net tight to the side and at the same time protect all my many vulnerable body parts.”
6) SCI-FI GOLIATH TIGERFISH, AFRICA
“The Goliath Tigerfish was just such an incredible fish to see – almost like a science-fiction monster – with its metallic appearance. Not only that, this fish took 25 years for me to catch after my first visit to the Congo. Going after such a difficult and elusive fish with a film crew was a real gamble, but it paid off.”
7) PIRANHA POOL, SOUTH AMERICA
“Because there were background noises in the Amazon forest, we had to keep re-recording my interviews while I was in the water and during that time the piranhas slowly grew bolder, swimming closer and closer to me. Our audio man is a keen angler himself and maybe he was just tired of watching me fish all the time, and wanted his own show!”
8) GRIZZLY BEAR SALMON THIEF, ALASKA
“Not only was this my first taste of salmon fishing, but my first sight of grizzly bears. As I stood there intent on fishing my line, a bear appeared just 10-15 feet (3-4.5 metres) from us. Yes, it was definitely an experience that quickened the pulse.”
9) SHORT-TAIL RAY, ARGENTINA
“We caught this fish on the very last day of our trip and it took much longer to bring in than any other fish I’ve ever caught – just ten minutes short of four hours. My lower back ached terribly after this.”
