31 January,2011 05:59 AM IST | | Dhvani Solani
Two things Britisher Jeremy Wade always takes on his trips abroad: His fishing rod and grit. We caught up with the host of animal planet's River Monsters to figure whether his ties to ferocious fish might have anything to do with a past life
When Jeremy Wade goes fishing, you won't see a man with a floppy hat dozing off while waiting for a silly fish to bite.
You're more likely to see someone battle a goliath tigerfish with their inch-long teeth, catch a human-sized Goonch catfish or maneuver around big bull sharks. Excerpts from the email interview with the biologist, extreme angler and host of Animal Planet's River Monsters on what drives his bizarre passion.
At 16, you were the youngest member of The British Carp Study Group, an organisation for gifted carp anglers. At 50, you have been studying dangerous underwater fish for most of your life. What is it about these creatures that attract you, instead of having you run for survival?
I'm very driven by curiosity. So if I hear a story about something, I really want to get to the bottom of it to find out what the truth is. Fear is about self-preservation, but uninformed fear is a handicap. With many fish (and other animals), if you understand their behaviour you can make the fear proportional to the real level of danger. On most occasions this reduces fear, but sometimes you should turn up the dial, such as with the notorious toothpick Candiru of the Amazon.
I fear the Goliath Tigerfish, the horror of the Congo -- a man-sized piranha -- as well as bull sharks in freshwater. And big catfish, instead of you pulling them in, it could be the other way around, with potentially fatal consequences. I am amazed by Amazon stingrays.
What has been your scariest moment -- underwater or on land -- so far?
I have had close calls on land (had a machete accident, hacked my thumb to the bone, then had to perform surgery with super glue), in water (narrowly escaped from a sinking boat in the Amazon) and in air (survived a plane crash in the Amazon and escaped uninjured).
I've caught malaria in the Congo, where the locals thought I might die; was rammed in the chest by a 6-foot arapaima in the Amazon; had a gun pulled on me in an Amazon interior; and was also detained and interrogated as a suspected spy while fishing in the Mekong River in 1984.
When did you first visit India? How did you find the experience?
I've been fishing in fresh water since I was seven or eight years old. I started in the UK, but I've been going overseas now for about 25 years. My first overseas trip was in 1982 to India.
While shooting for the River Monsters India episode, I found big turtles in the Kali River. Although they're hardly ever seen, the waters of Kali River are home to the biggest freshwater turtles -- weighing about 200 pounds -- in the world. This was also the first time the Goonch catfish was ever filmed in its natural habitat. And we got not just one, but six against the rock wall.
What can viewers look forward to on the show?
In a few episodes of River Monsters we feature fish that are small, but dangerous to people. There is one episode we did on the Piranha.
They don't grow very big, but they do have these incredibly sharp teeth. Certain species will feed in large groups of maybe 100 or more, so they are potentially very dangerous, even though they're small. Then there's another fish called Candiru that lives in the Amazon. Actually, there are two kinds, and one is about the size of a toothpick.
There are stories in the Amazon that it will normally parasit-ise larger fish. It gets into the gill cavity, but it sometimes swims up the urethra of human beings. If someone is urinating in the water these fish will swim inside them, and that is pretty horrifying.
Catch River Monsters' new season on Animal Planet every Wednesday At 9 pm. This season features Death Ray, Demon Fish, Killer Snakehead, Alaskan Horror, Amazon Assassins and other monsters.
