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Jeremy Wade: Revealing underwater monsters
(JP/ Ricky Yudhistira)With the skill of a surgeon that spoke of his 30 years of fishing experience, Jeremy Wade tied knots in his fishing line so it wouldnât break while hauling in catches of more than 90 kilograms
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(JP/ Ricky Yudhistira) (JP/ Ricky Yudhistira)
(JP/ Ricky Yudhistira)
With the skill of a surgeon that spoke of his 30 years of fishing experience, Jeremy Wade tied knots in his fishing line so it wouldn't break while hauling in catches of more than 90 kilograms. Lying beside him was the battered trunk he keeps his gear in and a long case for his rods, both of which were covered with airport stickers.
The extreme angler and biology teacher deserves credit for his already notable achievements, which have literally brought a previously unknown force of nature to the surface.
The host of Animal Planet's hit global series River Monsters has shown viewers a long list of Wade's monster river catches, some of which were the size of an adult human and had become a source of fear for locals.
'Normally in the river you cannot see the fish. These animals are new for most people watching. The freshwater fish look very strange, like imaginary science-fiction creatures. ['¦] Some of them have tentacles or feet to move around muddy water,' Wade said during his recent visit to Jakarta to share stories and fishing tips.
'Most people have no idea that fish can grow this big,' said the British 58-year-old.
The monster catches included ' to name a few ' an Amazonian arapaima that was 4.5 meters long and weighed about 200 kg, a piraiba that had reached 3 meters in length and weighed 272 kg, as well as several bull sharks in an South Africa river, one of which weighed 227 kg.
People's limited understanding of the creatures that inhabit rivers as well as their curiosity about predators perhaps make for the winning combination that has kept River Monsters running for six years.
Season 6, which will premiere on the Discovery Channel on July 8 at 8 p.m. for Indonesian viewers, was set in South America, where Wade investigated local stories about a creature rumored to be able to swallow men whole, as well as another fish that was said to have attacked up to 200 riverboat passengers and a species that was reportedly the area's biggest freshwater predator.
The filming for each episode took about two-and-a-half weeks, as Wade and his crew had to cover the background stories and actually catch the specimens.
'It is important to catch the fish to inspire people to educate themselves on the living creatures in the rivers and to coexist with them. But it is more important to get them back to their habitat alive,' Wade said.
'There [are] not many of them in the habitat and it must have taken a long time for them to grow that big,' he said, adding that, during filming, the only fish to have died after being removed from the water for filming purposes was a goliath tigerfish.
As most of the rivers Wade explores are located in the jungle, he comes face-to-face with danger far greater than just a bite from the powerful jaw of a stingray or being stabbed by a gigantic catfish.
Wade has caught malaria, been arrested on allegations of spying, nearly drowned, survived a plane crash, been on the wrong end of a gun and had an encounter with a bear that stole his catch.
Wade revealed that they had just finished filming the first episode for Season 7 in a Southeast Asian country, but he was not sure whether he would create another season of the series.
'Unfortunately, the number of interesting fish to catch is not a very long list. If the series is not going to be continued, I want to write again,' he said.
Born Jeremy John Wade on March 23, 1956, in rural Suffolk in the UK, he cast his first line 'at the age of seven or eight' with a plastic rod his parents bought him as a gift.
He initially decided early that fishing, with its wet weather and long waits, didn't make sense to him.
'Nobody taught me how to fish. Nobody in my family fishes. But a school friend, whose grandfather was an angler, lent me ['¦] better equipment and told me what to do with it.
'As soon as I caught my first fish, my curiosity [was] awakened. I wanted to catch more fish, I wanted to catch bigger fish, I wanted to go to different places and see what was there,' said Wade, who has a degree in zoology from Bristol University and a postgraduate teaching certificate in biological sciences from the University of Kent.
He went to India, Africa and South America and coauthored Somewhere Down the Crazy River with Paul Boote in 1992, a classic of angling literature.
In 1994, he took a picture of a creature in an Amazon lake that shocked scientists. He was sent out by the BBC Natural History Unit the following year and filmed the creature after a five-week stakeout.
His first television series, Jungle Hooks, became one of the most viewed programs since its premiere in 2002. He has also written natural history articles and his latest book, River Monsters: True Stories of the Ones that Didn't Get Away, was published in 2011.
When not traveling, Wade stays at his home in Somerset, where he sometimes teaches his two nephews to fish.
'I don't have my own family. But there are a lot of young viewers [who] are actually taking up fishing,' he said.
