Fishing Impossible s01e02 Episode Script

BLOWFISH: This is Fishing Impossible.
We're three fishy fanatics on an epic adventure.
We're heading to some of the world's most extreme destinations to catch the most extraordinary fish.
But the creatures we're after don't make it easy so we'll need to go to incredible lengths to catch the uncatchable.
This is Jay.
He's obsessed with free-diving and spear-fishing, and he's as tough as a nut.
Of course I am, I'm the Cornish man! This is Charlie, the level-headed one.
Level-headed that is, until he gets a big bite! (LAUGHS) Lashing down, man.
We're attached to something absolutely ginormous.
And I'm the Blowfish, a marine biologist.
This is a vermilion rock cod.
I like to catch fish with my bare hands.
Blimey, he's huge! Look at that.
(LAUGHS) We're in the Bahamas, a chain of tropical islands on the edge of the Caribbean.
A fishing adventure land and, it would seem, a paradise on Earth.
But don't be fooled, its pitch-perfect exterior is hiding a dark secret.
Underneath the turquoise seas, there's a war going on.
An invader from the east is wreaking havoc, decimating the island eco-system, and in turn, the local economy - the lionfish.
So, we're going to hunt for these elusive predators that hide among the coral in shark-infested waters.
Charlie and Jay are going to need all their hunting skills There is a shark down there, I've seen it.
and courage.
Down there, just near the reef.
See it? And I'm going to try and actually recruit the sharks to fight on our side, in our attempt to hunt down this elusive predator.
This is incredible.
There are sharks everywhere.
They are so close, man, they are flying right by me.
To help us out on the first part of our mission, we've drafted in reinforcements.
My mate Jules is a Hollywood actor and he's an experienced sea fisherman.
Beautiful, guys.
It looks absolutely stunning up here, you could even say it's heaven.
But down there, down in the oceans, it's all gone to hell, big-time.
It's getting decimated.
Why? This chap called the lionfish.
They're not supposed to be here and they've not popped in on a tourist visa.
These guys have moved in seriously.
Now, once one of these dudes has made it onto a reef, they can remove half of all the species in just a single year.
Right now the only way to catch them is one by one with a spear.
And to make matters worse, they're highly venomous.
They've got a row of spines down the back, a row of spines underneath.
OK? You get hit by one of these spines, you're in a lot of trouble.
It's gonna give you some serious pain, you won't be able to think straight.
So you can't touch them.
Oh, my God.
You didn't think it was going to be easy? You didn't think I was gonna bring you on a holiday? This is a war, dudes.
Yeah.
We've got to save these reefs.
I'm gonna start right now.
(LAUGHING) Legend.
Absolute legend.
(LAUGHS) Boys, smoke me a kipper.
I'll be back with a lionfish.
Native to the Indo-Pacific region, no-one knows for sure how they ended up here, but it's estimated there could be as many as 50 million lionfish in the Bahamas alone.
Time to get going.
This is the spot, Jules.
Jules and I are going to start by testing a theory of mine which would allow nature to solve the problem by itself.
In the Indian Ocean, lionfish are kept in check by sharks, but here in the Caribbean, these apex predators just don't yet recognise them as food.
So, if the local sharks won't go after the lionfish, I'm gonna dive down and take the lionfish to them.
Look at that.
They're not a bad size either, are they? No, there's some pretty big ones down there.
These sharks will bite, so I'll be wearing a special chain-mail suit.
After almost no deliberation, Jules volunteers to man the radio.
Looking good, mate.
Yeah? Yeah.
I'm not sure about the crotch area.
You don't think this will be next season's style, do you? The crotch-less chain-mail pants.
No.
No.
We've got some lionfish to offer the sharks, but will they take them? My theory to all of this, OK, is that if we can get sharks preferentially choosing lionfish as a prey source, we can save this whole region.
With a quick modification to the helmet, I'm ready to go.
Stay alive.
I've dived with sharks before, but never experienced anything like this.
There are sharks swarming around us straight away, all big enough to do some serious damage.
LIZ: We've got the Caribbean reef sharks and we've got some nurse sharks, two different baby nurse sharks.
This is incredible.
There are sharks everywhere! They are so close, man, they are flying right by me.
While he's in the Caribbean, Charlie just can't resist the opportunity of a lifetime.
Today, I'm fishing for a fish that up until a few years ago was thought completely uncatchable by rod and line.
He's after one of fishing's ultimate prizes - the bonefish.
For him, this is a fishing nirvana, and expert "Bonefish" Stevie is his spiritual guide.
Yeah, it looks absolutely STEVIE: .
.
and let's see if they like what we got.
Bonefish are considered one of the greatest thrills in fishing.
They aren't big but they are lightning-quick and put up a serious fight.
I can't believe how difficult these fish are to see.
What's that there? This is tricky fishing.
Charlie needs to spot the fish, then cast right on top of it.
You got him, Charlie, there you go.
He says as he hooks Whoa.
This is a big one.
Ah, boy.
I was just about Ahhh! 15 metres down on the seafloor, I'm ready to tempt these sharks with a tasty bit of lionfish.
One swims past you and you just get a you just get this idea of, well, I think what they might turn us into.
The question is, will they take a lionfish? Right, I've got my first bit of bait on and I'm looking for my first shark.
Come on, boys, who's hungry? Just looking for a likely candidate Oi.
Oh, dear.
Right in the chops.
Ah.
Come on.
That was a good feed.
We had a good positive response to a lionfish there.
Yes, yes, yes.
Fantastic.
So you had one take the lionfish? Yes, mate, that was a lionfish.
Oh, brilliant.
Absolutely brilliant.
Right, we're going for round two.
I even got a little nip on my hand for good measure then.
Nice and slow.
Whoa! (LAUGHS) Coming in over the shoulder.
Oh, it's a shark love-in.
Just stick to the shark diving.
Oh! Ah, oh! Calm down, girls.
Oh! Just got one right in the head then.
Oh, and a nurse shark just had that one.
Watch them nurses, they're vicious, mate.
This is a success here, Jules.
One of my initial worries was that the venomous spines might cause the sharks problems.
There have been hammerheads caught with up to 20 or 30 stings still lodged in their mouth.
So perhaps sharks have some natural immunity to the venom, or maybe they're just so hard they just don't care.
That's not bad.
LIZ: Amazing.
That was amazing.
Little mini-high-five underwater.
This experiment has really worked, but we need to come up with a more immediate solution.
Well done, man, come on up.
I don't want to.
I wanna stay down here.
All right.
Just off a nearby island and Charlie has had a frustrating morning in his quest to catch an elusive bonefish.
After two hours of casting, he's still struggling to get it right.
STEVIE: Uh you'll get it.
You got it.
There you go, Charlie.
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Play it off the reel, yeah? Yeah, claim it and then give me the reel.
Man, this thing's fighting well, huh? I see what they mean, this is meant to be pound-for-pound, one of the hardest fighting fish in the world.
And that is a little one.
It's only a little one.
Look at that.
I cannot believe that a fish that size has just put up that much of a fight.
Come here, come here.
Actually give me something to be proud of for once.
Look at that.
Yes! This is just a little baby bonefish.
These can actually grow up to over ten kilos in size.
Look at him.
Now you can see why they're so hard to catch.
I've been struggling to spot these on the bottom, it's only been Stevie at the back there But the colouration on the back of the fish here basically, that is just sand.
And you can see why they're so powerful, look, that beautiful, long, powerful tail there.
Good going.
Good release.
Give me some skin.
You have no idea! Yes, man.
I've been trying to catch one of them well, I've been hoping to catch one of them my whole life.
While Charlie's bonefish adventure has been a great success, it's a lot of effort.
And I don't think rod and line will be the solution to this lionfish problem.
BLOWFISH: We're in the Bahamas and on a mission to try and tackle a problem with the invasive lionfish.
It's the local fishermen who know the lionfish problem best.
So, we're heading to the remote Long Island, 350km from Nassau, to get some tips for our final challenge.
Charles has made his living catching lobsters here since he was a boy.
One thing we're all nervous about is the lionfish's venom.
What we hear next doesn't fill us with confidence.
I mean, we've heard about the sting.
How bad is it? You feel fatigued, like you're dizzy, like your eyes are gonna roll back.
You feel like you wanna vomit.
You try to walk, you're gonna fall.
That's how it feels.
And this is all from just one From one, just a little prick of it.
We head out with Charles to see just how badly the fishermen are being affected by the lionfish.
In this area he's set up around 20 lobster traps, known locally as condos.
They're pretty big those condos, aren't they? They are big, yeah.
These condos provide lobsters with a place to hide.
Fishermen check them every few days.
Because lionfish eat juvenile lobsters, large adults are becoming extremely rare.
That only makes my kind of passion for this lionfish hunt even stronger when I'm seeing guys doing this, this is their livelihood.
They've got kids at home and this is serious stuff.
Today, the condos have only yielded two lobsters.
Welcome back up.
How much is that worth to you then, Charles? This'll make $24.
$24? Yes.
How many different condos have we been to? Plenty.
Enough.
Mm.
And two lobsters? Wow.
This really hits home, actually.
You think, ten years ago, the big lobster he was pulling up, he'd pull five, six, seven of them up per condo.
Most fishermen won't catch lionfish.
They're afraid of the venomous spines.
Charles is one of the few who will.
Many locals are also under the mistaken impression that the fish is poisonous to eat.
So the fishermen struggle to sell the lionfish even if they do catch them.
That gives me an idea.
To show the fishermen that lionfish are safe to catch, and to show the locals that they're good to eat, we're going to arrange a beach party at the end of our final day in the Bahamas.
We'll cook the fish we've caught and let everyone try some.
Now all we need to do is work out how to catch enough to feed everyone who turns up.
So, rod and lines might not be the answer, but, Jay, what do you reckon? I think spear fishing is gonna be the answer cos the lionfish are hiding deep in the reef.
So, if your rod and line's not gonna work, Charlie, do you fancy joining me with a speargun? (EXHALES) Yeah.
It's the way to go, mate.
I'm telling you now.
I'll admit defeat on that one.
Are you gonna show me what to do? Absolutely, mate, all the way.
I'm gonna have to I'm gonna have to come up with something special.
Today is the big day.
I'm leaving Charlie and Jay with their spears and heading off solo with an experiment of my own.
Right then, the whole trip's come down to this.
The beach party is in a few hours' time and the locals are expecting a feast.
I've turned to a tool used by marine biologists which could help people catch lionfish without having to touch their venomous spines.
Right, now what I've got here is my super lionfish underwater removal pipe, or as I like to call it, the slurp gun.
By pulling back hard on here the gun fires as the suction pulls the lionfish in.
With my slurp gun and my scuba tanks, I've got to have an edge on them.
Further south, Jay and Charlie are moving into position.
I feel like I'm going into battle.
We are going into battle today, Charlie, we're battling against the lionfish.
I'm nervous, actually.
Never done this before, Jay, you know that.
Loop that rubber band in-between your hand like that, and as you move that up, you're increasing the power.
So, hold the whole spear out, straight arm and then release.
Right.
These gloves are Kevlar-coated, so there's no chance of you getting stung.
Right.
These are specially designed bags purposely for the lionfish.
It's a lot to take in.
I think, genuinely, it's gonna be quite tough, and I don't want to fail, either.
I'm kitted up, slurp gun locked and loaded, and I'm ready to dive.
It's time to bag my first lionfish for the party.
This is proving more difficult than I thought.
I just can't get them.
They're up in the rocks or in the crevices, the slurp gun's large and I can't get it up in there.
Ugh! I'm determined to get one, though.
Jay and Charlie are ready to make their first attack.
Jay steps up first but it's a miss.
He doesn't fail twice.
Yeah, boys.
Yeah! (LAUGHS) With a lionfish in the bag, Charlie follows Jay's lead.
Yes! Yes, Charlie.
Well done, first shot.
Whoo.
Their hard work pays off.
Whoo! But their success is short-lived.
This hit attracts some unwanted attention.
It's the one thing they were both afraid of.
There is a shark down there, I've seen it.
Where? Down there, just near the reef.
See it? A shark's sense of smell is so acute it can detect a single drop of blood in an Olympic-size swimming pool.
I need to put this in the bag.
I can't get it open, man.
Charlie, honestly, mate, you gotta be quick, bro.
All right, let's get out of here quick.
Laters.
It's not nice, man, that water's really deep.
On board, captain.
The guys head back to the safety of the shallow reefs.
But the constant diving is taking its toll, and Jay and Charlie are finding it hard to rediscover their early form, and the beach party is getting closer and closer.
It is a serious, serious physical challenge.
I am exhausted.
I think I'm pretty fit, generally, but diving down there.
Equalising the pressure from your nose, finding a fish underneath that coral head and then spearing it is seriously, seriously tough.
So respect to anyone that does this.
All right, I need to get this back up, mate.
Honestly, my legs are absolutely hanging right now.
It's hard work, huh? Look at that.
Oh! That took some work, didn't it? Very hard work.
The back of my legs were cramping so tight out there.
I was useless out there.
Legend.
Hard work, isn't it? That is hard work.
This is the downside of spear-fishing.
It's physically demanding, and that limits the number of dives the boys can do.
This is where my plan should prevail, if I can just get the slurp gun working.
I think one of the problems is as the gate comes down, it's actually filling up quite a big area.
I need to get closer, so I'm gonna remove the gate.
That's gonna allow me to slurp up closer to the rocks.
OK, technically, now what I've got here is my sawn-off slurp gun.
I've enlisted the help of my dive buddy.
This should turn things around for me.
It's time to slurp.
Go up to him nice and slowly.
Nearly.
Steady.
Oh.
Get in, boy.
The lionfish that we're hunting have gone to ground.
Oh, I can't believe I'm all the way out here doing all of this and I'm not gonna catch a lionfish.
They'll be waiting for us to leave and then they'll come out and keep feeding.
And once they've smashed this little reef, they'll move onto the next one.
I don't like it but I know when I'm beaten.
Yeah, OK, let's go up.
But Jay and Charlie aren't willing to throw in the towel just yet.
That was a hard-core shot.
That was an amazing shot, mate.
With their 11th and 12th fish in the bag, they finally call it a day.
Yeah, boy! Whoa.
The sun is getting lower on the horizon, crowds are gathering for our beach party.
Have we done enough? Mate, here he comes, Jay boy.
What's in the bucket, boys? I'll show you what's in the bucket.
Oh! Yes! El zilcho.
You know, it wasn't the right kind of water, it wasn't the right kind of rock, it wasn't the right kind of lionfish.
We've heard this before.
You said you wanted to be like a fisherman, you're sounding like one, you really, really are.
Wrong weather system, wrong temperature, wrong pressure.
Well, that's why it's called fishing and not catching.
Well, we were catching today.
Oh, boys.
There you go.
There you are, I would tip that on the beach, but I think it'd make a bit of a mess.
Jay and Charlie have done us proud and we've got lionfish to offer up at the beach party.
Charlie's on chef duty, gently barbecuing the fish with some garlic, chillies, olive oil and fresh herbs.
Pretty soon, we'll be ready to see how the lionfish goes down with the locals.
Oh, these are looking good, Charles, mate.
Wow, it's good.
Our lionfish fillets are definitely tasty, and everyone's enjoying them.
Now it's over to the locals to start catching and cooking the pesky lionfish, and literally start to eat away at the problem.