Destination Truth (2007) s05e05 Episode Script
Spirits of Tikal;Creature from the Black Lagoon
- On this episode of "Destination Truth".
.
Deep in the jungles of Central America, I investigate the reportedly haunted remains of the Mayan city of Tikal.
In one of the world's most spectacular ruins, will my team come face to face with ghosts of sacrificial victims? Hello? - Oh, my God.
- It's close.
It is (Bleep) Close.
Next, in the South Pacific, I go fishing for a terrifying sea creature.
We just picked up something big on the sonar.
Looks like it's coming your way.
And comes face to face with a real world killer.
Whoa! Villagers in Fiji claim the beast is real.
And once the sun goes down, my team wades into potentially deadly waters.
Oh, my God! What the (Bleep) Was that? Hold on! I'm Josh Gates.
In my travels, I've seen some unexplainable things, and I've done some things I can't quite explain.
Now, I've pulled together a team armed with the latest technology in the search for answers to the world's strangest mysteries.
I'm not sure what's out there waiting for me, but I know what I'm looking for.
.
The truth.
Deep in the jungles of Guatemala are the ruins of one of the largest ancient cities in the world.
.
Tikal.
Once the crown jewel of the Mayan kingdom, it now sits in ruins, and is rumored to be one of the most haunted places in all of Central America.
At its height, the city boasted a population of more than 100,000 people scattered amidst thousands of structures.
Unimaginable human sacrifice was common in Tikal, part of the Mayan blood rituals to appease temperamental Gods.
1,200 years ago, the entire city was mysteriously abandoned.
Modern archaeologists claim to have heard disembodied voices at the site, and former guards recount physical confrontations with angry spirits.
Could these be the ghosts of the thousands of victims that were murdered at Tikal? Or the spirits of warriors who died in battle? The Mayans also perfected a complex 5,125-year calendar which grinds to a halt in 2012.
Many prophesize cataclysmic events associated with the end of the calendar, and the supernatural energy of Tikal is rumored to be sharply on the rise.
to investigate this Mayan mystery.
From Los Angeles it was a 2,200 mile flight to the Central American country of Belize.
We breezed through customs in Belize City, hopped into our 4x4, and immediately noticed a national obsession with driver awareness.
Okay, everybody, keep an eye out for snakes.
Watch out, guys, turkeys.
Oh, guys, keep an eye out for whatever that thing is.
And jaguars.
That's the only one that really deserves a sign, I think.
There are hundreds of Mayan sites scattered throughout the jungles of Central America, and before we set off for the biggest one of all, Tikal, we first set our sights on the ruins of Lamanai, located in Northern Belize.
There's a guy that's turned up in our research, used to work at Tikal.
He claims to have firsthand experiences with the ghosts there.
Lamanai is the only Mayan city not fully reachable by road.
After driving 100 miles we hit the end of the line and turned in our wheels for a luxury watercraft.
This is going to be a long boat ride.
Josh, you need a hand? Maybe some muscle back there? Appreciate it.
I got it.
Thank you.
With our engine finally cranking, we were on our way.
All right, guys, the ruins are about 25 miles up the river.
There's crocs in the water, too, so keep your hands and feet in, everybody.
It is very hard to find the truth with hooks for hands.
Here we go! Before long, we reached Lamanai and brought the boat into a dock.
We then hiked inland to the ancient city and its breathtaking pyramids.
It was there that we found Amir Reyes, who worked at the ruins of Tikal and vowed never to return.
Tell me about these stories.
.
About these ghost stories.
To meet this venerated Shaman, we'd need to cover some serious ground.
To begin with, we'd have to take the boat back along the new river and then drive 70 miles to the edge of Guatemala.
From there we'd bank South 150 miles to the village of Candelaria where he practiced.
But first we'd have to get into the country.
All right, let's do this.
Everybody act cool.
I got a couple unpaid parking tickets in Guatemala.
Oh, this should be easy.
With the customs office closing for the weekend, the race to cross the border was on.
Did we make it? We're so close! Please? Cut that one a little close.
In the morning we found ourselves in a new nation headed toward the small town of Candelaria.
This village has a huge cave where we were told we could find the Shaman who allegedly has the power to invoked the spirits of Tikal.
Alright, we should be getting close to these caves where this Mayan Shaman practices.
We're going to have to pull off to the side of the road and hike in from there.
We ditched our truck and hiked our way to the entrance.
This is it.
Here's the cave.
Look at this place.
Unbelievable.
Careful, it gets dark down here.
Hello! Looks like it's opening up.
Guys, here he is.
The Shaman agreed to share his knowledge of the Mayan spirits of Tikal and Katy stepped in to translate.
Tata Pedro, do you think that Tikal has a strong spiritual energy? He said these buildings aren't ruins.
They're sacred temples that have the energy of the Mayan ancestors.
Where are the places that I should go that have the most energy? The spiritual energy is most abundant around the seven temples.
He does believe you can see spirits in Tikal.
After interviewing the Shaman and taking part in a ceremony to protect us from the dark spirits of Tikal, we got back into our truck and headed North.
Our next stop is to meet an eyewitness who claims he was actually attacked by a paranormal force in Tikal.
The man lived in the nearby Mayan settlement of Flores, where he ran a small antiquities museum, and oddly, a local radio station.
Never one to pass up an opportunity, Ryder and I kicked off our new morning drive-time show.
Good morning, Guatemala! You're listening to morning zoo.
I'm White Jaguar bringing you the greatest hits on Earth until the end of the world.
Today's segment brought to you by "Crazy Juans Used Cars".
.
Ah-ooga! He's sacrificing prices, but never quality.
Countdown to 2012 continues right after this.
And that is why they call me Senior Seacrest in Guatemala.
Next door, Oscar Acosta told us about his physical paranormal encounter in Tikal.
So he was at Tikal excavating the site at the time, moving bodies, and suddenly he felt hands grabbing his legs and pulling him away almost 40 meters.
No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't hold on to anything.
He kept being pulled by this supernatural force.
The name "Tikal" itself means "place of voices" or "place of spirits".
Having heard his frightening tale, we set off from Flores for an hour drive to the edge of the ancient Mayan city.
We unloaded the car, pressed through the jungles, and finally emerged at the wondrous ruins of Tikal.
The majesty of the site can barely be expressed in words.
The size and scope of the ruins were simply awe-inspiring, and as the sun set we began our daunting task.
The site covers 23 square miles and contains over 3,000 structures.
However, we focused our search at the epicenter of the paranormal reports.
We installed IR cameras facing the sprawling North Acropolis, the Massacre Temple, and at the 150-foot tall Temple One, notorious for supernatural activity.
We established base camp in the middle of it all in Tikal's great Plaza.
This is Temple One.
- Shows up pretty warm on the FLIR.
- Yeah.
Blocks are probably holding the heat from the day.
Looks like a passageway around the back.
You know you come to places like this at night, no electricity, there's no people here.
.
This is exactly what it would have looked like to people that lived here.
Wow, look at this thing.
It is massive.
A lot of the eyewitnesses and experts say that the energy flows from inside these buildings all the way to the top, so if we're going to feel something, we should try to figure out a way to get up in there.
Oh, hope you're ready for a Mayan workout.
At least you don't have to worry about a gym membership.
This thing's huge.
All right.
.
Voice recorder's running.
We've got the meter out just in case we get any strange EMF spikes.
Can you give us any sign that would let us know that you're here? What was that? Can you give us any sign that would let us know that you're here? What was that? It came from right over in that corner.
What was that? Was that you? Can you give us another sign? Did it really? Yeah, can you hear this? Oh, my gosh, what does that mean? You know, our cameras, and even we, are picking up some strange energy up here.
Why don't we leave the voice recorder running, do another quick sweep around this top floor and maybe head off to one of the other structures.
- Sounds like a plan.
- Okay.
This is amazing.
Look at these ruins.
The thermal imager is acting up.
What are you seeing? It's freezing.
Could be the humidity maybe, but it usually.
.
Usually it's pretty bullet proof.
- Right now? - Yeah, it's like strobing.
That's weird that both of these things are malfunctioning at the same time and they're totally unrelated.
Not drawing off the same power source, running on totally separate electronics.
Okay, that's weird.
Let's take a little cruise around this Acropolis.
I'm back, too.
I've been shooting for ten years, I've never seen that happen to a camera.
Okay, so.
.
Things are weird in the Acropolis.
Let's have a look around.
It feels like something's playing around with the cameras a little bit.
I'm gonna look at this main building.
Whoa! What was that? - You hear that? - Yeah.
I just heard something right in there.
.
Like a low rumbling sound.
Be very careful.
Could be an animal.
My heart is racing right now.
It's in there.
Come on.
Careful, careful! Stop, stop, stop! Holy (Bleep).
Huge drop.
Let me see if I can get anything on the thermal.
It.
.
It sounds like a moaning or a crying.
It's really deep.
- Hey Josh? - Yeah.
- You see that? - No.
The base of the pyramid just lit up.
That's pyramid four.
That's the tallest pyramid at the site.
- You saw light over there? - Mm-hum.
Yeah.
The base of the pyramid lit up and then went away, like a burst of light.
Ryder's team is nowhere near that temple.
It's not them.
Those noises are coming from over there as well.
Let's get through this jungle we can get over to that pyramid.
So this is the North Acropolis.
They say.
.
That there's over 100 structures in this one building alone.
What? Right down here.
What the (Bleep) Is that? - What? - Right over there? What do you see? I just saw like a white spot walk across there.
Was it a shadow or.
.
It was, just right in that little view right there.
Well let's go check this out.
Right through here.
I just got the chills.
I just got the chills.
I mean it's warm.
It's absolutely warm.
It's like we're standing on one big tomb.
It's amazing how spread out each of the complexes are.
I mean you really have to get through the jungle to get in between any two locations here.
God, look at it.
The whole back side of it's un-excavated.
It looks like a mountain.
Something's moving.
Back up, back up, back up.
Whatever it is, I don't see it.
Do you see any movement out there? - No.
- No.
They're rocks.
(Bleep) Rocks are coming out of the (Bleep) Sky.
- There it is.
- It's a monkey.
You can see it.
Let's get around the front of this temple before we get knocked unconscious.
Come on.
We should be coming up on.
.
Some more of the structures.
.
Through here.
- What did you hear? - Did you guys hear that? Yeah, I heard that.
A lot of rustling, that's for sure.
I just heard like a cry, right behind us.
Hello? Something's here.
.
But I don't see anything.
Now I'm not hearing anything but for the beating of my heart because it's so loud out right now.
Where (Bleep) Is that? Whoa.
Whoa.
Alright let's back away a little bit.
It sounds like a very big animal.
Yeah, I agree.
Ryder for Tristan.
Go ahead, Ryder.
We're pretty deep in the jungle right now.
Uh, we've heard a lot of really strange noises.
Unfortunately, it looks like we just stumbled on some sort of a large animal's habitat.
- Oh my God.
- It is close.
It is (Bleep) Close.
Looks like we just stumbled on some sort of a large animal's habitat.
- Oh my God.
- It is close.
It is (Bleep) Close.
Tristan to Ryder.
You okay? It's coming toward us.
Whatever it is is coming toward us.
- Watch your back.
- Get out of there.
Get out of there and come back to base camp.
Ryder, are you there? Ryder, come in.
Copy, we're here.
We're trying to take a further vantage point so we can collect ourselves a little bit.
Okay, copy that.
Stay safe.
Let me know.
You know, safety's the main concern and I don't think we can investigate any further safely through here.
So let's get out of here.
I couldn't agree more.
God, it's huge.
Oh man.
The front staircase is damaged.
It doesn't go all the way up.
That's exactly where I saw the light, from that black hole up there.
Yeah right up in here, right? Let's see if we can go all the way to the top.
It will give us the best view over the site.
Oh, great.
.
The scariest ladder in the world.
Okay.
Here we go.
This is crazy.
This is crazy.
Slow moves.
Oh, my God.
Guys, we're about 150 feet up here.
Be very careful.
Kyle, this is where that light was.
I mean, now that we're up here, there's clearly nothing up here that could have made that light.
I don't even know what to say.
It was right here.
Now I see nothing.
Oh Josh, Josh, Josh.
.
I can hear like a breathing sound.
Be very careful.
Let's go check it out.
Oh, I hear it.
I hear it.
- I hear it.
I hear it.
- It's coming from here.
Look at that.
Yeah, it's definitely coming from there.
It's weird.
It sounds like the building's talking.
That might explain what some of the people are hearing.
They say they hear voices coming from these pyramids.
It may just be wind whistling through them.
It's alive.
This building is alive.
Oh scorpion.
Careful, careful.
You've got no room on the right.
Yeah, let's get the (Bleep) Out of here you guys.
Come on.
It's a (Bleep) Death trap up here.
We continued to search the overgrown pyramids until the sun broke up through the rainforest.
We hiked back to the great Plaza, packed up our supplies, and jetted home to conclude our investigation.
Back at our HQ, Ryder and I pored over hundreds of hours of recordings for paranormal evidence.
So one of the things that we've heard is that there's a great energy at Tikal.
A lot of people do believe that paranormal energy can effect electronics.
Uh you know if that's the case, this place is haunted out of the gate, because our cameras just weren't working right.
The thermal imager is acting up.
It's not just power outages.
It's not just losing power.
The power is being sapped.
It's actually something's taking over the cameras, which is really incredible.
When the equipment was working though, it picked up some really weird stuff.
Whoa.
What was that? - You hear that? - Yeah.
And look, there's a lot of animals out there.
I think one of the things we have to keep in mind is the amount of biodiversity in this region.
But even if that is an animal, we chased down that noise.
And check out what we found on the other side.
Look at this.
- Hey Josh? - Yeah.
- You see that? - No.
Base of the pyramid just lit up.
You know that's pretty far from where we're standing and it's pretty high up off the ground.
We know it's not your team.
We're in a completely different area.
This is on the other side of the complex.
It looks like something in the temple is illuminated.
Along with our intense personal experiences, our EVP recordings also yielded up unsettling results.
We did a number of EVP sessions throughout the night.
We got some good results when we amplified the recordings, but this it the one I want to play for you.
Listen to this.
Is that you? Can you give us another sign? Wow.
- You hear that? - Yeah.
We're trying to find different things that it might have been.
It almost sounds like it says "fuera".
.
Which is Spanish for "go away".
You know of course, the site predates the conquistadors, but it could be from later in history or.
.
It could be some sort of Mayan word that we don't know.
And this is a response to a direct question that I asked.
Look I don't think you can discount that a lot of the things that you're hearing in Tikal are the sounds of the jungle.
There are animal everywhere.
But some of these visual encounters, these lights that we saw over the site, you know I don't have an explanation for those things.
I think something strange is going on there, and it's something that we, at this point can't identify.
The Mayan empire has long receded into history, and is today guarded by croc-infested rivers and overgrown with clinging vines.
The ruins that remain are the last calling card of a once mighty civilization.
But amidst these crumbling blocks, there is also a lingering presence that's hard to shake.
Is it the wind.
.
It's weird.
It sounds like the building is talking.
Or a predatory growl? Where the (Bleep) Is that? Or is it an echo? The long ago sounds and illuminating energy of tortured souls bouncing off the high pyramids? In the mid 1800s, infamous showman PT Barnum thrilled circus goers with the doctored remains of a horrifying sea monster he called the Fiji Mermaid.
Now, a century and a half later, it appears a real-life version of this nightmarish creature may have emerged from the depths of The Pacific ocean to terrorize a tranquil island population.
The creature is believed to have come from the inky depths of the South Pacific ocean, but recent sightings have taken place in the usually peaceful shallows of Fiji's coastal mangrove swamps.
It has a diamond-shaped head and rows of razor-sharp teeth, ideal for locking down on its prey and ripping through flesh.
The skin is covered in heavy angular scales, creating a virtual suit of armor.
It surges through the water using two powerful pectoral fins and its body and tail are strong enough that the beast can thrust itself forward at terrifying speeds.
Fiji's army was even called in to investigate and local villagers are now on high alert after recent close calls.
So we packed up our traveling caravan and headed to Fiji in search of the beast.
We boarded a plane in Los Angeles and traversed The Pacific, flying 5,500 miles to the city of Suva on Fiji's main island of Viti Levu.
Once in baggage claim, we patiently waited for our gear to get unloaded.
This is like the baggage belt to nowhere.
That is Amelia Earhart's suitcase.
That has been on there for uh, 75 years.
Once our luggage finally appeared, we marched out of the airport and embarked on the next leg of our journey.
All right, everybody, welcome to Fiji.
We need to get to the other island of Vanua Levu.
So the easiest way to get there right now, actually, is for us to take a ferry.
So we're gonna head down to the docks and sail on over.
- Sounds nice.
- Yeah, it's not.
Once on board, you couldn't help but notice the less-than-luxurious accommodations.
This boat's in great shape.
It might be her maiden voyage.
When we finally reached the long passenger cabin, I had the team draw straws to determine which two members would get the only bed.
Richie lucked out.
.
And so did I.
- Aw! - Long.
The rest of the team found places to crash on various uncomfortable corners of the ferry while Richie and I enjoyed our cushy digs.
The boat spent the night crossing the churning seas of the South Pacific, carrying us 150 miles to the port town of Savusavu.
Like all of Fiji, the island of Vanua Levu is a volcanic wonderland, in some places still hissing and boiling from deep ocean tectonic vents.
We immediately picked up a car, crossed the island.
And made our way to a marine research facility to meet with a Professor who has investigated the reports of this unexplained beast.
- You've heard of this story, yeah? - Yes.
And what do you make of it? Well, I'd have to say that I really don't know what to make of it, because the real experts are the Fijians themselves.
So, when a woman goes out and says there's something new that she had seen, I really am very curious myself as to what that could possibly be.
Do you think it's likely that there are new species still to be discovered here? Without a doubt.
There are many, many new species to be discovered.
The fact of the matter is much of the area around Fiji is unexplored.
The interview fueled my excitement to talk with the locals, and we immediately sought out a fisherman who said he had encountered an unknown sea creature just days earlier.
Tell me about your experience.
What happened here? The Fisherman's tale was not unique.
Dozens of sightings of the animal had been documented in the past year along the coast of the island.
I decided it was time for us to head to the beach and investigate the surrounding waters for ourselves.
To cover the greatest possible area, we broke into three teams.
Tristant and Richie would survey the saltwater mangrove rivers on foot.
Ryder, Katy and Dave would take a boat on a sweep of the shallow ocean reefs beyond the mangroves.
And Kyle, Adam and I would search both areas from above in a helicopter.
Here we go.
Okay Ryder, we're headed over into these mangrove swamps.
Uh, starting a scan with a thermal imager now.
So far, no sign of anything.
Copy that, Josh.
Closing in on the mangrove swamps now.
We scanned the waters around the island for more than an hour when Ryder and Katy suddenly got a hit.
Whoa, whoa, whoa! Look at that! Right off the port side of the boat.
Dave, did you get a glimpse of that? A black shape just flew right by the side of the boat.
Josh, Katy and I just saw something.
.
A dark shape swam right by the side of the boat.
Copy that.
I'm scanning for it right now.
All right, let's get the Aquacam in and try to get eyes under water.
I don't have anything right next to the boat.
I'm looking a little farther out.
Hold on, we're just widening our search a little.
Right there, Josh! Right there! Got it, got it! We got it on thermal.
Something big just came to the surface on the thermal.
Coming around again to see if we can see it.
Josh, it must have come up on your side, because I got no visual.
Ryder, I don't see it.
We're coming around again.
Stand by.
Looks like a one-time shot.
Came to the surface and it's gone back down.
Copy that, Josh.
We'll meet you back at the dock.
Both Ryder and I tagged the location of her sighting on GPS in about 60 feet of water.
We quickly landed the helicopter and the entire team rendezvoused back at the dock as we raced to get a closer look at the area.
Alright let's get out to the spot where we saw that thermal hit.
We'll strap the tanks on.
We'll get down.
We suited up, strapped on our tanks and splashed into the water on the edge of a reef that surrounds the island.
This barrier separates the deep ocean from the island's beaches.
How's the visibility?.
.
That's a good plan, we'll uh, deploy the ROV and uh, we'll get your back.
Ryder for Josh.
Hey, Josh, we just picked up something big on the sonar.
Looks like it's under the boat.
Might be coming your way.
Hey, Josh, we just picked up something big on the sonar.
.
Looks like it's under the boat.
Might be coming your way.
They just saw a bull shark down there.
Yeah, I'm seeing a few on the video ray as well.
- How close are they? - They're really close, actually.
They need to get back up.
Guys, you're in a pretty vulnerable place down there.
Why don't you start surfacing right now? Pull them in, pull them in! Grab their stuff.
All right, out of the water, out of the water.
- Quick, quick, quick, quick.
- Come on.
- You guys okay? - Get out, get out.
- Oh, my God.
- All right, come on.
Big, big bull sharks down there.
Doesn't match the profile of what those people saw in the village, but still huge.
Everybody got their fingers? Fingers check? Okay, let's get back inside the reef and pick up the investigation there.
Yeah.
Our dive was a terrifying and dangerous encounter that I didn't care to repeat.
I wanted to narrow our search area and pinpoint exactly where the creature had last been seen, so we returned to the island and drove along the coast to a small fishing village along the saltwater river and mangroves where nearly all the of the recent sightings of the beast took place.
Upon arrival, we began searching for eyewitnesses.
The locals directed us to a woman who was said to be the first on the island to ever see the creature.
When you had this sighting, where were you? She was fishing.
.
Do you think that it could have been a shark? Do you think that it could have been a crocodile maybe? Next, we spoke with the village Chief, who tirelessly searched for the creature in the surrounding waters.
How are you? When you heard the story, what did you do? Despite a few close calls, his team never got a good look at the animal.
So do you think that whatever this thing was.
.
Do you think it was dangerous? Yeah.
He directed me to the exact spot where the sightings took place and even loaned us his boat for the journey.
We loaded up our gear and headed out on to the river.
The river took us along the inside of a thin peninsula and eventually led us to the edge of the open ocean.
.
The location of the sightings.
We quickly beached the boat and, with night approaching, we immediately got to work setting up base camp.
You know, these witnesses are really adamant that they saw something unknown.
We know that out in the deeper waters we've got big fish.
We know there are predators.
We've seen sharks.
Inside this reef, though, it's a lot shallower.
We've heard this thing comes up at night.
We've heard there have been a lot of sightings right after dark.
So if we see anything large surface in here, we gotta move quick.
I'm gonna head out with Dave and Katy and Adam.
We'll take the boat.
We'll head up and down the mangroves here along the coast.
And, Ryder, why don't you head up a team with Richie and Kyle and move up and down this peninsula? You guys ready to catch a sea monster? - Yeah.
- Let's do it.
Come on.
Whatever these people saw shouldn't be in water this shallow, at all.
The primary eyewitness.
.
I mean, it sounds like she almost saw like a crocodile or something, which they don't have here.
So it's a real mystery.
- Tristant for Josh.
- Go for Josh.
Hey, man, I just saw a pretty good splash, some pretty good ripples on my IR Camera #3 and it looked like something big went through the water.
Copy that.
Listen, we're gonna flip around right now and we're gonna come over and check it out.
Stand by.
Copy that.
Let me know when you're near.
All right, Tristant, we're just passing by where the camera is right now.
Water is still as glass.
I don't see anything moving out here yet.
Yeah, I think you guys might have just missed it.
No worries, we're gonna get the thermal imager up and just start scanning right up and down the mangroves here.
It might just have moved off a little bit.
Copy that.
I'll keep my eyes on the camera.
He saw something large moving here.
It may still just be hanging out right in this area, so we'll just be systematic about it.
We'll go up one bank and down the other, see if we see anything disturbing the surface.
Sound good? - Absolutely.
- Definitely.
Alright let's do it.
Come on.
You know, I think the real interesting thing is that.
.
All these eyewitnesses are, you know, local Fijian people that.
.
They know these waters better than anyone here.
And these people are too scared to actually.
.
Fish in the areas that they fished all their lives? That's pretty significant.
- What's that right there? - What do you see? I see a dark, black object moving through the water right there.
- Where? - Right there.
- You see it? - What the (Bleep) Is that? Oh, my God, guys, right up there.
I just picked up a heat signature on the thermal.
Nothing, now it's gone.
Whatever it was popped up.
.
Swam right away from us and went down.
This thing's fast, whatever it is.
Nothing on the thermal.
Oh, my God! What the (Bleep) Was that? Nothing on the thermal.
Oh, my God! What the (Bleep) Was that? Holy (Bleep)! Something just swam through my leg.
There was a fish right by your foot.
That was (Bleep) Terrifying.
But whatever we got on the thermal was bigger than a fish.
Looks like it was heading off this way, which is right directly towards that mouth of the river.
Let's cut in through this mangrove, head down to the shore there, see if we can spot it again.
Sounds great.
Did you guys hear that? Right there.
What the hell was that? Hold on, I'm gonna try and get it on my FLIR.
It sounds low.
It's down by the waterline.
Katy, can you see it? I can't catch it on my camera.
The thermal doesn't see it, either.
The mangroves are just too dense.
It's right up near the surface.
.
- You hear that? - Yeah.
It's like whatever the hell it is, it's right under us.
Keep your arms and hands inside the boat, kids.
Let's get out the Aquacam and let's get the Hydrophone out, Adam.
Let's give a listen under the water.
Something big's swimming around right near this boat.
Okay, Hydrophone's ready, Josh.
Going in.
Okay, Aquacam's going in the water.
Okay, got you clear.
Hard to make anything out.
There's a lot of soft sand down there.
I can hear something swimming down there, definitely.
I don't see it.
Ooh, ooh! I saw something.
Hold on, something just swam by.
Ooh, I got it.
I got it, I got it! Come here.
I just had it.
I just had part of the body.
I saw a tail or a part of the body.
Hold on.
- Katy, you see it? - Not seeing any movement.
There's too much silt.
I can't see it.
I think it just peeled out of here.
Adam, are you hearing it? No, I think it's moved away.
Yeah, it just silted up the whole camera.
I think it just shot off.
But I think it moved out toward the open ocean.
Let's hang with it.
Adam, keep that Hydrophone in the water.
See if it comes back toward the light.
There's so many little.
.
Nooks and crannies in these mangroves that.
.
You can see how.
.
It'd be possible for something big to hide out in here and not be found for quite some time.
A lot of the eyewitnesses who saw the creature were fishing in the mangroves right around here.
Oh, what's that? Kyle, Kyle, Kyle, right here.
- Do you see that? - Yep.
Something's there.
Something is right in the water right there.
It down in the water.
I just saw it.
I can't get it on thermal.
It looked long.
.
And.
.
And.
.
And from here it looks kind of shiny because I caught it with my light.
It just popped up.
It almost looks like it's checking us out.
What the hell is that? I'm just seeing the head of something.
.
And it's gone.
It just submerged.
- It's gone.
- You got it on film, though, right? - Yep.
- Holy (Bleep).
It was the same thing I saw before.
Proves one thing.
.
It moves from the ocean into this river.
It definitely uses this estuary.
I gotta get a hold of Josh.
Ryder for Josh.
Yeah, go for Josh.
Ryder, what's up? So, we're legitimately seeing something.
.
Big, um, you know towards the middle of this river head.
It looked like something popped its head up, went back down and swam away.
We thought we might have seen something here on our Aquacam as well, but it's been quiet for a while.
It's possible we're either seeing the same animal or that there's more than one of these things.
Let's have Tristant grab the ROV and we'll pick you up.
Sounds good.
Yeah, we definitely want the submersible camera in the water as soon as possible.
- Welcome aboard.
- Thanks.
- Everybody in? - Yep.
This is the area, right, Ryder? Yeah, right in here.
All right, Josh, we're all hooked up uh.
.
- Should we deploy? - Yeah, let's do it.
Come on.
All right, deployment the video ray.
It's pretty murky out there, Josh.
Oh, guys, I see something.
What do you see, Josh? There's something at the surface.
It's not an animal.
Is it driftwood? It's one of these old Fijian rafts.
You see it? Oh, yeah.
I see the end of it.
- What is that? - See something? Yeah, we got something out here.
What do you see? I don't know.
It's kicked up a lot of sediment.
We should get the boat over there.
I could try to get on that bamboo raft.
At least it's quiet.
That boat engine is probably gonna scare whatever the hell it is away.
Hold on, let me see if I can get over there.
Let me know if it comes back on that camera.
All right, will do.
Just be careful on that.
Guys, it's pretty stable.
Ain't nothing but dark water out here.
Do you see it moving around? No, nothing.
Let me know if you see anything on that camera.
All right, will do.
Oh, something's moving.
Guys, behind me, behind me.
What do you see? Get that ROV over here.
Something's moving behind the raft.
Coming to you, Josh.
Whoa! Something's underneath this (Bleep) Raft! Sonar's going off like crazy.
- Aah! - Whoa, be careful, Josh! Something's underneath this (Bleep) Raft! Sonar's going off like crazy.
- Aah! - Whoa, be careful, Josh! (Bleep) Josh! - Are you okay? - Pull him in, pull him in! - You guys got anything? - No.
Nothing, Josh.
All right, it must have taken off.
Let's pull the gear.
We'll try to follow it upriver.
Come on.
We continued to sweep the river, but didn't turn up any additional evidence of the creature.
With the sun coming up, we returned to base camp, packed up our gear and began the long trip back to Los Angeles where we could review our findings.
At nearby Pepperdine University, Dr.
Lee Kats discussed the possibility of such a creature existing in the first place.
Well, Fiji is interesting in that it's one of those biodiversity hotspots.
It's still fairly unexplored.
There are a lot of species of animals there, plants there, and it's very potential there are new species of fish and other vertebrates that we've not seen before.
With the potential for an unknown species, we scanned our footage, but whatever we saw on the Aquacam kicked up too much silt to be ID'd.
And the animal seen swimming past our IR Camera never breached the surface.
The FLIR hit from the helicopter was a good lead.
We got it on thermal! It's interesting in terms of its shape.
It's hard to tell how big it is.
It's very difficult to say what that is.
But it was our thermal image in the lagoon that may have cracked the case.
This is interesting because it appears to be something living.
It seems to be something that surfaces and then disappears.
It could be a marine mammal, some kind of marine reptile.
There is one possibility.
Recently they've identified an invasive iguana.
One that's not normally in Fiji.
Those are very different than the Native iguanas.
They're double or triple the size.
It has a very large head that can be kind of diamond-shaped.
They occasionally will get in the water.
If a local person saw one of these invasive iguanas, I think it would be very startling.
The Central American Green Iguana can grow to a whopping six feet long and does exhibit the same head shape and scaled body as our eyewitness reports.
With several specimens having been captured in Fiji's outlying islands, this may well be the culprit we've been looking for.
Fiji is, after all, a place that sparks the imagination.
Its misty primordial interior and seemingly bottomless seas are filled with mystery, but this lost world clearly has teeth.
The villagers here may have seen one of the island's behemoth man-eating sharks.
.
Or misidentified an outside species and cried monster.
Either way, we close the case, confident that whatever we saw from above.
.
Right there, Josh! Right there! And from below is probably not a monster at all.
And that the Fijians can relax - and get back to enjoying paradise.
.
Deep in the jungles of Central America, I investigate the reportedly haunted remains of the Mayan city of Tikal.
In one of the world's most spectacular ruins, will my team come face to face with ghosts of sacrificial victims? Hello? - Oh, my God.
- It's close.
It is (Bleep) Close.
Next, in the South Pacific, I go fishing for a terrifying sea creature.
We just picked up something big on the sonar.
Looks like it's coming your way.
And comes face to face with a real world killer.
Whoa! Villagers in Fiji claim the beast is real.
And once the sun goes down, my team wades into potentially deadly waters.
Oh, my God! What the (Bleep) Was that? Hold on! I'm Josh Gates.
In my travels, I've seen some unexplainable things, and I've done some things I can't quite explain.
Now, I've pulled together a team armed with the latest technology in the search for answers to the world's strangest mysteries.
I'm not sure what's out there waiting for me, but I know what I'm looking for.
.
The truth.
Deep in the jungles of Guatemala are the ruins of one of the largest ancient cities in the world.
.
Tikal.
Once the crown jewel of the Mayan kingdom, it now sits in ruins, and is rumored to be one of the most haunted places in all of Central America.
At its height, the city boasted a population of more than 100,000 people scattered amidst thousands of structures.
Unimaginable human sacrifice was common in Tikal, part of the Mayan blood rituals to appease temperamental Gods.
1,200 years ago, the entire city was mysteriously abandoned.
Modern archaeologists claim to have heard disembodied voices at the site, and former guards recount physical confrontations with angry spirits.
Could these be the ghosts of the thousands of victims that were murdered at Tikal? Or the spirits of warriors who died in battle? The Mayans also perfected a complex 5,125-year calendar which grinds to a halt in 2012.
Many prophesize cataclysmic events associated with the end of the calendar, and the supernatural energy of Tikal is rumored to be sharply on the rise.
to investigate this Mayan mystery.
From Los Angeles it was a 2,200 mile flight to the Central American country of Belize.
We breezed through customs in Belize City, hopped into our 4x4, and immediately noticed a national obsession with driver awareness.
Okay, everybody, keep an eye out for snakes.
Watch out, guys, turkeys.
Oh, guys, keep an eye out for whatever that thing is.
And jaguars.
That's the only one that really deserves a sign, I think.
There are hundreds of Mayan sites scattered throughout the jungles of Central America, and before we set off for the biggest one of all, Tikal, we first set our sights on the ruins of Lamanai, located in Northern Belize.
There's a guy that's turned up in our research, used to work at Tikal.
He claims to have firsthand experiences with the ghosts there.
Lamanai is the only Mayan city not fully reachable by road.
After driving 100 miles we hit the end of the line and turned in our wheels for a luxury watercraft.
This is going to be a long boat ride.
Josh, you need a hand? Maybe some muscle back there? Appreciate it.
I got it.
Thank you.
With our engine finally cranking, we were on our way.
All right, guys, the ruins are about 25 miles up the river.
There's crocs in the water, too, so keep your hands and feet in, everybody.
It is very hard to find the truth with hooks for hands.
Here we go! Before long, we reached Lamanai and brought the boat into a dock.
We then hiked inland to the ancient city and its breathtaking pyramids.
It was there that we found Amir Reyes, who worked at the ruins of Tikal and vowed never to return.
Tell me about these stories.
.
About these ghost stories.
To meet this venerated Shaman, we'd need to cover some serious ground.
To begin with, we'd have to take the boat back along the new river and then drive 70 miles to the edge of Guatemala.
From there we'd bank South 150 miles to the village of Candelaria where he practiced.
But first we'd have to get into the country.
All right, let's do this.
Everybody act cool.
I got a couple unpaid parking tickets in Guatemala.
Oh, this should be easy.
With the customs office closing for the weekend, the race to cross the border was on.
Did we make it? We're so close! Please? Cut that one a little close.
In the morning we found ourselves in a new nation headed toward the small town of Candelaria.
This village has a huge cave where we were told we could find the Shaman who allegedly has the power to invoked the spirits of Tikal.
Alright, we should be getting close to these caves where this Mayan Shaman practices.
We're going to have to pull off to the side of the road and hike in from there.
We ditched our truck and hiked our way to the entrance.
This is it.
Here's the cave.
Look at this place.
Unbelievable.
Careful, it gets dark down here.
Hello! Looks like it's opening up.
Guys, here he is.
The Shaman agreed to share his knowledge of the Mayan spirits of Tikal and Katy stepped in to translate.
Tata Pedro, do you think that Tikal has a strong spiritual energy? He said these buildings aren't ruins.
They're sacred temples that have the energy of the Mayan ancestors.
Where are the places that I should go that have the most energy? The spiritual energy is most abundant around the seven temples.
He does believe you can see spirits in Tikal.
After interviewing the Shaman and taking part in a ceremony to protect us from the dark spirits of Tikal, we got back into our truck and headed North.
Our next stop is to meet an eyewitness who claims he was actually attacked by a paranormal force in Tikal.
The man lived in the nearby Mayan settlement of Flores, where he ran a small antiquities museum, and oddly, a local radio station.
Never one to pass up an opportunity, Ryder and I kicked off our new morning drive-time show.
Good morning, Guatemala! You're listening to morning zoo.
I'm White Jaguar bringing you the greatest hits on Earth until the end of the world.
Today's segment brought to you by "Crazy Juans Used Cars".
.
Ah-ooga! He's sacrificing prices, but never quality.
Countdown to 2012 continues right after this.
And that is why they call me Senior Seacrest in Guatemala.
Next door, Oscar Acosta told us about his physical paranormal encounter in Tikal.
So he was at Tikal excavating the site at the time, moving bodies, and suddenly he felt hands grabbing his legs and pulling him away almost 40 meters.
No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't hold on to anything.
He kept being pulled by this supernatural force.
The name "Tikal" itself means "place of voices" or "place of spirits".
Having heard his frightening tale, we set off from Flores for an hour drive to the edge of the ancient Mayan city.
We unloaded the car, pressed through the jungles, and finally emerged at the wondrous ruins of Tikal.
The majesty of the site can barely be expressed in words.
The size and scope of the ruins were simply awe-inspiring, and as the sun set we began our daunting task.
The site covers 23 square miles and contains over 3,000 structures.
However, we focused our search at the epicenter of the paranormal reports.
We installed IR cameras facing the sprawling North Acropolis, the Massacre Temple, and at the 150-foot tall Temple One, notorious for supernatural activity.
We established base camp in the middle of it all in Tikal's great Plaza.
This is Temple One.
- Shows up pretty warm on the FLIR.
- Yeah.
Blocks are probably holding the heat from the day.
Looks like a passageway around the back.
You know you come to places like this at night, no electricity, there's no people here.
.
This is exactly what it would have looked like to people that lived here.
Wow, look at this thing.
It is massive.
A lot of the eyewitnesses and experts say that the energy flows from inside these buildings all the way to the top, so if we're going to feel something, we should try to figure out a way to get up in there.
Oh, hope you're ready for a Mayan workout.
At least you don't have to worry about a gym membership.
This thing's huge.
All right.
.
Voice recorder's running.
We've got the meter out just in case we get any strange EMF spikes.
Can you give us any sign that would let us know that you're here? What was that? Can you give us any sign that would let us know that you're here? What was that? It came from right over in that corner.
What was that? Was that you? Can you give us another sign? Did it really? Yeah, can you hear this? Oh, my gosh, what does that mean? You know, our cameras, and even we, are picking up some strange energy up here.
Why don't we leave the voice recorder running, do another quick sweep around this top floor and maybe head off to one of the other structures.
- Sounds like a plan.
- Okay.
This is amazing.
Look at these ruins.
The thermal imager is acting up.
What are you seeing? It's freezing.
Could be the humidity maybe, but it usually.
.
Usually it's pretty bullet proof.
- Right now? - Yeah, it's like strobing.
That's weird that both of these things are malfunctioning at the same time and they're totally unrelated.
Not drawing off the same power source, running on totally separate electronics.
Okay, that's weird.
Let's take a little cruise around this Acropolis.
I'm back, too.
I've been shooting for ten years, I've never seen that happen to a camera.
Okay, so.
.
Things are weird in the Acropolis.
Let's have a look around.
It feels like something's playing around with the cameras a little bit.
I'm gonna look at this main building.
Whoa! What was that? - You hear that? - Yeah.
I just heard something right in there.
.
Like a low rumbling sound.
Be very careful.
Could be an animal.
My heart is racing right now.
It's in there.
Come on.
Careful, careful! Stop, stop, stop! Holy (Bleep).
Huge drop.
Let me see if I can get anything on the thermal.
It.
.
It sounds like a moaning or a crying.
It's really deep.
- Hey Josh? - Yeah.
- You see that? - No.
The base of the pyramid just lit up.
That's pyramid four.
That's the tallest pyramid at the site.
- You saw light over there? - Mm-hum.
Yeah.
The base of the pyramid lit up and then went away, like a burst of light.
Ryder's team is nowhere near that temple.
It's not them.
Those noises are coming from over there as well.
Let's get through this jungle we can get over to that pyramid.
So this is the North Acropolis.
They say.
.
That there's over 100 structures in this one building alone.
What? Right down here.
What the (Bleep) Is that? - What? - Right over there? What do you see? I just saw like a white spot walk across there.
Was it a shadow or.
.
It was, just right in that little view right there.
Well let's go check this out.
Right through here.
I just got the chills.
I just got the chills.
I mean it's warm.
It's absolutely warm.
It's like we're standing on one big tomb.
It's amazing how spread out each of the complexes are.
I mean you really have to get through the jungle to get in between any two locations here.
God, look at it.
The whole back side of it's un-excavated.
It looks like a mountain.
Something's moving.
Back up, back up, back up.
Whatever it is, I don't see it.
Do you see any movement out there? - No.
- No.
They're rocks.
(Bleep) Rocks are coming out of the (Bleep) Sky.
- There it is.
- It's a monkey.
You can see it.
Let's get around the front of this temple before we get knocked unconscious.
Come on.
We should be coming up on.
.
Some more of the structures.
.
Through here.
- What did you hear? - Did you guys hear that? Yeah, I heard that.
A lot of rustling, that's for sure.
I just heard like a cry, right behind us.
Hello? Something's here.
.
But I don't see anything.
Now I'm not hearing anything but for the beating of my heart because it's so loud out right now.
Where (Bleep) Is that? Whoa.
Whoa.
Alright let's back away a little bit.
It sounds like a very big animal.
Yeah, I agree.
Ryder for Tristan.
Go ahead, Ryder.
We're pretty deep in the jungle right now.
Uh, we've heard a lot of really strange noises.
Unfortunately, it looks like we just stumbled on some sort of a large animal's habitat.
- Oh my God.
- It is close.
It is (Bleep) Close.
Looks like we just stumbled on some sort of a large animal's habitat.
- Oh my God.
- It is close.
It is (Bleep) Close.
Tristan to Ryder.
You okay? It's coming toward us.
Whatever it is is coming toward us.
- Watch your back.
- Get out of there.
Get out of there and come back to base camp.
Ryder, are you there? Ryder, come in.
Copy, we're here.
We're trying to take a further vantage point so we can collect ourselves a little bit.
Okay, copy that.
Stay safe.
Let me know.
You know, safety's the main concern and I don't think we can investigate any further safely through here.
So let's get out of here.
I couldn't agree more.
God, it's huge.
Oh man.
The front staircase is damaged.
It doesn't go all the way up.
That's exactly where I saw the light, from that black hole up there.
Yeah right up in here, right? Let's see if we can go all the way to the top.
It will give us the best view over the site.
Oh, great.
.
The scariest ladder in the world.
Okay.
Here we go.
This is crazy.
This is crazy.
Slow moves.
Oh, my God.
Guys, we're about 150 feet up here.
Be very careful.
Kyle, this is where that light was.
I mean, now that we're up here, there's clearly nothing up here that could have made that light.
I don't even know what to say.
It was right here.
Now I see nothing.
Oh Josh, Josh, Josh.
.
I can hear like a breathing sound.
Be very careful.
Let's go check it out.
Oh, I hear it.
I hear it.
- I hear it.
I hear it.
- It's coming from here.
Look at that.
Yeah, it's definitely coming from there.
It's weird.
It sounds like the building's talking.
That might explain what some of the people are hearing.
They say they hear voices coming from these pyramids.
It may just be wind whistling through them.
It's alive.
This building is alive.
Oh scorpion.
Careful, careful.
You've got no room on the right.
Yeah, let's get the (Bleep) Out of here you guys.
Come on.
It's a (Bleep) Death trap up here.
We continued to search the overgrown pyramids until the sun broke up through the rainforest.
We hiked back to the great Plaza, packed up our supplies, and jetted home to conclude our investigation.
Back at our HQ, Ryder and I pored over hundreds of hours of recordings for paranormal evidence.
So one of the things that we've heard is that there's a great energy at Tikal.
A lot of people do believe that paranormal energy can effect electronics.
Uh you know if that's the case, this place is haunted out of the gate, because our cameras just weren't working right.
The thermal imager is acting up.
It's not just power outages.
It's not just losing power.
The power is being sapped.
It's actually something's taking over the cameras, which is really incredible.
When the equipment was working though, it picked up some really weird stuff.
Whoa.
What was that? - You hear that? - Yeah.
And look, there's a lot of animals out there.
I think one of the things we have to keep in mind is the amount of biodiversity in this region.
But even if that is an animal, we chased down that noise.
And check out what we found on the other side.
Look at this.
- Hey Josh? - Yeah.
- You see that? - No.
Base of the pyramid just lit up.
You know that's pretty far from where we're standing and it's pretty high up off the ground.
We know it's not your team.
We're in a completely different area.
This is on the other side of the complex.
It looks like something in the temple is illuminated.
Along with our intense personal experiences, our EVP recordings also yielded up unsettling results.
We did a number of EVP sessions throughout the night.
We got some good results when we amplified the recordings, but this it the one I want to play for you.
Listen to this.
Is that you? Can you give us another sign? Wow.
- You hear that? - Yeah.
We're trying to find different things that it might have been.
It almost sounds like it says "fuera".
.
Which is Spanish for "go away".
You know of course, the site predates the conquistadors, but it could be from later in history or.
.
It could be some sort of Mayan word that we don't know.
And this is a response to a direct question that I asked.
Look I don't think you can discount that a lot of the things that you're hearing in Tikal are the sounds of the jungle.
There are animal everywhere.
But some of these visual encounters, these lights that we saw over the site, you know I don't have an explanation for those things.
I think something strange is going on there, and it's something that we, at this point can't identify.
The Mayan empire has long receded into history, and is today guarded by croc-infested rivers and overgrown with clinging vines.
The ruins that remain are the last calling card of a once mighty civilization.
But amidst these crumbling blocks, there is also a lingering presence that's hard to shake.
Is it the wind.
.
It's weird.
It sounds like the building is talking.
Or a predatory growl? Where the (Bleep) Is that? Or is it an echo? The long ago sounds and illuminating energy of tortured souls bouncing off the high pyramids? In the mid 1800s, infamous showman PT Barnum thrilled circus goers with the doctored remains of a horrifying sea monster he called the Fiji Mermaid.
Now, a century and a half later, it appears a real-life version of this nightmarish creature may have emerged from the depths of The Pacific ocean to terrorize a tranquil island population.
The creature is believed to have come from the inky depths of the South Pacific ocean, but recent sightings have taken place in the usually peaceful shallows of Fiji's coastal mangrove swamps.
It has a diamond-shaped head and rows of razor-sharp teeth, ideal for locking down on its prey and ripping through flesh.
The skin is covered in heavy angular scales, creating a virtual suit of armor.
It surges through the water using two powerful pectoral fins and its body and tail are strong enough that the beast can thrust itself forward at terrifying speeds.
Fiji's army was even called in to investigate and local villagers are now on high alert after recent close calls.
So we packed up our traveling caravan and headed to Fiji in search of the beast.
We boarded a plane in Los Angeles and traversed The Pacific, flying 5,500 miles to the city of Suva on Fiji's main island of Viti Levu.
Once in baggage claim, we patiently waited for our gear to get unloaded.
This is like the baggage belt to nowhere.
That is Amelia Earhart's suitcase.
That has been on there for uh, 75 years.
Once our luggage finally appeared, we marched out of the airport and embarked on the next leg of our journey.
All right, everybody, welcome to Fiji.
We need to get to the other island of Vanua Levu.
So the easiest way to get there right now, actually, is for us to take a ferry.
So we're gonna head down to the docks and sail on over.
- Sounds nice.
- Yeah, it's not.
Once on board, you couldn't help but notice the less-than-luxurious accommodations.
This boat's in great shape.
It might be her maiden voyage.
When we finally reached the long passenger cabin, I had the team draw straws to determine which two members would get the only bed.
Richie lucked out.
.
And so did I.
- Aw! - Long.
The rest of the team found places to crash on various uncomfortable corners of the ferry while Richie and I enjoyed our cushy digs.
The boat spent the night crossing the churning seas of the South Pacific, carrying us 150 miles to the port town of Savusavu.
Like all of Fiji, the island of Vanua Levu is a volcanic wonderland, in some places still hissing and boiling from deep ocean tectonic vents.
We immediately picked up a car, crossed the island.
And made our way to a marine research facility to meet with a Professor who has investigated the reports of this unexplained beast.
- You've heard of this story, yeah? - Yes.
And what do you make of it? Well, I'd have to say that I really don't know what to make of it, because the real experts are the Fijians themselves.
So, when a woman goes out and says there's something new that she had seen, I really am very curious myself as to what that could possibly be.
Do you think it's likely that there are new species still to be discovered here? Without a doubt.
There are many, many new species to be discovered.
The fact of the matter is much of the area around Fiji is unexplored.
The interview fueled my excitement to talk with the locals, and we immediately sought out a fisherman who said he had encountered an unknown sea creature just days earlier.
Tell me about your experience.
What happened here? The Fisherman's tale was not unique.
Dozens of sightings of the animal had been documented in the past year along the coast of the island.
I decided it was time for us to head to the beach and investigate the surrounding waters for ourselves.
To cover the greatest possible area, we broke into three teams.
Tristant and Richie would survey the saltwater mangrove rivers on foot.
Ryder, Katy and Dave would take a boat on a sweep of the shallow ocean reefs beyond the mangroves.
And Kyle, Adam and I would search both areas from above in a helicopter.
Here we go.
Okay Ryder, we're headed over into these mangrove swamps.
Uh, starting a scan with a thermal imager now.
So far, no sign of anything.
Copy that, Josh.
Closing in on the mangrove swamps now.
We scanned the waters around the island for more than an hour when Ryder and Katy suddenly got a hit.
Whoa, whoa, whoa! Look at that! Right off the port side of the boat.
Dave, did you get a glimpse of that? A black shape just flew right by the side of the boat.
Josh, Katy and I just saw something.
.
A dark shape swam right by the side of the boat.
Copy that.
I'm scanning for it right now.
All right, let's get the Aquacam in and try to get eyes under water.
I don't have anything right next to the boat.
I'm looking a little farther out.
Hold on, we're just widening our search a little.
Right there, Josh! Right there! Got it, got it! We got it on thermal.
Something big just came to the surface on the thermal.
Coming around again to see if we can see it.
Josh, it must have come up on your side, because I got no visual.
Ryder, I don't see it.
We're coming around again.
Stand by.
Looks like a one-time shot.
Came to the surface and it's gone back down.
Copy that, Josh.
We'll meet you back at the dock.
Both Ryder and I tagged the location of her sighting on GPS in about 60 feet of water.
We quickly landed the helicopter and the entire team rendezvoused back at the dock as we raced to get a closer look at the area.
Alright let's get out to the spot where we saw that thermal hit.
We'll strap the tanks on.
We'll get down.
We suited up, strapped on our tanks and splashed into the water on the edge of a reef that surrounds the island.
This barrier separates the deep ocean from the island's beaches.
How's the visibility?.
.
That's a good plan, we'll uh, deploy the ROV and uh, we'll get your back.
Ryder for Josh.
Hey, Josh, we just picked up something big on the sonar.
Looks like it's under the boat.
Might be coming your way.
Hey, Josh, we just picked up something big on the sonar.
.
Looks like it's under the boat.
Might be coming your way.
They just saw a bull shark down there.
Yeah, I'm seeing a few on the video ray as well.
- How close are they? - They're really close, actually.
They need to get back up.
Guys, you're in a pretty vulnerable place down there.
Why don't you start surfacing right now? Pull them in, pull them in! Grab their stuff.
All right, out of the water, out of the water.
- Quick, quick, quick, quick.
- Come on.
- You guys okay? - Get out, get out.
- Oh, my God.
- All right, come on.
Big, big bull sharks down there.
Doesn't match the profile of what those people saw in the village, but still huge.
Everybody got their fingers? Fingers check? Okay, let's get back inside the reef and pick up the investigation there.
Yeah.
Our dive was a terrifying and dangerous encounter that I didn't care to repeat.
I wanted to narrow our search area and pinpoint exactly where the creature had last been seen, so we returned to the island and drove along the coast to a small fishing village along the saltwater river and mangroves where nearly all the of the recent sightings of the beast took place.
Upon arrival, we began searching for eyewitnesses.
The locals directed us to a woman who was said to be the first on the island to ever see the creature.
When you had this sighting, where were you? She was fishing.
.
Do you think that it could have been a shark? Do you think that it could have been a crocodile maybe? Next, we spoke with the village Chief, who tirelessly searched for the creature in the surrounding waters.
How are you? When you heard the story, what did you do? Despite a few close calls, his team never got a good look at the animal.
So do you think that whatever this thing was.
.
Do you think it was dangerous? Yeah.
He directed me to the exact spot where the sightings took place and even loaned us his boat for the journey.
We loaded up our gear and headed out on to the river.
The river took us along the inside of a thin peninsula and eventually led us to the edge of the open ocean.
.
The location of the sightings.
We quickly beached the boat and, with night approaching, we immediately got to work setting up base camp.
You know, these witnesses are really adamant that they saw something unknown.
We know that out in the deeper waters we've got big fish.
We know there are predators.
We've seen sharks.
Inside this reef, though, it's a lot shallower.
We've heard this thing comes up at night.
We've heard there have been a lot of sightings right after dark.
So if we see anything large surface in here, we gotta move quick.
I'm gonna head out with Dave and Katy and Adam.
We'll take the boat.
We'll head up and down the mangroves here along the coast.
And, Ryder, why don't you head up a team with Richie and Kyle and move up and down this peninsula? You guys ready to catch a sea monster? - Yeah.
- Let's do it.
Come on.
Whatever these people saw shouldn't be in water this shallow, at all.
The primary eyewitness.
.
I mean, it sounds like she almost saw like a crocodile or something, which they don't have here.
So it's a real mystery.
- Tristant for Josh.
- Go for Josh.
Hey, man, I just saw a pretty good splash, some pretty good ripples on my IR Camera #3 and it looked like something big went through the water.
Copy that.
Listen, we're gonna flip around right now and we're gonna come over and check it out.
Stand by.
Copy that.
Let me know when you're near.
All right, Tristant, we're just passing by where the camera is right now.
Water is still as glass.
I don't see anything moving out here yet.
Yeah, I think you guys might have just missed it.
No worries, we're gonna get the thermal imager up and just start scanning right up and down the mangroves here.
It might just have moved off a little bit.
Copy that.
I'll keep my eyes on the camera.
He saw something large moving here.
It may still just be hanging out right in this area, so we'll just be systematic about it.
We'll go up one bank and down the other, see if we see anything disturbing the surface.
Sound good? - Absolutely.
- Definitely.
Alright let's do it.
Come on.
You know, I think the real interesting thing is that.
.
All these eyewitnesses are, you know, local Fijian people that.
.
They know these waters better than anyone here.
And these people are too scared to actually.
.
Fish in the areas that they fished all their lives? That's pretty significant.
- What's that right there? - What do you see? I see a dark, black object moving through the water right there.
- Where? - Right there.
- You see it? - What the (Bleep) Is that? Oh, my God, guys, right up there.
I just picked up a heat signature on the thermal.
Nothing, now it's gone.
Whatever it was popped up.
.
Swam right away from us and went down.
This thing's fast, whatever it is.
Nothing on the thermal.
Oh, my God! What the (Bleep) Was that? Nothing on the thermal.
Oh, my God! What the (Bleep) Was that? Holy (Bleep)! Something just swam through my leg.
There was a fish right by your foot.
That was (Bleep) Terrifying.
But whatever we got on the thermal was bigger than a fish.
Looks like it was heading off this way, which is right directly towards that mouth of the river.
Let's cut in through this mangrove, head down to the shore there, see if we can spot it again.
Sounds great.
Did you guys hear that? Right there.
What the hell was that? Hold on, I'm gonna try and get it on my FLIR.
It sounds low.
It's down by the waterline.
Katy, can you see it? I can't catch it on my camera.
The thermal doesn't see it, either.
The mangroves are just too dense.
It's right up near the surface.
.
- You hear that? - Yeah.
It's like whatever the hell it is, it's right under us.
Keep your arms and hands inside the boat, kids.
Let's get out the Aquacam and let's get the Hydrophone out, Adam.
Let's give a listen under the water.
Something big's swimming around right near this boat.
Okay, Hydrophone's ready, Josh.
Going in.
Okay, Aquacam's going in the water.
Okay, got you clear.
Hard to make anything out.
There's a lot of soft sand down there.
I can hear something swimming down there, definitely.
I don't see it.
Ooh, ooh! I saw something.
Hold on, something just swam by.
Ooh, I got it.
I got it, I got it! Come here.
I just had it.
I just had part of the body.
I saw a tail or a part of the body.
Hold on.
- Katy, you see it? - Not seeing any movement.
There's too much silt.
I can't see it.
I think it just peeled out of here.
Adam, are you hearing it? No, I think it's moved away.
Yeah, it just silted up the whole camera.
I think it just shot off.
But I think it moved out toward the open ocean.
Let's hang with it.
Adam, keep that Hydrophone in the water.
See if it comes back toward the light.
There's so many little.
.
Nooks and crannies in these mangroves that.
.
You can see how.
.
It'd be possible for something big to hide out in here and not be found for quite some time.
A lot of the eyewitnesses who saw the creature were fishing in the mangroves right around here.
Oh, what's that? Kyle, Kyle, Kyle, right here.
- Do you see that? - Yep.
Something's there.
Something is right in the water right there.
It down in the water.
I just saw it.
I can't get it on thermal.
It looked long.
.
And.
.
And.
.
And from here it looks kind of shiny because I caught it with my light.
It just popped up.
It almost looks like it's checking us out.
What the hell is that? I'm just seeing the head of something.
.
And it's gone.
It just submerged.
- It's gone.
- You got it on film, though, right? - Yep.
- Holy (Bleep).
It was the same thing I saw before.
Proves one thing.
.
It moves from the ocean into this river.
It definitely uses this estuary.
I gotta get a hold of Josh.
Ryder for Josh.
Yeah, go for Josh.
Ryder, what's up? So, we're legitimately seeing something.
.
Big, um, you know towards the middle of this river head.
It looked like something popped its head up, went back down and swam away.
We thought we might have seen something here on our Aquacam as well, but it's been quiet for a while.
It's possible we're either seeing the same animal or that there's more than one of these things.
Let's have Tristant grab the ROV and we'll pick you up.
Sounds good.
Yeah, we definitely want the submersible camera in the water as soon as possible.
- Welcome aboard.
- Thanks.
- Everybody in? - Yep.
This is the area, right, Ryder? Yeah, right in here.
All right, Josh, we're all hooked up uh.
.
- Should we deploy? - Yeah, let's do it.
Come on.
All right, deployment the video ray.
It's pretty murky out there, Josh.
Oh, guys, I see something.
What do you see, Josh? There's something at the surface.
It's not an animal.
Is it driftwood? It's one of these old Fijian rafts.
You see it? Oh, yeah.
I see the end of it.
- What is that? - See something? Yeah, we got something out here.
What do you see? I don't know.
It's kicked up a lot of sediment.
We should get the boat over there.
I could try to get on that bamboo raft.
At least it's quiet.
That boat engine is probably gonna scare whatever the hell it is away.
Hold on, let me see if I can get over there.
Let me know if it comes back on that camera.
All right, will do.
Just be careful on that.
Guys, it's pretty stable.
Ain't nothing but dark water out here.
Do you see it moving around? No, nothing.
Let me know if you see anything on that camera.
All right, will do.
Oh, something's moving.
Guys, behind me, behind me.
What do you see? Get that ROV over here.
Something's moving behind the raft.
Coming to you, Josh.
Whoa! Something's underneath this (Bleep) Raft! Sonar's going off like crazy.
- Aah! - Whoa, be careful, Josh! Something's underneath this (Bleep) Raft! Sonar's going off like crazy.
- Aah! - Whoa, be careful, Josh! (Bleep) Josh! - Are you okay? - Pull him in, pull him in! - You guys got anything? - No.
Nothing, Josh.
All right, it must have taken off.
Let's pull the gear.
We'll try to follow it upriver.
Come on.
We continued to sweep the river, but didn't turn up any additional evidence of the creature.
With the sun coming up, we returned to base camp, packed up our gear and began the long trip back to Los Angeles where we could review our findings.
At nearby Pepperdine University, Dr.
Lee Kats discussed the possibility of such a creature existing in the first place.
Well, Fiji is interesting in that it's one of those biodiversity hotspots.
It's still fairly unexplored.
There are a lot of species of animals there, plants there, and it's very potential there are new species of fish and other vertebrates that we've not seen before.
With the potential for an unknown species, we scanned our footage, but whatever we saw on the Aquacam kicked up too much silt to be ID'd.
And the animal seen swimming past our IR Camera never breached the surface.
The FLIR hit from the helicopter was a good lead.
We got it on thermal! It's interesting in terms of its shape.
It's hard to tell how big it is.
It's very difficult to say what that is.
But it was our thermal image in the lagoon that may have cracked the case.
This is interesting because it appears to be something living.
It seems to be something that surfaces and then disappears.
It could be a marine mammal, some kind of marine reptile.
There is one possibility.
Recently they've identified an invasive iguana.
One that's not normally in Fiji.
Those are very different than the Native iguanas.
They're double or triple the size.
It has a very large head that can be kind of diamond-shaped.
They occasionally will get in the water.
If a local person saw one of these invasive iguanas, I think it would be very startling.
The Central American Green Iguana can grow to a whopping six feet long and does exhibit the same head shape and scaled body as our eyewitness reports.
With several specimens having been captured in Fiji's outlying islands, this may well be the culprit we've been looking for.
Fiji is, after all, a place that sparks the imagination.
Its misty primordial interior and seemingly bottomless seas are filled with mystery, but this lost world clearly has teeth.
The villagers here may have seen one of the island's behemoth man-eating sharks.
.
Or misidentified an outside species and cried monster.
Either way, we close the case, confident that whatever we saw from above.
.
Right there, Josh! Right there! And from below is probably not a monster at all.
And that the Fijians can relax - and get back to enjoying paradise.