Death Down Under is the second episode of the eight season of River Monsters.
Episode Description[]
When six men vanish in the remote waters of northern Australia, extreme angler Jeremy Wade travels to the scene and takes on some of the deadliest animals on the planet in his search for a suspect.
Episode Summary[]
Wade investigates the deaths of six men whose plane crashed in the northern seas of Australia, with only a single severed leg left behind on a beach as evidence. First, he looks into the most obvious possible culprit, the tiger shark, only to find that tiger sharks do not generally attack humans unless mistaking them for other animals, such as turtles. The Queensland grouper is similarly ruled out, as it is typically an ambush predator on the seafloor. Saltwater crocodiles come into focus, but they also could not be the sole culprit because they do not typically go far out to sea. Wade learns that the men actually made it to the beach, meaning whatever killed them struck on the shore, and the bodies were likely subsequently dismembered by crocodiles. He discovers a new candidate: the stonefish, a small, camouflaged fish that can deliver a deadly venom if stepped on. This could explain one of the deaths, but unlikely all six. Finally, Wade discovers the most likely killer of the bulk of the men – the box jellyfish, a nearly invisible creature with the most deadly venom on the planet. While working with a scientist who studies these bizarre and dangerous creatures, Wade suffers a minor sting but recovers to capture a box jellyfish with his bare hands.
Animals Featured[]
Locations Featured[]
- TBA
Trivia[]
- This episode is the second to feature Jeremy catching the culprit by hand. The first was American Killers when he was noodling.
- The only episode where he rescues a castaway.
- The episode to feature the most censored swearing.