Jurassic River Beast is the seventh episode of the first season of Jeremy Wade's Dark Waters.
Episode Description[]
Tasmania is home to species found nowhere else on earth, including a colossal freshwater beast capable of breaking a person's arm. Jeremy Wade will venture into the island's dense, eerie forests in search of this formidable creature.
Episode Summary[]
The Island of Tasmania is home to many strange creatures found nowhere else in the world and it hasn't changed much for millions of years since Australia and Antarctica during the age of dinosaurs. For example, the Thylacine or Tasmanian tiger was a vicious marsupial predator that was said to be extremely dangerous. While it is seen by the scientific community as extinct, brutal assaults on livestock have led some locals to think otherwise. But people in Tasmania are not convinced that the Thylacine is extinct.
But Jeremy is after an animal that is potentially even more bizarre, the massive Tasmanian Giant Crayfish. Growing to 13 pounds in weight, the Crayfish is the largest freshwater invertebrate on the planet. However, its numbers have dropped drastically in recent years due to over hunting. While the capture of these bizarre beasts is now illegal, poachers still hunt for them in the remote corners of the island.
Jeremy has been granted special permission to fish for Crayfish, which in terms of species, vastly outnumber fish on the island of Tasmania. Jeremy is able to catch a small Crayfish, but nothing larger. Traveling to a lake, he learns from officers that Carp have invaded Tasmania. Jeremy heads out with one of the officers and sees that their extermination attempt may be having much more success than some other attempts elsewhere. Nevertheless, there is still no sign of the rare predator that drew him here.
Jeremy then travels to a museum that keeps an old records of Tasmania's past. One of them is a book describing some of the wildlife that once existed when Europeans arrived in Tasmania. The Crayfish were plentiful back then, but the book also includes much more important details. The Crayfish are known to hang out under rotten logs and other such environments. More significantly, for some reason they are known to hang around a species of fish known as the Blackfish.
Jeremy is able to see a preserved Crayfish in the office of a scientist who has studied the species of Tasmania extensively. He also identifies the Crayfish Jeremy caught as a relative of the Giant Crayfish, but not a small Giant like Jeremy had hoped.
Now, Jeremy does have a clear objective. He must hunt down a Blackfish in order to find a place that has a higher chance of yielding a Crayfish. Traveling deep into the temperate rainforests of Tasmania's interior, Jeremy stops by a remote village, and learns that he is in Blackfish country. Fishing into the night in a pool with Platypus, Jeremy catches the Blackfish. Now, Jeremy knows he is in the right region to find the predator that drew him to Tasmania. On his way back to his tent, he is surprised by a mysterious creature. In the morning, however, he realizes it to be a Tasmanian relative of a Wallaby, and not a monster.
While Jeremy is in the right region, the Giant Crayfish is one of the rarest beasts on the planet. Finding one won't be easy. However, Jeremy is able to track down a former Crayfish hunter who has now devoted his life to the return of this iconic species. This man has agreed to take Jeremy to remote systems of waterways that hide the last stronghold of the mighty crustacean on one condition, that Jeremy not divulge it to the world. While within minutes, Jeremy is lost, he still must turn off the camera so no one can ever work out the way based on the scenery.
Jeremy and his guide reach the remote streams, and begin searching. Eventually, they spot a Crayfish hidden under the water. Jeremy exercises caution because the mighty pincers could cause serious damage. Jeremy pulls out the Crayfish. The guide estimates it to be about two pounds in weight. This is huge for a crustacean, but still not big by Giant Crayfish standards. The guide says that he has seen some up to ten pounds. This one is a female of roughly 20 years of age, and despite its only medium size, it could still remove a human finger.
Jeremy now hunts for an even larger beast. Heading to what looks like a larger river, he spots a large one in a rotten log. This monster's pincers could deal terrifying damage, so Jeremy must be even more careful. He tries to grab it, but it ducks back under the log. Finally, Jeremy takes it out by its tail. This one is monstrous. The guide estimates it to be about fifty years old. It is a male, the key difference being that males have much larger pincers proportionally. Jeremy feels truly privileged to be in the presence of such a rare and majestic beast. The Crayfish still have a last stronghold amid these remote rainforests, and Jeremy has hope that they may one day make a comeback.
Animals Featured[]
- Echidna
- Tasmanian Giant Crayfish
- Blackfish
- Platypus
- Tasmanian Devil
- Thylacine
Trivia[]
- When Jeremy Wade said the Thylacine has gone extinct for the last hundred years but it was actually extinct in 83 years ago which is 1936. However in 1952-1953 a live Thylacine was seen alive and was photographed somewhere in Mawbanna, a city in Tasmania and then it ran off making possible that are still alive out there, hiding from humans.