River Monsters - Russian Killer

This episode of RM focused on the mighty of Amur river of "Mother Russia", and I have to confess that it was an interesting one.

Firstly, because of the fish. As JW tends to do, he cannot resist the lure of a good fish - make that catfish - tale: the first third or so of the episode centers about the Amur catfish and the Soldatov catfish - kin to the mighty wels catfish of the show's first season. The various flashbacks to the show's previous seasons and episodes didn't take much out of the episode, though they did take up time - maybe something that the show's producers intended to do.

Secondly, the Kaluga. I was impressed at the fish's alleged size and reputation and power: the sturgeons are an ancient breed of fish and to have some of the grow to impressive, almost mammoth-like proportions as they age isn't too improbable, in my opinion. But...

But despite the episode's title (see above), it was focused not on the fish - the Kaluga, the catfish, even the chum salmon that was so prominent in the episode - but on their environment, which is getting, frankly, polluted by the actions of humanity (the Russians in this case). They are destroying their world by destroying the natural resources (something that the Putin-Medvediev administration is notorious about), as well as overfishing, both the salmon fish (the red caviar) and the sturgeons (black). Having, in my youth, tasted both, I know why they cost such a high price even if poached - but poaching is wrong, and it leads to extinction of species - in Russia, USA, etc.

The destructive impact of the local fishing industry on its' surroundings is evident throughout the episode - the near absence of wildlife (other than the fish) in this particular episode contrasts sharply with most of other RM episodes, when there is some unplanned encounter with a local Land animal - for example, the grizzly bear in Alaska, when JW was fishing for the white sturgeon instead. The exceptions to this rule occur when JW was fishing for the wels catfish in Europe, for example, or for the alligator gar in the USA - both examples of the heavily urban, overfished countries. Russia, apparently, is another one of this countries...only, unlike Europe or USA, people too are dying-out, as shown by the now-struggingl and dying-out fishing communities shown in this ep - something to think about!

And so, unlike the previous, "American Killers" episode, the "Russian Killer" (no pun intended) revealed something new and interesting about our world in general and the world of fish and fishing in particular. I hope that the rest of S4 will be just as good.

River monsters - American killers

First, a bit of a prequel. This blog was initially designed by me to post my reviews and opinions of the lectures on my RLG 213 course. By now, of course, this course is over, and I mostly forgot about my blog - but now I remembered about it, and decided to use it, because, hey, it's my blog - why it should be wasted? For now, I'm going to post my opinions of the 4th season of "River Monsters" series (one of my favorite), but later... who knows?

Anyways, my point for now that if anyone was reading this blog, considered it to be a "ghost" or whatever, and is now surprised to see it return from the dead with a whole new subject - sorry. Please feel to follow or to disregard it however you see fit. Now on with the review!

...Yesterday I was capable of watching the premier episode of the 4th season of "River Monsters" - "American killers" on Discovery Channel. In this episode, Jeremy Wade abandoned his usual haunts of Africa and South America for the closer to home North American waterways in search of NA's own river monsters - the bull shark and the giant (i.e. oversized) catfish.

So, what's my take on the premiere? As usual, Jeremy Wade delivers what he has promised in style, but the fish of this episode were...something else, and not in a good way.

First, the bull shark. This is one of my favorite fish; the way it faces-off with the hippopotamus in AFO is classic, and it is a shark, so it naturally gets some thrill points, but at this point in series? It has become a permanent fixture of RM. Season 1 - bull shark. Season 2 - bull shark. Season 3 - bull shark (freshwater sawfish episode). Now, season 4 - bull shark. Yes, the bull shark is a shark that can live in freshwater rivers and lakes as well as in salty seas and oceans, and it is a potential maneater, but... that's that, basically. For a show that shows all sorts of river monsters, from the arapaima to tigerfish to Japanese salamander, this may no longer be enough. Being a shark may no longer cut it as the biggest bad of the show. Example - the goliath grouper. That fish was amazing - as big as a person and probably much heavier... really just a maneuverable mouth. With such a piscine heavyweight in the water no wonder that JW had problems catching bull sharks that night: if a juvenile bull shark and a golith grouper came to a face off, the question of who would eat/attack who could go either way - not the odds predators enjoy!

More importantly, (at least for me), the goliath grouper stole the show from the bull shark: it appeared much more rarely than the bull shark on the show, and as such, it was a genuine surprise, while the bull shark... wasn't. In RM, where practically every episode features a new monster, for the bull shark to become a regular...may not be such a good idea. But that's just me, and even I was impressed to see JW catch yet another bull shark in with new fishing style.

Now, as for the catfish. JW loves catching catfish, starting from S1, with its giant Amazonian catfish and the equally massive Himalayan (Asian) goonch, so there's no surprise that he went after North America's flathead and blue catfishes. And yet... this part of the ep seemed to be something of a plug for another fishing show - Hillbilly Handfishing, and I'm just not sure how I feel about that: I'm generally not fond of plugs, but I may be wrong...

Oh, and one more thing. The original, Animal Planet release, apparently had an alligator gar segment as well. DC has cut it out - because it didn't fit into the alloted time frame, or because it's exclusive AP fragment, or something. Pity. Alligator gar (and its relatives) are amazing, though endangered, fish that could use as much good PR as they can get. But, on DC, they got passed over for the sake of more popular catfish - oh well, that's the way the cookie crumbles.

And so, 4th season of RM on DC begins on a mixed note, with good intermixed with... less good. Let's wait and see what the next episodes will bring.