The Amazon... a wilderness teeming with wildlife
But one part is still totally unexplored
Under the water.
Hidden in the river lie some of the fiercest and strangest creatures on Earth
Man may have walked on the Moon but no one has journed to the very bottom of the Amazon
Until now.
An expedition is searching for the animals hidden in the depths.
We're looking in the places that no one has looked. We have the ability
to see and film things that no one has ever seen.
We've not just scratched the surface of the Amazon, but we've gone beneath it.
And we're bringing back stuff that is going to make people go:
WOW !
But the world's greatest river
doesnt give up her secrets easily.
Manaus, in the heart of the jungle
Bristling with sailors and river traders.
It's day one for our explorers.
They're some of the most experienced divers in the world,
but they're going where no one has ever dive before.
For the next 5 weeks this boat will be their home
Their mission : to take the BBC cameras
to this last great unexplored habitat.
In search of unique creatures of the deep.
The diving is led by Mike DeGruy
professional cameraman
veteran of "The Blue Planet" and 100 other wild life films.
We really are on a wonderful expedition
We have the opportunity to take all of this gear
and film things nobody's ever seen, nobody's ever head of
We're really gonna do it.
Also on the dive team , explorer and naturalist Kate Humble.
It's the most beautiful boat.
I feel like i'm about
take part in African Queen.
Their challenge is formidable.
The Amazon hides its creatures in water so deep
and dark, that no explorers have ever succeeded in penetrating its depths.
Their journey will be through the richest rainforest on the planet
A jungle where a million species hide.
But their adventure will take them to the Amazon no one has seen before.
Beneath the surface of this immense river.
4000 miles long,
in places wider than the English Channel,
it would take 100 years to explore the 5000 tributaries...
They have just one month.
The multinational team of scientists and divers
will have to overcome storms and setbacks to discover species new to science,
film underwater giants and track down primitive flesh feeding fish.
Their 2000 mile journey will ultimately lead them
to dive a black hole in the heart of the Amazon
where , with underwater robots , they hope to find creatures hidden in the abyss.
Kate is an experienced diver
She searched for sharks for the BBC progam
but, like the rest of the team, it's her first time in Brazil.
This is really going to be my first rainforest experience.
and all you hear about is the enormous number of diseases that you can get.
Mike's made more that 5000 dives in every corner of the planet.
As far as difficulty is concerned this rankes right up there.
Other areas, like Antarctica, diving under the ice,
has its own set of problems.
These are unique problems.
Everything kind of falls apart, nothing heals up properly
and one little snag on your finger, will mean that your finger will probably have to be amputated.
On a good day, the visibility is terrible.
We don't know where we're going, we have no reference material and divers in this area,
plus,...there are animals down there that can kill you.
The Anaconda grows to over 9 meters long.
and the cayman, weighing in a quarter of a ton
just 2 of the man eaters that hide in this murky waters.
Over the next month the divers will come face to face with both of them.
There are 3 boats in the expedition : one for living,
one for support, and one for diving.
Their fist mission is to travel to a remote tributary of the Amazon
The scientists belive it is home to many rare species.
As they draw near to their destination, every second is spent preparing the equipment.
Safety is everything.
Most important of all, they must be able to talk to each other under water.
It could save their lives.
Every single person underwater
can talk to each other, as well as talk to the boat
wich is where Mike will be with our topside cam unit
he'll be able to talk to us and we'll have great communication
and I personally feel that the communication is the key to the safety of this operation.
The expedition has reached the first dive site.
The whole team is focused on the preparations, and the gear had been checked and checked again.
In these conditions there's no room for error.
The air is cloudy and hot, the river will be just as warm.
The aim of the dive : To discover just how much can be seen underwater.
It is a step into the unknown.
Despite the heat, for their own safety they must be covered from head to foot.
There's no way i'm not going in with all this protection, having heard what there is in there.
As they descend, the divers discover a different world.
The water is heavy with sediment, and they quicly loose sight of one another.
Anything could be swiming past them, and still not be seen.
The state of their diving gear allows them to stay in the water until night has fallen,
but they still haven't seen a single creature.
It was so murky, i had a torch held to my computer
and i couldn't see it this way.
You can't help but think these animals have developed a way
to sense through the muck. There will be no reason
to know how to do that. We don't live in a situation
where the fartherst thing we can see in 15 inches away from us.
They do, If you can see anything down there at all
then our cameras are a miracle...it's a miracle.
The team are in somber mood.
No one suspected the visibility to be quite so terrible.
The whole future of the expedition is in doubt.
But there's no giving up.
First thing next morning, the boat is pushed further up the river
and into the unknown , in search of better sites.
The diving will be dangerous, the job of keeping everyone safe rest with the dive master Richard Bull.
In all the hair raising deep adventures diving I've ever done
this is some of the most challenging I've ever come across.
We have great expectations piled up on our heads, to deliver unique images.
Ok, well, I'll take that challenge on, but what it means is
we got to go to different places and dive and dive, and dive.
Powerful lights and high definition cameras are being used to cut through the murky Amazon waters.
But hi-tech gear brings no protection from predators.
Mike Pitts has spent his carier filming dangerous creatures.
I think if you can see something from a distance, you don't think half as much about it
when you have that very limited visibility
and there are on you before you can even do anything about it
It's like you can see a tiger shark from 30 meters away, and you're happy, you're fine
you can face it off, but in this low visibility it is a worry.
Proffesional divers train to stay calm in the face of danger
and keep their fear firmly under control.
I'm not going in the water feeling 100% happy,
but, once you have the camera in your hand,
you're checking your focus, you're checking your lighting, you're communicating with your buddy
If you let yourself start thinking about it too much
you'll allways been looking over your shoulder, behind you
and I'm sure we're gonna get moments where you get bumped by things down there.
But people who have spent their life by the river
are not so relaxed about the dangers.
Samuel Basilio and Eduardo Gomez are two local guides on the expedition.
Their expert knowledge is essential to the success of the project.
I have to be sure that nobody gonna be hurt by anything.
and...I know that's my job...
is to protect all the group.
I've spent all my life fishing, I've been in contact with them.
stingrays and snakes and electric eels.
I mean , they're really bad.
Every year local people are attacked and killed by underwater predators.
The divers are not immune.
The teeth of the red-belly piranha are razor-sharp
and can easyly slice through a wet-suit.
The electric eel will discharge 600 volts if disturbed
leaving a diver unconscious.
But for the people of the Amazon, there is another creature feared even more.
It lives in the depths of the river, and has never been filmed.
The giant Jau.
The Jau were not come to swallow men
but maybe they got scared
hit someone with their head
pull you down...and this will be
dangerous,...for sure.
They bite, and altough they don't have sharp teeth
but they have big mouths, when they're very big, they can swallow anything.
Three friends of mine, they jump, and they decide to go swimming to the shore
and one of them dissapeared, so...
we never found his body... never.
The giant Jau has a terrible reputation for draging fishermen down into the depths, drowning them.
Report have come in to the expedition team, that Jau have been found further up river.
We heard from the village that they got some contact
They caught two Jau catfish a week and a half ago.
Can we expect to actually find one under a ledge
and we can get relatively close ?
It's a unique opportunity to film one of the Amazon's most infamous animals.
You know about all these dangerous creatures, and the Jau is one of them.
You know about anacondas, you know about caymans, you know about piranhas
but the reality is that none of us has actually seen what they can do.
You know, we haven't experienced it, so...
in a funny sort of way, you're actually feeling a little bit...
it will be fine, because the reality hasn't hit.
Kate sets off upstream, to check out the information.
As well as being part of the dive team,
over the next month Kate has the added task of
tracking down the wild life on the river margins.
This is just extrordinary.
A family of capibaras.
On the bank... is huge.
Amazonian rodents.
It looks like 4 young...
I just know I'm not going to get back to the boats.
But you can't afford to stop for long.
She need to find a fisherman that has seen the Jau.
Back downstream the countdown has started for the dive team.
Oxygen supply pressure OK.
Computer electronics turned on.
Absorbant time-remainig OK.
Oxygen turned on.
Computer turned on. Fine.
Batteries OK.
The pressure is on.
They must find the creatures
concealed by the river's turbulent waters.
30 miles upstream, Kate has had a stroke of luck.
She's found a fisherman who's seen Jau.
In the murk, the divers can't find the Jau.
In fact they're struggling to find anything.
But then, something extraordinary.
Gradually in the gloom, a giant colony of sponges
appears before their eyes.
Normally, these primitive creatures are only ever found in the oceans.
Looking closer, the divers slowly begin to make out camouflaged creatures
motionless, amongs the sponges.
This prehistoric species wears an armor
of sharpen scales as protection from predators.
Even their fins hides switchblade spines.
The river revealed an extraordinary array of catfish
perfecly adapted to feel their way through the darkness with gigantic whiskas.
A whole community of exotic fish are hidden here.
And then, allmost buried from sight,
the king of the river bed.
The giant freshwater stingray.
It's barbed tail laced with enough poison to cripple a diver.
A tantalising glimpse before it dissapears into the gloom.
The divers have been in the water for 3 hours now,
and air is runing low.
Suddenly a little fresh water sponge appears.
So we kept going up the slope
more and more sponges, more and more fish
It's the first time this unique habitat is been captured on camera.
You keep reminding yourself that you're in fresh water by tasting it.
otherwise it looks like you're in the ocean, they're not supposed to be in rivers
Everybody knows that... so that was pretty spectacular.
There's a sense of relief on the dive boat.
At last, they're started to find creatures.
But they all know, there are many more spectacular creatures to be discovered.
First thing next morning, Kate passes on her news.
I've got a treat for you. I've got reports of Jau.
I've met a fisherman that caught one ... 36 kilos.
And he's pretty sure there's another one up there
because he was descaling a fish... and this thing came out.
Togheter, they start on a journey back upriver, to the dive site Kate found.
They are followed by the rest of the dive team
Togheter they set about making camp on the beach.
The water here is fast-flowing and strewn with boulders.
Perfect condition for Jau and many other fish.
The local delicacy...
red belied piranha.
The turbulence from the waterfall causes a scum of natural foam.
The foam blocks out the light, and the divers drop into darkness.
The labirynth of ledges and caves are a perfect hideout for Jau.
A pike cyclide is captured in the spotlight as it swims for cover.
In a crevice, catfish shelter for hungry predators,
and keep a watchful eye on the passing prey.
At last a hint of the incredible life hidden in the river.
They discover one of the most peculiar creatures ever found in the deep.
Knive-fish
These quirks of evolution navigate in the dark waters by using a sixth sense.
Electrical pulses generated by highly adapted muscles.
They're so specialised, they can even talk to each other with their electrical signals.
And hiding in a sunken lobe, a price...
one of the largest knive-fish in the world
Called the Black Ghost, it is shy, nocturnal and rare.
And has never been filmed in the wild before.
There is still no sight of the Jau.
But in this maze of rocks and caves,
its secret layer can be just feet away.
Fortunately, the piranhas are keeping their distance.
And now, with their air getting low, the divers are forced to stop their search for Jau.
A bit dissapointing... not to see the Jau.
I mean, it was a very very very longshot.
We found a lot of fish down there,
and almost all of them hated the light,
and were tucked away in nasty little rock or wood crevices.
So you couldn't get a clear shot of them.
I'm tempted to stay and dive in
at least twice again tomorrow.
Well that's why we're here, we want to see Jau.
That's out goal, so anything that will increase our chances, I'm all for.
This is been really nice, after my first dive yesterday in that thick soup,
to come here and actually see something living in the river...
That was good.
Now, in the dead of night, the divers drop into the darkness,
for one more attempt to find the giant Jau.
They know the creature is somewhere down there,
watching them.
Tomorrow the expedition moves on to second fase.
They track down the endangered giant otter,
swim with fresh water dolphins,
and come face to face with monsters of the deep.