But for some reason, I absolutely love the show River Monsters. It may be because I'm an adventurer at heart, and curious by nature. It may be because I like to tread light on this Earth we live on, and Jeremy Wade does too, and he isn't out to sport fish and catch and kill everything he finds. He's a catch and release fisherman, I respect that. See what you can get, take a look, then let it go. I was sad to learn that the show is ending this season.
I was talking with my dad on one of our regular Tuesday & Thursday morning on the way to work phone conversations, and somehow we were talking about River Monsters and how I love the show. He said he liked the book too. I had to remind him that I was talking about the TV show. He was insistent that there was a book. I looked it up, and lo and behold, it is a book too! I had to have it. So, thanks to the husband and his magical Amazon Prime account, I had the book in hand a few days later. I couldn't wait to read it. I started this on June 30th and finished it on August 8th.
Jeremy Wade is a pretty interesting man. His show came about from a lot of perseverance and drive, and by not giving up. In this book, he tells the tale of how River Monsters came to be, and he goes on to talk about some of the most interesting, challenging, and crazy expeditions and catches.
In the show as in this book, Jeremy Wade researches possible culprits for the mysteries he's trying to solve. He then sets out to find out if his hypothesis is sound and true by visiting mostly remote and scary places and fishing. A lot of fishing.
I think the book was so interesting for me because I can remember the TV show episode that went with most of the monsters he included in his book. The book brought a new dimension to what I saw and learned from the show.
This is one instance where the show was equally as good as the book! Such a rarity.
All of the monsters he chronicles and searches for are pretty scary - piranhas, goliath tigerfish, wels arapaima, catfish, gars, eels, electric eels, rays, sharks - some pretty scary shit is lurking below.
This book was well written, easy to understand, and fascinating. Water covers 71% of the Earth. That's a lot. In terms of what we know about what's down there, we basically know nothing. The crazy creatures Jeremy Wade catches support that thought. He's caught fish that were believed to be extinct, and found creatures of gigantic proportions.
There's also an obvious message of conservation throughout. In addition to us knowing nothing, many don't care - they employ drastic measures to catch fish that cause the death and destruction of entire ecosystems.
"In parts of India they fish with dynamite that has been acquired from road-maintenance teams. Fish concentrate in pools where only a couple of sticks, in a small river, can kill everything. Then there's the electro-fishing, using wires hooked up to power lines and run down to the water - an insanely dangerous method and indicative of a level of desperation that I, for one, can scarcely comprehend."
"Killing what you fear will achieve nothing. In fact, this can even rebound on us - as it undoubtedly will if they ever try to wipe out the Breede River bull sharks. And the same goes for the casual killing of our fellow creatures that we are doing all the time through our now-untenable belief that our security is assured through ever-increasing consumption. Now, more than at any time in the past, the challenge facing every one of us is to learn to coexist with other life. Because the day the last monster dies is the day the river dies too. And when that happens, we're not far behind."Grim, yes. But true. Sustainability, folks, that's where it's at. Be curious, tread lightly, this is the only Earth we have.
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