Incredible Tribal Method To Catch Fish! | SPECIAL EPISODE! | River Monsters

This morning, the entire village is taking part in a highly elaborate and rare form of fishing. But instead of a fishing rod, I'm handed a machete. We're preparing for a technique called the quarrel, which is a very labour-intensive technique. A lot of work, the entire village is going to take part. Two of the village elders, Vincent and Lawrence, are leading the preparations. We are going to catch enough fish to feed the entire village, using just some vines and the cooperation of the tribe. Do the women ever help for this job? Yeah, sometimes they help. But none here today? Clearly, Vincent is a man of few words, and I'm wondering if I'm asking too many questions. After hours of cutting, tying and winding, the vines are ready for fishing the next day. Now, the entire village is going fishing in shark-infested waters. It looks like I'm about to test the claim that the tribe has immunity from shark attack. I'm not sure if I'm the fisherman or the bait, but I'm doing my best to look unconcerned. Hundreds of feet of vines are tied together to form a huge floating chain. This will be used to herd whole schools of fish into a trap. What I'm amazed about is that this is not a net. This isn't really a physical barrier. It is up to a point, so I'm intrigued to see how it works. There's possibly a bit of fish psychology going on. For some reason, they won't come past this. Somehow, this thin vine must scare the fish and drive them into the heart of the trap. We've now actually closed the circle. This is the end of one vine. The end of the other one is that way. So you can see now, we're starting to get a double line of vines. And it's getting thicker. The best spearmen in the village stand outside the circle of vines, ready to pick off any fish that might break through. It's a bump-head parrotfish. A great catch, but as the blood trickles into the water, no one else seems at all concerned. Bull sharks are often seen in these waters. And from experience, I know their grim reputation as man-eaters. Sharks can detect one part of blood in one million parts of water. And the tribe and I plan to spend the whole day, waist-deep in the sea, spearing fish. What's happening now is the finishing touches are being added to the trap at the centre of the ring of vines. The noose begins to tighten. Normally, these would be fish that I would admire in an aquarium. Now, I have to kill them. It's a measure of my immersion within the tribe that spearing fish is becoming second nature. Where I come from, if something looks pretty, you don't stick a spear through it. But, I mean, everything looks pretty here. You've got to eat something, you've got to stick a spear through something. If you didn't do that, you'd starve. The villagers only catch what they know they can eat. If they catch too many fish in the corral, they'll release what they don't need. With no electricity or fridges, the fish need to be eaten straight away. Or they'll rot in the tropical heat. Each fish is wrapped in palm leaves and smoked in a fire overnight. This feast will fill up the entire village.