The Weirdest Catch In River Monsters Season 3
Hosted by the one and only Jeremy Wade, "River Monsters" premiered on Animal Planet in 2009 and aired for 10 seasons until its conclusion in 2017. The documentary series follows Wade and his team as they travel the globe in search of nature's most bizarre and dangerous aquatic animals. While there's a host of Animal Planet shows available to watch when you stream Discovery+ for free, "River Monsters" takes the cake when it comes to interesting content. It's not a good episode unless Wade almost gives up on his quest about three times, only to find the perfect spot to catch his target. Along the way, he meets with experts and locals who help him to understand what the fish mean to the ecology of the region.
Over the course of the series, Wade ventures to remote corners of the world in his search for rare fish, and Season 3 is no exception. He travels to New Zealand, Argentina, Papua New Guinea, Japan, and the Solomon Islands in his mission to educate viewers about these animals. One particular Season 3 episode takes Wade to an isolated region of Australia where he hooks something truly astonishing.
The largetooth sawfish resembles a chainsaw
The weirdest fish that Jeremy Wade nabs in Season 3 of "River Monsters" is perhaps the most striking animal that ever appeared on the show. On a remote river in Australia, Wade hooks a fish that looks like something you'd find in a tool shed. This creature is the largetooth sawfish, featured in an episode aptly titled "Chainsaw Predator." The animal's most robust feature is a prominent snout covered in evenly spread-out teeth that makes its head look like a chainsaw.
Even though they're actually a type of ray, the body of a largetooth sawfish resembles that of a shark. Their snouts, also called a rostrum, contain electro-sensory organs that can sense electricity produced by other creatures. While the largetooth sawfish may look intimidating, it subsists on a diet of fish, mollusks and crustaceans, using its many-toothed snout to impale its prey. Largetooth sawfish are currently listed as an endangered species and can be found in tropical and fresh waters all over the globe (via NOAA Fisheries). The specimen that Jeremy Wade catches is almost seven feet long, with a foot and half long rostrum, and 39 sharp teeth! The largetooth sawfish looks practically otherworldly in the darkness, illuminated by the light from Wade's headlamp.
"Its monstrous appearance is not matched by its behavior," Wade notes in the episode, explaining that these creatures don't willfully attack humans. The truth about "River Monsters," as usual, is that none of the fish are monsters at all.