Assignment: Bolivia’s giant fish intruder
The Documentary Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 28 December 2023
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Some people said it was created by Peruvian scientists, that it gorged on the blood of farm animals, that it was a monster. Many myths have grown up in Bolivia around the Paiche, one of the world’s largest scaled freshwater fish which is native to Amazonian rivers of Brazil and Peru and can grow up to four metres long. But after young fish were accidentally released from a Peruvian fish farm, the Paiche has arrived big time in Bolivian rivers.
Every year, it reaches another 40 km of river and is eating all before it, especially smaller native fish stocks including even the deadly piranha. At the same time, the Paiche is proving a boon to many local fisherman who sell it to families and restaurants who are acquiring a taste for it in a land-locked country where meat has always been the favourite form of protein. This gives scientists and the authorities a dilemma. Do they try and control or even eradicate the Paiche from rivers famed for their biodiversity where new species are being identified all the time? Or let its spread continue unabated and provide a useful livelihood for fishermen and a healthy addition to the Bolivian diet? For Assignment, Jane Chambers takes to the rivers of Bolivia
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Unmissible stories from around the globe from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:05.0 | My happy place, this is who I am. |
| 0:08.0 | Search for the documentary, lives less ordinary, and amazing sports stories stories wherever you get your BBC podcasts. |
| 0:20.0 | Thank you for downloading this podcast from the BBC. |
| 0:23.0 | I'm Jane Chambers and I've been traveling across the Bolivian Amazon on the trail of an extraordinary fish. |
| 0:29.0 | The Pichy is a freshwater giant that's very much made its home in the country's rivers. |
| 0:34.0 | But although it's great for people to eat, |
| 0:36.0 | some people fear the fish itself is eating everything in its path. |
| 0:40.0 | So load up the canoe, bring plenty of mosquito repellentent and join me on a fishing boat on the Yatta River in Bolivia, the Landlocked South American |
| 0:56.6 | country which alongside nine others like Peru and Brazil forms part of the huge Amazon Basin. I'm with Johnny Nockel, a local |
| 1:05.3 | fisherman who makes his living catching or trying to catch, the Baishi, a giant |
| 1:10.4 | carnivorous freshwater fish which has invaded this river and others |
| 1:14.4 | throughout the country. It's eating just about everything before it, |
| 1:18.4 | be it animal, vegetable or mineral. |
| 1:20.8 | When I went through a lago and I see a paycheck coming up for air, I have to go very slowly, |
| 1:31.7 | very gently and not make any noise because they can hear the sound |
| 1:36.7 | of the canoe and they escape. |
| 1:39.4 | Stealth, speed and skill at everything. I've passed a parce where I saw him. |
| 1:47.0 | I paddle slowly to where I saw him. |
| 1:50.0 | They come up for air every 30 minutes because they don't have gills. |
| 1:55.6 | They have lungs, so they need air. |
| 1:58.2 | When it comes up for air again, I'm ready. |
... |
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