All language subtitles for Destination.Truth.S01E01.720p

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NARRATOR: On this episode
of Destination Truth,

Josh investigates
dinosaur sightings

and the lost world that
is now Papua New Guinea.

WOMAN: The body
was like this.

Can you take us to where
you saw this animal?

NARRATOR: But Josh finds
more than he bargained for

in the jungle night.

ERIC: Here's something.

(EXCLAIMS)
What is that?

JOSH: Holy (BLEEP)

Do you remember the
first episode of Lost?

It's that thing.

NARRATOR: Then Josh searches
the Papua New Guinea coast

for a mermaid-like creature

said to lurk in
the Pacific Ocean.

Are you guys
getting anything?

What's that?

(RADAR BEEPING)

I'm Josh Gates.

My travels have taken me to the most
exotic and mysterious places on Earth.

I've seen some unexplainable things
which have raised some strange questions.

Now, I've pulled together
a crack team

armed with the latest
technology to search for answers.

(BAT SQUEAKING)

I'm not sure what's out
there waiting for me,

but I know
what I'm looking for.

The truth.

I come across all kinds
of interesting articles

in my research,

but whenever I read
about the authorities

or police getting involved,

it always makes me want
to investigate further.

So, when I came across
a piece

in the largest and
most trusted newspaper

in Papua New Guinea,
The National,

about a SWAT team armed
with M16s and shotguns

hunting down a dinosaur,

I knew I had to get
to the bottom of this.

Apparently, the Papua New
Guinea police got involved

when several eyewitnesses
in Tinganavudu,

a small village in Kokopo,
on the island of New Britain,

claimed to have run
into an Iguanodon,

a type of dinosaur

thought to have been extinct
for millions of years.

But according to
everything I read,

the old guy was not only
still kicking around,

but eating small animals

in the swamps of
Tinganavudu Village.

Now, if this story came out of
anywhere but Papua New Guinea,

I probably wouldn't
give it the time of day,

but since this is one of the least
explored countries in the world,

with well over
200,000 reptiles

and amphibian specimens
thought to exist there

and thousands of new species

of flora and fauna
discovered each year,

even scientists refer to it
as the lost world.

So before you could say
unnecessary Spielberg sequel,

my team and I
landed in Port Moresby

with our vast array
of tracking gear

so I could find out
for myself

if there really
are dinosaurs

living in the jungles here.

The game plan was for the team
and I to hit the ground running

and head straight
to the village

where the Iguanodon dinosaur
had reportedly been spotted,

to interview eyewitnesses,
and collect and analyze

all the evidence
we'd find there.

Ready to go?

JOSH: You would
not believe

the captain we had
on this flight.

This guy came on
and was like,

"Ladies and gentlemen,
welcome to London."

And then there was this
long beat, and he was like,

"Excuse me,
Auckland."

(LAUGHING)

I'm not kidding,
just like had no idea

what city he'd
just flown to.

JOSH: On our way
out of town,

we stopped to see
an anthropology professor

who had received
some interesting photos

of what the natives
were calling

the bones of an Iguanodon.

JOSH: That's big,
all right, that's huge.

(SPEAKING ENGLISH)

(CHUCKLES) Those are
enormous. Look at the size...

(SPEAKING ENGLISH)

Is it just vertebrae,

or do they have other
skeletal pieces as well?

(SPEAKING ENGLISH)

So, very recent.

(SPEAKING ENGLISH)

JOSH: And is it possible

that what we're
looking at here

are the remains
of something

previously thought
to be extinct?

(SPEAKING ENGLISH)

People think that
it's a type of whale?

(SPEAKING ENGLISH)

JOSH: I'd be
lying if I said

I wasn't intrigued
by these pictures,

but the only way
to find out

if these bones were actually
those of an Iguanodon

was to travel
to the village

where they were found.

There was just
one problem.

The current estimate now
is 11 hours to this village.

Yeah, it's
3:00 almost.

It looks like maybe we'll get
there by 2:00 in the morning.

JOSH: Apparently,
the village

where these bones
were unearthed

and where several eyewitnesses
claim to have come across

a living, breathing Iguanodon,

was on a remote island

495 miles from civilization.

So the only way to get

to Papua New Guinea's
version of Jurassic Park

is by flying to the
small town of Kavieng,

driving down the
unpaved dirt roads

along the coast
of New Britain,

and finally taking
banana boats

equipped with engines with
about as much horse power

as a lawn mower,
across the open sea

during monsoon season.

It's times like these I think
flying coach isn't so bad.

We finally reach Kalil
Village around 4:00 a.m.

And prepared our boats

to launch to the Iguanodon
grounds of Tinganavudu.

So, this is our boat.

It's Always Tears Under,
or Always Tears Under,

not a great name
for a boat.

But "tears" or "tears,"
we're going to see.

What this is here is
a personal rescue device.

I'll be carrying
this with me.

If for some reason
the boat sinks,

what you need to do

is if I haven't activated
this, you need to activate this.

Beautiful morning here
in Papua New Guinea.

Sun's up.
No clouds.

Perfect boating weather.

JOSH: Our guide suggested
we wait till dawn

to launch across the ocean,

so we could at least
see any trouble coming,

which is exactly
what you want to hear

when getting into a boat
without a life preserver.

This is like the
end of Castaway.

(WAVES CRASHING)

JOSH: I mean, if we're
going out, we're going out.

We got to drop it
and go.

World's Deadliest Catch,
Season 4.

Come on, come on,
come on, come on.

Grab that oar.

Guys, we got to move
the (BLEEP) boat! Row!

(THUNDER RUMBLING)

Holy (BLEEP)

Can't turn
back now.

JOSH: Our own personal
Poseidon Adventure

ended up costing us
one camera,

six pairs of socks
and Wilson,

a volleyball I had found
and became friends with.

But I wasn't going to let
a couple of shoddy canoes

and a perfect storm
stop me from getting

to the bottom of this
dinosaur investigation.

So, I called in
the cavalry.

Peter, hello.
We need a helicopter.

JOSH: Helicopters
don't come cheap,

but maxing out my Visa
was well worth it

because before I knew it,

we were crossing
the treacherous sea

and headed to
the small village

where there had not only been
multiple Iguanodon sightings reported,

but where the pictures of the
giant bones had been taken, as well.

I didn't know
what to expect

when we arrived
at Tinganavudu.

Would the natives
be friendly?

Or would we suddenly
find ourselves

in some real-life mash-up

of Deliverance
and Apocalypse Now?

Marc, what is
that noise?

(PEOPLE SINGING
IN NATIVE LANGUAGE)

Ready?

(SINGING CONTINUES)

(DRUMS BEATING)

JOSH: Thankfully,
this "dino" village

welcomed us with
not only open arms,

but open buffet.

This is taro root?
Yeah.

And what is this?
Papaya, yeah?

JOSH: It was like a
jungle version of Vegas,

minus the smokers and guys
handing out flyers for prostitutes.

Though if you were looking for a wife,

there was always
shell money.

Now, how much
is the bride price?

The bride price
is about...

Is it... Depends
on the bride?

I want to buy her.

(GIRLS LAUGHING)

I want to buy Virginia. How
much is Virginia's bride price?

That costs
a million of...

A million? I know.
Virginia's very valuable.

(ALL LAUGHING)

Very expensive,
Virginia.

JOSH: Things were going along
great with the natives,

until we were told
that if you want to ask

the villagers about
the Iguanodon dinosaur,

you have to be initiated
into the tribe first.

Oh, the Buai.

Yeah.
I've had Buai.

Yeah.

(MAN LAUGHING)

I don't know.

I've had the
Buai before.

What do...
What do we do?

Okay, you need to take...
The first thing you do

is you take the beetle
nut out the shell.

ERIC: Okay. JOSH: That's step one.

You just chew it, and then
you take a piece of mustard,

dip that in lime, and then
you put that in your mouth.

(PEOPLE CHATTERING)

The ten bottles of water
we've got in the truck

are not enough to get the
taste of this out of your mouth.

Believe me.

Eric, the first thing
you'll notice when you eat it

is how immediately
delicious it is.

All right.
You ready? Go.

(PEOPLE LAUGHING)

(EXCLAIMS)

MAN 1: Spit it out.
MAN 2: Spit it out.

WOMAN: Spit it out.
MAN 3: Spit it out.

(ALL LAUGHING)

Spring break
Papua New Guinea.

JOSH: Where's Marc Carter,

and does he have
his pants on?

(IMITATES CHICKEN)

(ALL LAUGHING)

Oh, my God!

I want all the Buai loaded
into the trucks, right now.

We're taking it.

JOSH: Luckily, what happens in
Tinganavudu stays in Tinganavudu.

Wow.

JOSH: After we recovered
from our tribal initiation,

everything was going
according to plan,

until we asked if we could
see the dinosaur bones.

And Eshmael's house
is back here?

Yeah.

(SPEAKING ENGLISH)

I thought it was Eshmael, not Israel.

(SPEAKING ENGLISH)

Israel?
Yeah.

Didn't we just go through this,
and it turned into Eshmael?

Okay, but we
want to talk

to the chief of the
village. Where is he?

(SPEAKING ENGLISH)

So let's go.

We have heard a story about
someone here having, um, bones.

Does he know
anything about that?

(BOTH SPEAKING
NATIVE LANGUAGE)

What does he say?

JOSH: It turned out Eshmael
no longer had the bones.

When was this?

(BOTH SPEAKING
NATIVE LANGUAGE)

JOSH: Apparently, treasure and bounty
hunters are a big problem out here.

So while I couldn't get
my hands on the bones,

I could track down the Mayor,

and find out why exactly
he had put together

a SWAT team to
hunt down a dinosaur

that some say

hasn't roamed the Earth
since the land before time.

(SPEAKING ENGLISH)

The Mayor agreed to take us to
the other local eyewitnesses,

so I could find out
if what they had seen

indeed fit
a dinosaur description.

Did it look... Did it look like this?

WOMAN: The body
was like this.

The head like the dog,
dog's head. Eyes red.

Okay.

Long neck.
He got long tail.

The unique thing
about this thing

was that
it was very huge,

which never have I
in this country

been beside something
so huge like that.

JOSH: What intrigued me the most
about all of these eyewitness accounts

is that the largest game

typically found in this
area of Papua New Guinea

are spiders
and wild pigs.

But what these witnesses

were describing
did not sound like

Wilbur and
Charlotte to me.

JOSH: This is
the foot?

That's the foot.

How close to here
did you see this animal?

MAN: About one kilometer.

One kilometer?

Can you take us to where
you saw this animal?

We can go?
Yeah.

Let's go.

It is extremely dark and
extremely creepy out here.

Very creepy.

ERIC: Here's something.

(EXCLAIMS)
What is that?

JOSH: Holy (BLEEP)

Did it look
like this?

WOMAN: The body
was like this.

The head like the dog,
dog's head.

Can you take us to where
you saw this animal?

We can go?
MAN: Yeah.

Let's go.

So, Mary, is this the area
where you saw the creature?

And where exactly
did you see it?

So the head
was down here?

Body was here?

The tail was all
the way down here?

JOSH: We scoured
the grounds

where Mary claimed
to have seen the dinosaur

and were surprised to find large
sections of broken tree branches

and trampled earth
where it appeared

that something of significant
size might have traveled.

Given the physical evidence

and the several
eyewitness accounts,

I decided that this would be
the best place for capturing

first-hand evidence of the
reported dinosaur sightings.

The first thing we
should definitely do

is break out the tarps,
get everything covered,

so we can get...

If we're going to use
the tents, we can do that.

This area here
has a couple of trees.

We can start rigging up the
tarps somehow between them.

ERIC: Right.
We can use that

as a kind of mainframe
or whatever,

however you want
to rig it up.

Everything should be
rain covered first,

then we break
out the gear.

Excellent.
Excellent.

So, let's get all the
equipment up on the table now.

NEIL: Let's see if this holds.
All right, we're in business.

JOSH: Base camp
up and running,

we set up our infrared
cameras and equipment

in 200-meter perimeter

in the surrounding
forest and valley.

So if a dinosaur,

or any large animal for
that matter, walked through,

we'd catch it on tape or
see it with our own eyes.

JOSH: It's like half
of the entire country

has never been
walked through.

So, you know,
Iguanodon or not,

it's just incredible
to be able to walk around

in these parts of the country
that are just totally untapped

because you just don't know
what you're going to come across.

JOSH: Since the
locals reported

that the dinosaur killed
several animals in the village,

we brought
a chicken for bait,

which I then hung
from a tree high

because if nothing
larger than a pig

is supposed to be
in these woods,

then only a sizeable,
un-catalogued predator

could reach
our PNGKFC.

JOSH: I think I'm going to try to
get this chicken in the line of sight,

so we'll catch anything
that comes near it on camera.

Something's eating
this chicken tonight.

This is not
wasted chicken.

Yeah.

JOSH: Sun's going down.
Purell, please.

An entire shower
of Purell in my mouth.

Once we get the four
cameras up and running,

in the infrared
thermal imaging,

we're going to need
to be really quiet,

really organized.

We need to be
as still as possible,

so we can pick up
as much as we can

that's, you know,
not from our group.

JOSH: As soon as
the sun went down,

all sorts of insects and
animals and frogs came out,

and you can just hear an unbelievable
amount of sound right now.

(CREATURES CHIRPING)

It's almost just
deafeningly loud

to be standing here,
listening to it.

And, um, just the entire
thing has just sprung to life.

(WHISPERING)
So, this is a Bullard.

It's essentially an
advanced tactical sight.

And what it
does is that

it seeks out heat
signatures in footprints,

so I'm just going to scan the
whole area, see what I see.

(CREATURES CONTINUE CHIRPING)

This is where our
chicken camera is mounted.

Um, the camera
itself is right here.

And it is providing
a view of our chicken,

which is being monitored on
a laptop back at base camp.

It is extremely dark and
extremely creepy out here.

Very creepy.

JOSH: It's so
dark out here

that we need to use
all of our senses

to detect this
supposed dinosaur.

Let's listen for
any twigs breaking,

branches snapping, any
rustling in the bushes,

and if you feel
any vibrations

or shifts in the ground, let me know.

What's this? LINDSAY:
Something is definitely moving.

JOSH: Look, right there.
See it?

ERIC: Yeah,
it's totally there.

JOSH: What is that?
All right, Carter, let's go!

(RUSTLING)

(RADIO BEEPS)

JOSH: (WHISPERS) Well, there's
all this ground around here

that looks trampled,
looks freshly dug up,

bigger than what
I would imagine

a pig's hooves
would do,

so let's see if we can
find whatever's out here.

(RADIO BEEPS)

(RUSTLING)

ERIC: (EXCLAIMS) What
is that? What is that?

Where?

If there's something
around me, tell me.

ERIC: What's that?

(BLEEP)

Base camp,
this is Josh.

Can you read what's
coming out of my infrared?

ERIC: (EXCLAIMS) What
is that? What is that?

Where? ERIC: Go back. Stay there.

NEIL: You were just
pointing at something.

JOSH: If there's something
around me, tell me.

ERIC: You were
pointing at it.

NEIL: We saw it...
There it is. There it is.

JOSH: That is
a dead chicken.

NEIL: (LAUGHS)
It's the chicken.

ERIC: It's still warm?

It's still warm.

ERIC: It is a chicken.

There's some broken
branches here, so I think

something definitely
came after this chicken.

I'm going to try and
track whatever it was.

(RADIO BEEPS)

(GRAVEL CRUNCHING)

JOSH: Let's take a walk.

Carter, it looks like
there's a trail here

heading deeper
into the jungle.

LINDSAY: They're pretty
far away at this point.

Every once in a while,

I get a little bit of
a signal, but not much.

(TWIG SNAPS)

NEIL: What's that?
What's that?

JOSH: Whoa, whoa,
whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

(LEAVES RUSTLING)

Carter, are you
rolling on this?

(BLEEP)

(RUSTLING CONTINUES)

JOSH: Right there.

(BLEEP) What the hell was that?

There's something seriously
big moving around that tree.

(TWIG SNAPS)

Dude.

(WHISPERS) Dude, whatever
that is, it is big.

And it's moving.

(TWIGS SNAPPING)

(LEAVES RUSTLING)

JOSH: I'm not kidding, dude, there
is something huge in that tree.

(RUSTLING)

You hear that?

(BRANCHES SNAPPING)

(BLEEP)

JOSH: There is something
really big in that bush.

Base camp,
come in.

Everything okay?

Well, there's something
seriously big out here with me.

(WHISPERS) I need you guys to bring
the rest of the tracking equipment

so we can find
whatever's out here.

(RADIO BEEPS)

NEIL ON RADIO: Okay, well,
I'm going to walk down there.

NEIL: We got it.

JOSH: Good.

What was it?
What did it look like?

I honestly tell you,
I don't know what it was,

but it's big and it's
down there in the bushes.

I mean, could it
be a villager?

No, like big animal moving
around in the bushes.

Do you remember the
first episode of Lost?

NEIL: Yes.
It's that thing.

JOSH: It's right behind
that fallen tree.

Right up in here.

And it's just all
ripped out in here,

you know, like something's
been through here.

Lots of broken branches

and things are just
ripped apart in here.

(INSECTS CHIRPING LOUDLY)

A praying mantis.

JOSH: Where?

Right there.
On that leaf.

Mmm-hmm.
ERIC: What is it?

It's like a little...

It's a
praying mantis.

Unless it is the world's
strongest praying mantis,

it was not that.

JOSH: What we're going to do is, we're
going to go in and survey this area

and we're going to see if we
can find any physical evidence

of whatever it is that's
moving around in here.

We're looking for
heat signatures,

we're looking for footprints, we're
looking for any physical evidence at all,

because something big is definitely
moving around in these bushes.

HANK: What is that?

JOSH: What was that?
It was down in there.

HANK: I heard it, too.
What do you want to do?

JOSH: It looks as though something might
have broken through these trees here.

Let's just follow this along
and see where it goes.

All right, we're going
to head after this thing,

I want everyone on full alert because
whether it is a dinosaur or not,

whatever it is, it's huge and
it went after that chicken,

so it's apparently hungry.

So, everyone,
be on guard.

This looks like
where the trail ends.

All right, guys, this is
a no-go at this point.

This is all just
turning into swamp,

and it's way too thick. Let's
just go back to base camp,

look over what we got, and we'll
just make a new game plan there.

NEIL: Did you get
anything on tape?

JOSH: Carter, do you
have it on tape?

MARC: The trees moving.

ERIC: There's something
there. Totally.

Freak me out.

Oh, wow. JOSH: You
see that? What is that?

ERIC: It's an animal.
Something big.

NEIL: How big
a movement was it?

ERIC:
It was significant.

Significant. I mean, it was
something of significant size

moving around
in the bushes here.

The whole right side of the
screen was moving around.

There's definitely something big
banging around in the bushes out there,

rustling big trees.

Definitely did not see
the actual animal itself.

I couldn't image anything
on the thermal.

No footprints that I could
make out. I just heard it.

No way it was a person,
no way it was a bird.

There's something big
in there walking around.

Okay, I want you guys to keep
monitoring the surveillance cameras,

see if whatever's out here
decides to show itself.

JOSH: With any hope of catching
up with this nocturnal creature

evaporating
as the sun rose,

I decided to put together a team to
retrace our steps from the night encounter.

I think if we got a guy with
an M16, we should bring him.

There could be
a dinosaur out there.

Right. Okay.
Excuse me?

The gentleman
with the M16.

JOSH: In the light of day,
we searched for any tracks,

broken branches, or any
other possible dino evidence

we might have missed
from the night before.

This area's really dense. It's also
very difficult to search in here.

It's so thickly wooded, that
to do an exhaustive search

in this area is
incredibly difficult.

Before we came in here,
I didn't really realize

just how thick and dense
and swampy it would be.

JOSH: The further into the
jungle we forged, the more it felt

like we were getting
closer to something.

Let's go look.
Come on.

But the something we found wasn't
like anything I expected to come across

in the jungles
of Papua New Guinea.

JOSH: I don't know if they're
logging out here or what. It's weird.

They've got 20 guys
with machetes,

but our guy's got
an M16, so that helps.

What are these
men doing?

(SPEAKING ENGLISH)

JOSH: It's not possible
for us to look around?

(VILLAGER 1 SPEAKING ENGLISH)

We will not disturb
anything or touch anything.

(SPEAKING ENGLISH)
VILLAGER 2: Not this area.

These guys seem really serious
about us not looking around here.

JOSH: I've done many
crazy things in my life,

base jumping,
mountain climbing,

taking a first date
to Showgirls.

So, when faced with a
militia of bounty hunters

armed with machetes
and pistols,

I made the executive decision
any brave leader would.

Let's go.

JOSH: They say we can skirt
around the boundary of this area

they're working in
and continue looking.

Limited to
the strange imprints,

broken branches and, of
course, our encounter footage

from the night before,

we decided to break down camp
and head back to Port Moresby

in order to send our
visual and audio evidence

back to the U.S. For
additional expert analysis

to see what explanations
they might have

for what's out
in those jungles.

But instead of twiddling my thumbs
while waiting for the results,

I decided to make the most of my
time and investigate a local legend

I kept hearing over and over again
as I traveled around Papua New Guinea.

That there is
an aquatic animal

with features
resembling a mermaid

living in a reef off
the coast of New Ireland.

Plus, there was
a fisherman who claimed

to have not only seen this
Ri Mermaid, but caught it,

chopped off its head
and buried its bones.

I had to get to the bottom of
this, and if there was anywhere

to start an investigation into
the truth behind these Ri stories,

a mermaid graveyard
would be it.

You saw a mermaid
this morning?

Yeah.
Well, let's go to see.

Tell me that's
not a mermaid.

JOSH: The one thing
I didn't expect to hear

when traveling through
Papua New Guinea

was that there was a local
creature with features resembling

a mythical mermaid living
off the coast of New Ireland.

If you're like me, the first
thing that pops into your mind

when someone mentions
a mermaid

is either Daryl Hannah
or a cartoon musical

featuring a talking crab
with a Jamaican accent.

But there were several reports of
fisherman spotting what they call a "Ri"

in the waters
of Papua New Guinea,

which are some of the least
catalogued waters in the world.

But the most compelling information
I came across in my research

was that there
was a fisherman

who claimed to not only
have seen this creature,

but caught it, chopped off
its head, and buried its bones.

If there was anywhere to start
an investigation into the truth

behind these Ri stories, a
mermaid graveyard would be it.

Unfortunately, Papua New
Guinea airport had other plans.

Our flight's supposed
to leave at 9:15,

and it's now 9:05 and we're
still trying to get on a flight.

There are problems
with our excess baggage.

Um, and the Papua New Guinea
airport is not the most efficient.

We got them.

JOSH: Ticket finally in hand,
we made it through security

with some extra friendly
patting down

and headed toward
a small village, Nokon,

where the man who claimed to
have the Ri Mermaid bones lived,

and where several fisherman
reported seeing it

in the waters
of Elizabeth Bay.

We landed in Kavieng
and grabbed some vehicles

for the long journey
to mermaid ground zero.

We're going
to a new island.

It's Nokon Village.
It's by Elizabeth Bay.

This is where the mermaids
have said to be seen.

Supposedly, there is a gentleman there
that has a skeleton of the mermaid,

but would not show it
to any of the press.

JOSH: Our security team advised us
to stop for supplies at Namatanai

because after that, we'd be
beyond the civilization barrier.

While I grabbed water
and power bars,

Neil was checking out
the local delicacies.

Why do you keep picking
up corned beef? Seriously.

I mean, are you
out of your mind?

Go ahead.
Get local corned beef.

Enjoy that tonight.

It'd be good.

Just make sure you get an extra
six-pack of toilet paper with that.

"Hi-Way Chicken."

No.

Eric?
Yeah.

This guy on the left,
this support guy...

ERIC: Uh-huh?

He's got a cigarette
hanging out of his mouth.

Is he sitting on the
gasoline canisters?

Right there. He's ashing it right
down on top of the gas containers.

He's a pro.

JOSH: After a long and
slightly treacherous drive,

we finally reached
the village of the man

who claimed to have the
remains of the Ri Mermaid.

JOSH: That's his house?
The little blue house?

ERIC: Yes.

Perfect mermaid spot.

JOSH: He knows of the story
of the mermaid?

(SPEAKING NATIVE LANGUAGE)

Yes.
He does?

Yeah.
And we heard a story

about a mermaid that was found
dead, whose head was cut off.

Does he know
about this mermaid?

(SPEAKING NATIVE LANGUAGE)

Yes, sure.

Where did that happen?

(SPEAKING NATIVE LANGUAGE)

Just down there.
Uh, coconut tree.

They buried the mermaid
under a coconut tree?

Yeah. Just down there.

And he can
show me that spot?

He can take me to the spot
where the mermaid was buried?

(BOTH SPEAKING
NATIVE LANGUAGE)

Um, yes.

Let's go.

Okay.

This spot right here?
How deep did they bury?

The mermaid was
caught on the net,

the fishing net up there,
and then it was pulled...

It was brought in here?

Brought in here, and
that is where it was buried.

Okay. Oh, shovel.
Can I have the shovel?

Thank you very much.

He dug the hole.
Oh, he dug a hole?

Yeah. That's
the fellow.

You dug the mermaid hole?

Himself, together
with other boys.

How deep?

About a meter?
Waist-high. Yeah.

Or a little more?
Yeah.

Is this the
only shovel we have?

That's the only one.

That's the only shovel
we have? Yes. Yes.

(PEOPLE LAUGHING)

I'm looking for
a mermaid underground.

This already seems
extremely dubious.

(INAUDIBLE)

(INAUDIBLE)

Well, we're
way past a meter.

I mean, it's all
roots down here.

I just don't... I don't know if
they could dig any deeper than this,

and I feel like
if something was in this...

If something was
in-between these two trees,

I would have
found it by now.

There's other villages, though, down
a ways with people to talk to, right?

Let's go find a mermaid.

JOSH: Finding nothing but sand
and roots at the mermaid graveyard,

I decided to travel further down
the shore to meet the fisherman

who claimed to have seen the
Ri Mermaid in Elizabeth Bay.

JB? I'm Josh.
Nice to meet you.

Is this your boat?

Yeah.

You've seen her?
Yeah.

When did you see her?

Uh, this morning.

You saw one this morning?

VILLAGERS: Yeah.

You saw a mermaid
this morning?

You sure?
Yeah.

Well, let's go to see.

Tell me that's
not a mermaid.

Are you guys
getting anything?

(RADAR BEEPING)
What's that?

Is this your boat?

Yeah.

You've seen her?
Yeah.

When did you see her?

This morning.

You saw a mermaid
this morning?

You sure?
Yeah.

Well, let's go to see.

JOSH: We grabbed a boat and
headed to the tiny island reef

where our fisherman
had claimed to have seen

a Ri Mermaid
earlier that day.

The team would split in two,
with myself, Neil, and Marc

searching underwater
for the creature,

while the rest of the crew
monitored our surveillance equipment

which included a PiranhaMAX
fishfinder sonar unit,

which would detect
anything large, like a shark

or a mermaid, for that
matter, swimming in the water.

And a DolphinEAR hydrophone
underwater listening device

hooked up to our laptop
to record any abnormal sound

which could be
the Ri Mermaid.

If you were to
hear a mermaid,

what do you think
it would sound like?

Well...

ERIC: It sounds like a whale call. Yeah.

It sounds like
a whale call?

I think it would sound
more like a dolphin.

How do you tell that
it's not a whale then,

if it sounds like
a whale call?

(SINGING
LITTLE MERMAID THEME)

There you go.
Little Mermaid, right?

Boys II Men? Hank!

JOSH: The dive team and myself
got ready to explore some caves

along the underwater reef where
the Ri Mermaid is supposed to hide.

Tell me that's
not a mermaid.

NEIL: I think it's a log.

You may think it's a log. But I know,
as an expert, that that is a mermaid.

How many mermaids have
you seen in your life?

None.

Well, you've just seen one
because that is a mermaid.

I've seen
a tail flipper.

Well, keep looking.

JOSH: There had been
numerous sightings here,

suggesting the Ri would be
the size of a human

with the tail of a fish and would be
hiding in the caves along this reef.

Luckily, we'd brought a sonar unit
to scan inside the dark crevices.

This is a handheld
sonar unit.

Um, we'll make kind of low
sweeps with it in the water.

It'll detect objects by bouncing sonar
waves off of the back of the unit.

It's a great way of detecting
moving things in dark places.

Carter, this is like
Apollo era.

I'm going to be
Buzz Aldrin in this thing.

This just takes the cool factor
right out. I mean, this is ridiculous.

There's a wall out here
that goes straight down.

It's almost
a straight vertical drop.

And that goes down
to over 100 meters,

so what we'll do is,
we'll descend down the wall.

There's a series of caves and
caverns underneath the island here.

We'll take a look in those and, um,
explore those as best we can, and,

uh, probably bottom out
at around 20 or 30 meters.

This is the island where
supposedly the mermaids came from

according to the witnesses
we talked to.

So, I mean, if we're
going to find a mermaid,

it will probably
be down there.

I'm seeing a little bit
of activity here.

It looks like something's
approaching them on the sonar.

(BEEPING)

LINDSAY: I'm hearing
something strange.

Do you want to
check this out?

I hear something.

What's that?

(BEEPING INCESSANTLY)

I hear something
that sounds like bubbles,

and I hear something
that sounds like scratching.

I'm hearing all kinds
of bubbles now. Check it.

It doesn't sound
like the divers.

What are you seeing
on the fishfinder?

It looks like it's about
eight-and-a-half for every two meters.

What is this, though?

All right. So, what do you
think that blob would be?

Tough to say.
I really don't know.

I've been looking at this for hours,
I haven't see anything like that.

ERIC: Are you guys
getting anything?

I don't know what it is, but
it's headed for that sunken boat.

ERIC: We'll see if we can amplify
whatever that scratching noise is.

LINDSAY: You picking
any of that up at all?

ERIC: It's gone.

LINDSAY: Where'd it go?

Is that it?

I see bubbles.

ERIC: I don't know what it is, but
it's headed for that sunken boat.

(SONAR BEEPING)

LINDSAY: Where did it go?

ERIC: I don't know,
but it's not there anymore.

HANK: So we just wait.

All right, I see bubbles.
I think they're coming up.

Shut it down.

All right.

Lots of fish, lots of coral,

big sunken boat, no mermaid.

JOSH: Not finding a mermaid or Long John
Silver's treasure in the sunken ship,

I decided to take another
swing at our native eyewitnesses

as I had a few
more questions

about what exactly it was they
were seeing out there in the sea.

What did she look like?
What is her appearance?

She look like a woman.

And her hair's black?
Her hair's black?

A pig.
A pig?

ERIC: She looks like a pig?

Her hair is like a pig?
The head looks like a dugong?

Well, then how do you know
it's not a dugong?

The tail is different.

The tail is different?
Yeah.

So the head is like a dugong,
but the tail is like a fish?

Yes.

You sure?

JOSH: JB said he was sure,

but I was pretty sure I'd
heard something like this before

in regards to the
European mermaid myth,

which gained popularity after sailors
spotted manatees in the tropics.

Armed with this
new information,

I decided to regroup the team
and go over our findings.

I think more than anything, what we've got
here is just people passing down a story

and passing down a myth, and also
people visually seeing a dugong.

It does have a head
that's kind of human-ish.

And I think that that's
probably what this is.

JOSH: So unless
that log in the water

actually turns out
to be a petrified mermaid,

I'm pretty confident in saying
that the mermaid sightings

in Papua New Guinea
are dugongs.

Unless somebody
wants to argue with me,

I think that we can say with a
pretty high degree of certainty

that there are
no mermaids here.

JOSH: What I still wasn't positive
about, though, was whether or not

the giant animal I came across in
the jungles outside of Tinganavudu

was an Iguanodon
dinosaur or not.

So, I headed back to the
States to meet with a zoologist,

who had lived and studied
in Papua New Guinea,

to go over our
night-encounter footage

and the pictures of the
mysterious giant bones.

I mean, it's safe to say that whatever
we're looking at here is enormous, yeah?

Yeah. It's a big animal.

JOSH: Yeah.

This is bigger
than an Iguanodon.

Yeah. It's got vertebrae
the size of a tire.

Yeah. So, it's definitely a
really, really large animal.

The thing about these vertebrae
that are compelling to me

is these little
markings here.

So this makes me think that they
look like maybe the tail section

of maybe some
kind of a cetacean.

JOSH: What would be a cetacean
that's large enough to...

Well, the one that comes
to mind is sperm whale.

It is a large whale that occurs
periodically in New Guinea's waters.

And sometimes whole pods, a
whole group of them will beach,

which can account for the numbers
of bones that you see here.

We definitely came across
something at night.

So we have some footage of that,
which we'd like you to look at.

Okay.

So, this is footage we shot
in Papua New Guinea,

and obviously it's late
at night, it's dark.

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

See, this extends
way out, too.

I mean, we're talking about maybe
15 feet of tree really moving.

Is there anything
in your experience

that you think lines up
with what's catalogued

and what's known to live
in Papua New Guinea?

The one animal that
can occur in these areas

is the saltwater crocodile.

How large do these
saltwater crocodiles get?

Twenty, 22, 24 feet
in length.

That's huge.
A 20-foot crocodile!

Yeah. So you say this
was near an actual swamp?

It was near a swamp.

A swamp that was treed or
swamp that had just marshy...

It was a swamp
that was treed.

Okay. You know, maybe
they found the swampy area.

There's lots of food. And
they do live in these waters.

They can obviously
come on land.

At least a few
of the eyewitness reports

that would be somewhat
consistent with

because it seems like some of
the descriptions we got were,

it's something
that was reptilian,

but that wasn't necessarily
that high off the ground.

Just something very large
or lizard-y. Large and low.

They're big. If they
bumped up against something,

you know, a tree...

And they can move fairly
quickly when they need to, yeah?

If they need to,
they can move quickly.

And you know, it seems like you would see
them more often walking around at night.

You know, that would be
a time you would think

that a large reptile
would be out walking.

So, and if it's swampy area,
that's the only thing I can think of

that would be large enough that
could make sounds like that and,

you know, be mistaken for
something like a large dinosaur.

JOSH: The doctor's saltwater crocodile
theory was the most logical answer

that I'd come across for
what might really be out there

in the jungles
of Papua New Guinea.

The only thing he couldn't explain,
though, was how a saltwater crocodile

could affect trees and break
branches that high off the ground.

JOSH: Look, I can't say
with any sort of certainty

that we had a run in
with a dinosaur out there.

But it is safe to say we had
some sort of close encounter

with a large animal of
some sort out in the forest,

possibly something not previously
catalogued to live in that region.

Iguanodon?
I don't know.

A big, scary creature thrashing
trees around very close to me? Yes.

JOSH: I only know what I
experienced first-hand out there

in the jungles
of Papua New Guinea,

and ultimately the rest of the world
will have to make up their own minds,

because I had a flight
booked to another country

with other mysteries
to investigate.

So, I boarded my plane and kept my
fingers crossed that my next search

wouldn't involve treacherous boat
rides or digging up mermaid bones.