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  • Gav: Today we are on the Illinois River.

  • Anyone die doing this before?

  • Nobody's ever been killed. Just a few broken jaws.

  • Oh, joy.

  • This is one of the most mental things I've ever filmed.

  • Gav: Dan, we got, like, 15 fish in the air.

  • Whoa! Flippin'-A!

  • This is chaos.

  • Whoa, whoa! Oof!

  • That is one of my favorite things we've ever filmed.

  • Well, wasn't that a lovely day on the river?

  • Well, I mean, for you. You just sat on a boat having a nice day.

  • I was holding on for dear life getting hit in the face with fish.

  • - Getting pelted. My ideal day. - Oh, fine, yeah.

  • - No, it was quite fun. - My favorite clip, I think--

  • I think the one of you getting hit in the face.

  • Whoa, whoa! Oof!

  • - ( Gav laughs ) - Jesus.

  • We honestly couldn't have asked for a more perfect shot

  • - That's true. - than that one that just beaned you right in the head.

  • - Yeah. - And that is one of my favorites.

  • I also very much like this shot.

  • Something I noticed,

  • and you can see it if I zoom in,

  • as the fish lands on your life jacket,

  • a little bit of poo.

  • That is fish poo coming out of there.

  • Dan: It left a smear. It left a smear.

  • I wondered why I was getting covered in stuff.

  • I've never been pooed on by a fish.

  • Well, it's all well and good being hit in the face

  • - with flying fish and pooed on. - Well, it looks cool.

  • - Yeah. - But why are they jumping out of the water?

  • To find out, we spoke to a bloke called Jason.

  • So we might as well start with the basics. What makes these fish jump?

  • Well, there's a variety

  • of different things that can make fish jump.

  • These fish are more than likely jumping

  • to try and avoid what they perceive as a predation threat,

  • something trying to eat them.

  • What's actually causing them to respond

  • is the sound and pressure waves

  • that are coming off the hull of the boat

  • and, specifically, the boat motor.

  • - Interesting. - So the fish weren't always here.

  • They're not native to America.

  • They're called Asian carp. How did they actually get here then?

  • They were intentionally introduced into southern United States fish farms.

  • As those ponds were drained, some of the carp escaped.

  • Anything that's connected to the lower Mississippi River,

  • which is one of the largest rivers in the western hemisphere,

  • they're branching out and expanding.

  • So what's the worst thing about them?

  • - What kind of damage do they do? - From a social standpoint,

  • they worst thing they do is jump.

  • People have been injured, when a 6 to 16-pound fish

  • comes crashing into your person.

  • Yeah.

  • ( grunts, groans )

  • The ecological problems that they cause

  • have a lot of us ecologists worried.

  • They eat plankton and other microscopic plants and animals

  • that most of the fish in the river depend on.

  • Right, so they're just, like--

  • they're nipping other fish in the bud before--

  • The worst case scenario is that they keep spreading unchecked.

  • So what can we do as humans to maybe start fixing this problem?

  • The easiest thing to do and the best thing to do is actually to eat them.

  • They taste good, they're good for you,

  • and you don't even have to be a good angler to catch them.

  • They jump in your boat. They volunteer.

  • - It's really the perfect fish. - Wait, so they taste good,

  • - they volunteer to be eaten. - Yeah.

  • You just need to change the name.

  • Just give it a more glamorous name, like a yum fish.

  • Dan: Yummy, yummy fish. That's it.

  • All right, thanks very much, Jason. Very informative.

  • - My pleasure. Thank you. - Thank you very much.

  • All right, back to you Gav and Dan.

  • Thanks, us. Well, you heard what he said.

  • More people have got to start eating these fish.

  • Obviously, I thought we'd do it our own way,

  • so I thought we'd slow cook them.

  • - I like what you've done there. - Thank you.

  • Very clever.

  • Here, we gotta chef up.

  • So while Dan is preparing this delicious Asian carp,

  • why don't we take a lovely slo-mo look at how we caught it?

  • - All right, rolling again. - All right, here we go.

  • Whoa!

  • Gav: That was a good attempt.

  • ( Gav laughs )

  • Gav: But you bend down here.

  • Dan: You see, I was losing my balance slightly

  • 'cause I had to--

  • Gav: And it just shot straight from the middle.

  • - Dan: Getting my balance. - Oof.

  • Gav: But the moment I saw it hit you,

  • I zoomed in for the reaction. It just...

  • Dan: Square on the face.

  • Gav: ...absolutely wiped you there.

  • Dan: It was fine, actually. The helmet worked.

  • That, like, proper wiped me out.

  • I was just gone there.

  • Gav: Very nice.

  • All right, if you scoop one out of the air with a net,

  • - that's 150 points. - That'd be boss.

  • Yeah. All right, let's get back on.

  • Whoa!

  • Whoa! Whoa!

  • - ( grunts ) Yeah! - Oh, he got it!

  • - He's got it! - I got him.

  • Got a big one.

  • ( classical music playing )

  • ( music playing )

  • Can you get off your phone while we're at dinner, please?

  • Sorry. I'm gonna go for the lemon.

  • Oh, God.

  • That's pretty good.

  • - Let's have a taste. - Solid.

  • Tastes like fish.

  • - Weird, that. - Yeah, it's good.

  • Well, I think we learned a lot about Asian carp today.

  • Yeah.

  • I like that I managed to get revenge on the fish

  • that hit me in the face and pooed on me there.

  • Oh, that's the one you caught? It came at you again and you caught him.

  • - Is that what happened? - Yeah.

  • Well, hopefully you enjoyed that episode of "Planet Slow Mo."

  • Be sure to check out more episodes of the show,

  • and subscribe to the Slow Mo Guys, if you'd like.

  • I'm just gonna crack open my fish.

  • Not real, sadly, that.

  • - Ooh! - Salt's real.

  • - Okay. - I got a bone.

Gav: Today we are on the Illinois River.

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