Tree. Nowhere to hide. Shark snapped the whole front of the cage off, came right inside with us. Surfers, day trippers, and professional divers, make no mistake, this is their turf. Theres always a danger when you are out with wild animals. Anything can happen at any moment. Caught on camera into the deep. Welcome to caught on camera. In this hour, well take you to the high seas where youll meet some of the worlds most mysterious creatures and witness encounters with shocking results. Its all caught on camera. Divers, surfers, and tourists discover what lies beneath the surface of the deep. The islands of thailand. Two divers take off for a day of diving and a bit of fun in the sun. Their dive spot is called east of eden, but a hungry eel named emma turns this tropical paradise into a living hell. We want to warn you, what you are about to see is dangerous. Dont attempt to duplicate this or any of the situations youre about to see. A giant moray eel mistakes diver matt butchers thumb for a piece of sausage. When she fist held onto my thumb, i didnt think it was too serious. I thought, okay, shell let go in a second. After a couple seconds, i realize, wow, i could have a big problem here. Matt is out that day with his friend to see one of the most dramatic reefs in the world and to meet a moray eel known as emma. Matts a british expat, whos been leading dive tours in thailand for a decade. He knows this territory like the back of his hand. Makes the adrenaline rush because you know youre going to see this big, ferocious animal and shes going to come out and interact with you. You can play with her, stroke her, and, of course, feed her. After all, emma is known for her hardy appetite. In fact, shes adored throughout the dive community in thailand, and tour groups flock to see emma in her beautiful feeding grounds. All the dive guides used to take food down for her, sausage, bacon, leftovers from breakfast. Weve fed the moray many, many times, maybe become a little bit come complacent. She was more like a friendly dog than a ferocious animal to us. Matt plays her, teasing emma with his bag of sausages and breakfast food. The moray eel seems to enjoy the games. Here she nuzzles against matts hands and sses back and forth like a playful pet. Matts friend captures the whole thing on camera. When we would approach them, they would swim out and you could have a little play. She would nestle under your arm and you could stroke her. And of course when she started losing interest, thats when the food would come out, just to tempt her back so we could have a little longer time playing with the moray eel. 20 minutes into the dive, the playful emma becomes agitated, swimming more quickly and becoming more aggressive about getting fed. This is when the moray eel swam around the back of me. She could smell the food, saw my thumb and thought it was some sausage or food and she latched only my thumb. And i guess it took five or six seconds. A large popping sound, it came clean off. Like all moray eels, emma has really bad eyesight. Matt thinks she simply cant tell the difference between his thumb and lunch. But moray eels have another, more Deadly Weapon than just a fine set of choppers. Emma bites down with her first set of jaws and then the second jaw buried deep in her throat severs his thumb. Matts thumb doesnt have a chance. Once they bite, its very difficult to . Well, in my case, it was impossible to get my thumb out of the morays mouth. With my other hand i stuck my fingers in her mouth trying to pry her mouth open, but it was no good. I was in shock. It was surreal. I was looking at the bare knuckle. My thumb was gone. She swum away with my thumb. There was nothing i could do. Matt looks on in horror as blood spurts from the fresh wound. Emma holds on tight. At last a terrible sound that matts dive partner hears even at 45 feet beneath the surface. Emmas powerful teeth rip off his thumb like a twig. Surprisingly, matt feels very little except shock and confusion. When it first came off, i didnt feel any pain at all. It was just shock, disbelief, horror. I saw my thumb is missing. I thought, wow, this cant be good. Off she swam with it. There was no chance of getting my thumb back and reattaching it. She was gone. Matt has the presence of mind to swim to the surface, board his boat, and ask for help. In a few hours hes in a hospital in phuket, the nearest city. As he recovers from his trauma under the sea, the doctor gives matt some good news. A new procedure could give him a new thumb. When the doctor said theres a possibility that you can take it off and put on your hand, i said i want an operation, please. Six months after the accident, a team of surgeons remove his second toe and sew it into his hand. Today matt feels and uses his new thumb as if the old one never went away. Despite his bloody battle with the giant eel, matt still dives and leads expeditions to what he calls the most beautiful place on earth. But now hes just a little more careful about feeding the animals. I think if i felt anything, i just feel silly that ive let this happen to me. I was just careless. Looking back at the entire odd mishap, matt is grateful for one thing. I like diving without a wet suit because it makes me feel more streamlined in the water. One of my concerns after the accident, i wasnt wearing a wet suit and i was only wearing a pair of board shorts and i was concerned that it could have been a lot worse if she had swum under the legs of my shorts. Now that would hurt. Coming up . It actually stuck to my mask and my mask was coming off. A giant pacific octopus tries to crush a diver. I thought it was coming straight for him. A 600pound marlin spears a young fisherman. Oh, my, god. Oh, my god. All of a sudden this great white shark about four meters came and grabbed me. A surfer battles two great whites when caught on camera into the deep continues. A divers trapped in a deadly wrestling match with a giant octopus 80 feet beneath the surface. His diving partner catches the whole grizzly struggle on camera. Just that fast, that octopus was on my face. And it was really quite startling. I was shocked. Doug pemberton and danny morrow are veteran deepsea divers, fearless adventurers under the high seas. Theres not much they havent seen, and theres almost nothing theyre afraid of. But a dive in the cold waters of British Columbia would put that fearlessness to the test. It begins as routine as any other dive. It was a relatively uneventful dive. There wasnt anything spectacular about it. But we stumbled on a couple of octopus and things got really interesting. Danny and doug were in an area teeming with fish when they stumble upon an octopus den. I looked down and i thought, great, lets go down and see if anybodys home. Dougs eager to get up close and personal with the normally shy but intensely curious sea animal. So i took my hand and put it at the entrance to the den, and sure enough one of the arms came up and started feeling up my hand. I put my other hand down and another arm came up and started feeling up my hand. And i thought, this is going to be good. Doug, having experience with these guys, knew instinctively to put his hand out in front of the den, and sure enough that animal stuck its tentacle out and started going up its arm. That animal is not just any sea creature but the giant pacific octopus, the largest species of octopus in the world, weighing up to 110 pounds with tentacles reaching up to 16 feet. Though it can be playful, the giant pacific octopus is also a carnivore, and sometimes it doesnt take kindly to strangers. Hell actually come out and interact with you. If they dont want to interact with you, then theyll just leave you alone. Theyre just gone. But occasionally theyll come out and you can have a very memorable experience with them. But this octopus is curious. It wants to reach out touch someone. And that means danger for the diver. And i turned over to look at doug and next thing i know hes got this thing pancaked to his face. In just seconds, the octopus has doug caught in an eighttentacle vice grip. When the octopus first came out, there was quite an impact on my face, and i thought what is going on now . This is like nothing i ever felt before. I thought at first the octopus was just trying to get out and get past my head. The tentacles are latched to dougs face, mask, and regulator, threatening to cut off dougs air supply. It wanted his regulator really bad, almost as badly as it wanted his mask. I dont know if it was curiosity or anger. I dont know what it was. But this animal really wanted his air source. Its toward the end of the dive and doug is already low on air. He struggles to free himself as hundreds of suction cups of pure muscle are pulling on him. Each cup forms an almost unbreakable seal on dougs head and mask. Once the sucker fastens on, its almost impossible to pry off. My mask was coming off. My regulator was coming out and the fight was on. Im at a great disadvantage when im under water, because this is the octopus territory. Thats where the octopus lives. I dont live there. The octopus doesnt need air to breathe. I do. The octopus has eight arms. I only have two. Youre at the octopus mercy. The regulator is slipping out of his mouth. Its do or die. Im trying with one hand to put my regulator back on my mouth and trying with one hand to put my mask back on and with anything thats remaining im trying to peel the arms of the octopus off my mask. One by one, he peels off every vacuumlike sucker and each overpowering tentacle. It was all of dougs strength just to get one arm off, and he had three or four of them all over his head. Id peel one arm off and two more arms would stick to me. Id peel those off and two more would stick over on this side. It was . It was a bit of a fight. After a couple terrifying minutes, the octopus finally lets go. Remarkably, danny morrow catches the whole thing on camera. People ask, why didnt you help him get the tentacles off his face . First of all, dougs a really experienced diver and hes been around a lot of these animals. I kind of suspected that he knew what he was doing. Frankly, i dont think i could have helped him. I think most divers, myself included, would have panicked. Youve got to hand it to him for keeping his composure and not panicking. Dougs still an avid diver, and he loves and respects the underwater world despite his close call with the octopus. I knew that the octopus was not trying to hurt me. There was some miscommunication. Either i had infringed on its territorial boundaries or had interrupted some premating behavior between it and maybe an octopus that was outside of the den. I take great care not to hurt any of the animals i encounter. I wanted the animal off me but i certainly didnt want to hurt it at all. Doug comes away from his undersea struggle with a renewed appreciation for one of the oceans strangest creatures. Thats probably the most he shocking moment ive had diving in 37 years along this coast, for sure. Its shocking, but its also interesting to see another side of an animal that you thought you knew really well, and you come to expect the unexpected when youre diving in these waters. Coming up . A 40ton whale takes a swipe at a 200pound man. I think that tail probably weighed a few tons, and its solid bone and barnacles, and it came at him fast and hard. A nurse shark doesnt like to kiss on the first date. When caught on camera into the deep continues. An idyllic day filming humpback whales off the coast of the Dominican Republic suddenly turns to horror. That one whale came up right underneath me. Im looking like, oh, my god, hes going to hit me. I mean, youve got a couple tons of whale tail coming at you that fast, and its barnacle and bone. It would have been like getting hit with a baseball bat the size of a tree. The day starts out calmly for two experienced divers, danny morrow and jim cosmic. Morrows had his share of Close Encounters. As we just witnessed, a massive octopus put the squeeze on his good friend, doug pemberton. That close call turned out okay as doug clawed his way to freedom at the last second. Morrow has been around the world and back again, filming the wonders of the worlds oceans. His goal on this expedition is to videotape mating humpback whales in the waters of the silver banks whale sanctuary. Literally on the last day of the trip, we stumbled onto a young male and a young female and they were courting, and they were oblivious to us. They just let us do what we wanted. They werent fullgrown adults. They were i guess for lack of a better analogy, they were teenagers, and they were amorous teenagers, and they were cavorting like teenagers do. But, remember, these arent like your typical adolescents. Humpback whales are one of the largest species on the planet. They grow up to 50 feet in length and weigh almost 79,000 pounds. Normally humpbacks stay clear of humans, but come too close, and the results can be deadly. A swat of that gargantuan tail can turn a grown man into fish food with one direct hit. I think they started to think of us as mosquitoes. As cameraman jim cosmic moves closer, the whale appears to swim away. The divers follow. You cant get a good shot of a big animal unless you get close to it. And we were trying to get as close as we can, and maybe we pushed it a bit too far this particular day. This time with dangerous consequences. I think its easy to get lulled into a false sense of security when youre filming big animals. We were right in their face for the better part of three hours. And towards the end of it, i think they just got fed up. As morrows partner swims in for a better shot, the 40ton monster, with a flick of his massive tail, delivers an incredible blow. This particular male was probably 40 feet long, maybe 50 feet long, which means he was probably in the neighborhood of 40 or 50 tons. I think that tail probably weighed a few ton, and its solid bone and barnacles. And it came at him fast and hard. I knew he got hit. I asked him if he was okay, and he pulled his hand away from his head and it had blood on it. The whale tail had cut his head wide open. Jim cosmic is stunned. I dont think he registered immediately exactly what had actually happened, but i knew he was in trouble because he went straight to the surface and he was holding the top of his head. Morrow thinks the whale intentionally took aim at his partner. Whales and dolphins, their tales go like this. And for him to suddenly go like this, its a clear deliberate motion that he was trying to get rid of this pesky person, or probably in his eyes it was like a fly. We were bugging these animals because we were trying to get good closeup footage. Weak, bleeding, and in a state of shock, cosmic swims to the surface and falls into the waiting boat. The tail. He just whacked me. Morrow and the crew try to make sense of what happened. To this day, its one of the scariest things morrow has ever seen. I think if that whale tail had been two or three inches lower, it would have hit him in the temple, probably would have killed him. It nearly knocked him out. It was a nasty incident. It could have gone really south quite quickly. Luckily, jim cosmic is okay. The gash on his head heals without stitches, and hes back, doing what he loves just weeks later. He said that was the most intense experience hed ever had in terms of a physical altercation. I mean, hes a tough s. O. B. , jim cosmic, but he got smacked by that whale and i think it humbled him a bit. And i think hes a little more cautious now when he goes in the water with big animals. Cosmic is not the only one. The team tries to stay away from closeup shots after their teammates Close Encounter with the back end of a 40ton whale. After that incident we backed off a little bit and focused a little more on the wide shots, because i think we were getting a little too close. Coming up, a black marlin skewers an angler. Oh, my god oh, my god i honestly thought he was dead. And jaws takes the bait and comes back for the main course. When she hit, it was like a car accident. When caught on camera . Into the deep continues. Welcome back to caught on camera. Im contessa brewer. The most ambitious fishermen are always pushing the limits, trying to reel in that big one, scouring the oceans for the most exotic and elusive Sea Creatures. In our next story, a young angler battles a giant black marlin. And what happens next is no fish tale. 30 miles off the coast of panama, a family fishing vacation turns into a desperate fight for life. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. I didnt really think it was happening. I thought it was a dream. And then when i woke up, i was on the ground, being pulled into the corner of the boat, spitting up blood. So then it became real. 17yearold steven schultz, his dad, bob, and his sister allison are on a fishing trip in the deep blue tropical waters near panama. Its one last summer trip before both kids go off to school. My brother was leaving for college, so we were going to be going separate ways again, and i was excited. Spirits are high. Its the threesomes first deep sea fishing adventure together, and its a chance for bob to share his love of the sport with his children. Yeah. It was going to be some good dad time. This was a good place to go to try to chase some big fish and get an opportunity to really enjoy the outside and just really get to know each other again. After a few days of catching small fish, the schultzes are on the hunt for the massive black marlin, a fish so fierce even experienced anglers fear their power. Theyre immensely strong and can weigh up to 1,000 pounds. Whooo well, black marlin is an apex predator like the blue marlin is, but they are extremely great fighters. Theyre tremendous jumpers. They do jump a lot. Very exciting fish. The marlins most dangerous feature is its two to threefootlong bill resembling a sword. That weapon, combined with the marlins violent thrashing, can maim or even kill a fisherman if it gets too close to the boat. For the first few hours, the fishing trip is peaceful and quiet. We kind of went on a really long boat ride and then we caught like a turtle, which was fun, and i played with it for a little while. But then steven feels Something Big tugging at the end of his line. The teenager hooks the beast, and the family gets ready to reel it in. Then when the big marlin struck, my dad got all excited and all ready to go. He was, like, steven, get in the chair. The marlin is snagged, and steven settles in for a long fight. The marlin appears briefly and dives deep, trying to shake the line. The big black marlin. The scaly giant jumps a second time, and the crew gets a closer look. The boats longtime captain estimates the fish is more than 600 pounds. Now the fish actually came straight out of the water with its bill, and then it started to jump, and as it was jumping, it was twisting. Tension is high. Allison keeps filming the scene unaware of the danger. Did you get a picture of it, dad . Yeah. I felt safe because i was about five feet away from the edge of the boat anyway. The monstrous marlin makes a horrifying leap. I thought it was getting away. The last second it just lost its momentum, actually the last few tenths of a second, and the edge of its body hit the edge of the boat and it turned its bill towards steven. I see the bill breach the water and then the rest of the fish starts coming up. A