All language subtitles for The.Proof.Is.Out.There.S06E08.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

- Tonight on The
Proof is Out There.

What did one mayor of
a small town capture?

- These creatures
can kidnap children.

You just don't want them around.

- [Tony] Everyone agrees

it's a classic 1960s
photograph, but is it a UFO?

- What's depicted
appears to be genuine.

What's interesting
about this photo

is the directionality of light.

- [Tony] What is this creature

that showed up on a family farm?

- No one has ever seen
anything like this.

Perhaps this is a
type of evolution.

- [Tony] This haunted hotel
inspired "The Shining."

Was one of its ghosts
captured on camera?

- Guests have reported
seeing the ghost

of the chamber maid, of
cold spots in the rooms.

- [Tony] And is there an
otherworldly explanation

behind these spinning fish?

- Congressman Tim Burchett
stated that he believes

there are alien bases
beneath our oceans.

[dramatic music]

- Around the globe are videos,

[woman screaming]

photos,

and sounds that
defy explanation.

- [Amy] We don't know
where they come from,

who made them, or
how they operate.

- [Tony] What are they?

- [Michael] Some sort
of bizarre mutation.

- [Ed] What's exciting
is, nobody really knows.

- Extraordinary claims
need extraordinary proof.

- I'm Tony Harris.

And as a journalist
for more than 30 years,

I've followed the facts
where they take me.

Now I'm bringing that
spirit of investigation

to the world's strangest
sounds and images.

- [Kate] It's coming towards us.

- [Tony] We'll analyze
each one with top experts.

- It's a credible case,
it's a credible video.

- [Tony] And pass a
verdict on what it is.

- This video was clearly faked.

- The proof starts now.

[dramatic music]

Good evening and welcome
to The Proof is Out There.

Roswell, New Mexico went
down in UFO history in 1947

when the US military
allegedly recovered

a flying saucer
that crashed there.

That case has been
debated for decades.

But did you know
another flying saucer

was caught on film 20 years
later in the very same state?

It's March, 1967 in
Las Cruces, New Mexico,

about 150 miles as the
crow flies from Roswell.

An unnamed student from
New Mexico State University

is photographing land
formations for his geology class

when he spots something
unusual about 500 yards away.

He aims his four-by-five
camera across the landscape

and snaps this.

The photo centers on a
round, metallic object

which appears to hover
just above a low hill,

between two rock crags.

To this day, the
photo is revered

as one of the classic
snapshots of a flying saucer,

in this case,
rotated on its side.

The United States had
recently been a hotbed

for UFO sightings.

And for New Mexico, it all began

with one history-making
headline, RAAF,

which stands for
Roswell Army Airfield,

captures flying saucer on
ranch in Roswell region.

- And flying saucer sightings
took the country by storm.

Between 1947 and 1960,

an estimated 6,500 sightings
of UFOs were registered.

- [Tony] Some were photographed,

like this one in
New Jersey in 1952,

and this one over
Germany in 1954,

but most weren't,

and it's possible
a lot of sightings

were just people being
influenced by all the press.

And then a funny thing happened.

People mostly
stopped seeing UFOs

in the shape of flying saucers.

By the sixties, oval shaped
UFOs began to be reported,

and in the decades since,
people have seen triangles,

orbs, and even cigars.

The diversification
of UFO shapes

has been increasing
ever since, but why?

- Some people believe that
the different types of UFOs

are actually from different
alien civilizations.

- [Tony] That's what
makes this photo,

a flying saucer sighting

years after flying saucers
fell out of fashion,

especially intriguing.

- This photo was taken in 1967,

seven years after
that big craze died,

which has some people wondering,
could it be more credible

because it was after
all of the sightings

and after the big
UFO craze ended?

- With all these
different UFO shapes,

some have even suggested
these are simply trends

of alien spacecraft design,

similar to the way our
cars have changed style

over the decades.

But is this 1960s
saucer the real deal?

Our experts dish
out some insight.

[suspenseful music]

Whenever we see a
UFO photo this good,

we first need to consider
if it's too good to be true.

- What's interesting
about this photo

is the directionality of light.

So, using one of our tools,

we're able to kind
of demonstrate

the consistencies and
inconsistencies in the shadows.

- [Tony] The sunlight
appears to strike the scene

from the upper left, casting
shadows to the lower right.

So we'd expect to find the
UFO's shadow on the ground,

right about here, but
we're not sure this is it.

- Some people have suggested

that you can actually see
the shadow of the object,

but I'm familiar with the
landscape in New Mexico

and these are just
creosote bushes

that grow everywhere
in the desert.

- So although what's depicted
appears to be genuine

in this digital version,

the authenticity is
considered inconclusive.

- [Tony] Could
that missing shadow

indicate that the
UFO is farther away,

maybe something large
floating beyond this hill?

- It doesn't make sense,
when you look at this object,

why it's got this
fuzziness down here,

and it looks very much like
it's in the wrong focal plane.

It looks like the focal plane
is farther toward these rocks,

which are in focus,

and closer objects are gonna
be a little out of focus.

- [Tony] That means this UFO

isn't something
far away and large,

it's something close
and small, but what?

- Let's assume it
was a thrown object.

What was it?

Well, that looks remarkably
like a hubcap to me.

And if so, that would be silver,

which is consistent with
the reflections off of this,

compared to
reflections elsewhere.

- [Tony] The issues with shadows

have us leaning hard into hoax,

but only thing is, our experts
aren't sure how they did it.

- It's very difficult,
like if you had a pie plate

and you wanted to
throw it in the air

and get a good photograph of it,

you're gonna see
more signs of a blur

because of the movement
that it's doing.

- Our verdict, unexplained hoax.

Much like this alleged
UFO, we are up in the air.

It could be a thrown hubcap

captured at just
the right moment,

or it could be
the work of a pro.

Either way, we doubt
it's the real deal.

So if you know anything
about this photo

that we haven't mentioned,
please let us know.

We investigate plenty of
tall tales on this show,

but with reported sightings

of goblins, gremlins
and fairies,

we have our fair share
of little legends too.

Just take a look at this.

March, 2023,

Huasca De Ocampo, Mexico,
just northwest of Mexico City,

Mayor Francisco Flores
calls a press conference.

Standing alongside
two men, he announces

that these workers have
made a stunning discovery

in one of the warehouses
in the town, this.

It's a decomposed creature

that appears to be about
10 to 12 inches in length,

and its present
condition suggests

that it's been
dead for some time.

Take a closer look.

This creature seems to have
a humanoid shaped head,

with two arms, two legs, a tail,

and those ears, they almost
look kind of pointed.

What is this thing?

The mayor publicly declares
that this could be the fetus

of a goblin-like creature
from Latin American lore.

- A duende is a local legend.

Duende translates in Spanish

to something like
dwarf or goblin,

usually described
as small creatures,

maybe a half a meter
tall, with pointed ears,

kinda human-like, but
definitely not human

in any sort of way.

They're mischievous, they're
gonna play pranks on you.

They can kidnap children.

You just don't want them around.

- [Tony] However, just like
the mischievous gremlins

in fairies of European lore,

duendes can also be
helpful to humans.

- One of the most
famous duende stories

happened in the
Colombian rainforest,

when a plane crashed in 2023.

Four children went missing,

ranging in age from 11
months old to 13 years old.

- [Tony] Authorities
feared the worst,

as the small children
remained missing for 40 days

inside a jungle filled
with jaguars, snakes,

and armed drug smugglers.

- They enlisted a local
shaman, who drank yage,

and while he was in his
hallucinogenic trance,

he saw visions of a
duende who had negotiated

for the return of the children,

and within a few days, the
children come out of the jungle,

back to the village.

How did they survive

in the Colombian
rainforest for a month?

- [Tony] It makes sense
this creature was found

specifically in
Huasca De Ocampo,

as that town is
officially recognized

by the Mexican government
for its rich tradition

of supernatural entities.

- Could it be that
goblins are lurking

in the vicinity of this
small Mexican town?

- Duendes seem to be
popping up all over.

In another episode, we
investigated a supposed duende

hanging out in a
tree in Costa Rica.

We determined that one was
just a misidentified bird.

But what about this one?

[mysterious music]

Here's the problem.

Even if we take legends
of duende literally,

this specimen doesn't match up.

- They're described as being
short, human-like creatures

that have wide owl eyes.

We don't see big owl eyes.

And what catches my
eye is this long tail.

Humans do not have tails.

We do have a sacrum and a
coccyx, which is our tailbone

and thought to be the remnants
of tails from our ancestors,

but no human has
a tail that long.

In addition, we can
look at the hands.

Humans have fingers
that separate.

I think these look like paws
more than they look like hands,

and I don't see evidence
of an opposable thumb.

- [Tony] And as far as
the arms themselves.

- The distinctive
anatomy of that hind leg

is in full concert with the
anatomy of the upper extremity.

So these are legs
rather than arms.

They provide support rather
than manual dexterity.

- [Tony] That's
an important clue,

along with the round,
oversized head.

- Both humans and other animals
are born with head sizes

that are larger in proportion
to the rest of the body.

This is because the brain grows

much quicker than
the rest of the body.

So this structure to
me looks much more

like what we would expect in
a animal like a cat or a dog.

- This is almost certainly
just a poor kitten

that died, perished,
and now was found

after it was quite desiccated,

dried out and
virtually mummified.

- Our verdict, this is
most definitely the remains

of an unfortunate kitten.

It would seem there could have
been some monetary motivation

behind this misidentification.

You see, this town
is actually famous

for a museum
dedicated to duendes.

That could explain
why the mayor himself

held a press conference
over this little critter,

and even placed it on
display in the museum.

- In movies like "Close
Encounters of the Third Kind"

or "Independence Day," our
first contact with aliens

seems to be with scout craft
that come to check us out

and then report back
to a larger mothership.

Could that idea be
based on reality?

It's January 13th, 2024 in
Charlotte, North Carolina.

After an evening hike
with her husband,

artist Kate Vasseur
is returning home

when something catches
her eye in the night sky.

- I saw this orb
kind of in the sky.

It was just white, and it
descended towards earth,

and as quickly as it came,

it just shot back up
and then went away.

Then all of a sudden,
just saw all these lights,

and they were just
kind of hovering there.

- [Tony] Kate takes out her
phone and captures this.

- [Tony] A bar of
shimmering lights

floats idly in the
air behind some trees.

Each light appears to be glowing

in different colors
and patterns,

but the entire shape
seems to gain speed

as it moves across the sky.

- It was the weirdest thing.

We just looked at each other

and just couldn't believe
what we had just seen.

- [Tony] But as it turns out,

Kate isn't the first in her area

to experience such a sighting.

- In early 2021,
residents reported seeing

a string of lights in the sky.

Many people posted
their photos and videos,

and a lot of them looked
a lot like Kate's video.

- [Tony] This photo
shows one large light

with other small ones.

That's important,
because remember,

before Kate took the main
video we're talking about,

she saw a smaller light shoot
into the sky and disappear.

What does it mean?

- All of this taken together

kind of sounds like the
typical UFO sighting

of a mothership.

This is a UFO form where
there's kind of a base ship

and it will release or
have other smaller craft

that go away from it
and then come back.

- [Tony] If the whole idea

sounds too much like
science fiction,

keep in mind that
actual scientists

are giving it serious thought.

In 2023, Harvard
astrophysicist Avi Loeb

and former Pentagon
physicist Sean Kirkpatrick

co-authored a paper
which reasoned

that an artificial
interstellar object

could potentially
be parent craft

that releases many small probes

during its close
passage to earth.

Is what we see in Charlotte

some sort of dispatch point

where motherships release
and recapture their probes?

- There's no obvious
explanation of what it is.

So what are these lights,

and why do they seemingly
keep showing up in Charlotte?

- Here's a copy of that paper

written by Avi Loeb
and Sean Kirkpatrick.

In it, they speculate
that the mothership

might send probes to earth

for the purpose of
scientific exploration.

So did Kate witness one
of these motherships

and its exploratory probe?

First, we ask if this could
be some kind of drone,

like the late 2024 sightings
that plagued New Jersey.

- You can see that it's
making a slow movement,

kinda like a straight line.

Then you have it slowly making
what appears to be a turn.

It's actually angling up those
lights as if it were banking.

That's not how drones maneuver
through the atmosphere.

- [Tony] The object also
appears to be moving steadily.

No signs of instantaneous
acceleration,

like that made by famous UFOs
like the 2004 Nimitz Tic Tac.

- This is making banking turns,

moving slowly across the sky.

We're not seeing a
change in direction,

we're not seeing
instantaneous acceleration,

we're not seeing
anything of that nature.

- [Tony] Then what
are we seeing?

The key clue may be, not in
the motion of the lights,

but their color.

- If you notice, as
it flies through,

once in a while you're gonna see

the red light showing through.

You saw it through
the trees there.

There it is again.
You see it there.

What are those?

Well, in the FAA mandated
lighting manual for aircraft,

the left side of your plane

is gonna have the
red light on it,

and the right side's
gonna have a green light.

We also have a belly
strobe on the bottom.

- [Tony] Adding up the lights
and how they are moving,

it seems, this is
no mystery at all.

- This has all the appearance
of being an aircraft

coming in for an approach,

making banking turns, moving
slowly across the sky.

- [Tony] It's that banking angle

that makes the spacing of
the lights look unfamiliar,

and therefore less
easily identifiable

as the shape of a
commercial aircraft.

- The bottom line is,

I think this is a plane on
approach to Charlotte Airport.

- Our verdict,

this is just a
commercial airplane.

But admittedly, there
is still the mystery

of the bright orb Kate
says she witnessed

before she started filming.

We'll keep chasing
down clues ourselves,

and let you know if
we get any updates.

- Genetic mutations are crucial
to the evolutionary process.

They help species
develop new traits,

and adapt to changing
environments.

But sometimes, those mutations
go wrong, horribly wrong.

And when people
start playing God...

Well, check this out.

November, 2018.

It's a normal day
on this small farm

in Sultan Kudarat,
in the Philippines.

Farm owner Josephine Repique

is preparing to help one of
her livestock give birth,

as she's done many times before.

But when she performs
a cesarean section

on a goat pregnant with
twins, she finds this.

While one twin appears
perfectly normal,

the other is anything but.

It's larger and more
rotund, with pale skin

and a waxy, reflective
sheen all over its body.

The hairless animal even
appears to have a navel,

just like a tiny human.

Take a closer look.

Despite being birthed by a goat,

its large, puffy face and snout

have both the media
and online spectators

calling this a strange hybrid

that's half-animal
and half-human.

- People come from all over
the place to come look at this.

What is the creature?

No one has ever seen
anything like this,

and people come up with all
sorts of farfetched ideas

as to what this thing could be.

- There are a number
of states around the US

that have legends of
a terrifying goat man.

One in Maryland says
that a local scientist

transformed himself into a
terrifying hybrid creature

after a DNA
experiment gone wrong,

and now, he stalks the woods,

and attacks anyone unlucky
enough to cross his path.

- [Tony] As far out
as that probably is,

there was a verified attempt

to create a human-animal hybrid.

- In the 1920s,

there actually was a
Russian and Soviet biologist

by the name of Ilya Ivanov

and he was quite a
successful scientist,

but he also became obsessed
with something rather gross,

which was, he thought
that there should be

a human-ape hybrid.

So he tried to inseminate
chimpanzees and orangutans.

Fortunately, none of these
animals became pregnant.

- [Tony] Today, scientists
are experimenting

with growing organs in animals

that can be used for
human organ transplants,

and beyond the lab, there
are some interspecies hybrids

that have occurred naturally.

- There have been polar
bear-grizzly hybrids,

called pizzlies.

And there's even a zonkey,
which is a zebra-donkey.

Is this just an accident?

Is this just happenstance?

I don't know.

But we are seeing it more
regularly in the natural world.

- The Chimera was
a legendary monster

with the head of a lion,
the tail of a snake,

and the body of a goat.

But chimera also refers
to real life organisms

that contain two
different sets of DNA.

It can even happen in humans,

potentially causing two
different eye colors,

two different skin tones, even
two different blood types.

But let's see what
our experts think

about this potential
genetic anomaly.

[mysterious music]

Is it possible that this
creature is a half-human hybrid?

- Now, while this animal
might look a little bit human

in appearance, I think it's
really important to note

that humans cannot
cross breed with goats.

It's just not
genetically possible.

- Even though
they're both mammals,

there's a big genetic
distance between them.

- [Tony] But wait a minute.

We know that it's possible for
some species to interbreed.

- Wolves and dogs, lions and
tigers, and horses and donkeys.

Those species are
already genetically

really similar to each other.

Humans and their closest
relatives, like chimpanzees,

share almost 99%
of the same DNA,

but even then we
could not cross breed.

- [Tony] Then could this be
some type of genetic experiment

gone awry?

- I highly doubt this
is a genetic experiment.

Genetic work conducted
by scientists

is typically conducted in
a controlled lab setting.

This is a Filipino farm.

It's not where you
would expect to see

genetic experimentation.

- [Tony] Then the
question remains,

what exactly are
we looking at here?

- To me, this appears to be
some sort of weird birth defect.

It has siblings right next to
it that came out unaffected.

Whereas that one, something
is obviously very off.

- It's really bizarre looking.

Even in my years of experience,

I've never seen anything
that looks like this.

- Our verdict, we
agree with our experts

that this is neither the work
of bad science nor the devil,

just some sort of birth
defect that we can't identify.

And as far as we can tell,

recent sightings of
the Maryland Goat Man

have been few and far between.

But folks still think
he's out there somewhere.

The Stanley Hotel in Colorado

is known for inspiring
the Overlook Hotel

in Stephen King's classic
novel, "The Shining,"

and for good reason.

Ghost encounters have been
reported there for decades.

Everything from shadowy
figures and disembodied voices,

to what was captured in the
photo you're about to see.

November 21st, 2009,
Estes Park, Colorado.

Krissy Head is staying at the
Stanley Hotel for a wedding.

While taking a hotel tour,

she passes a friend
sitting in a hallway

and stops to take a picture.

On a first look, there's nothing
out of the ordinary here.

Krissy's friend is
sitting on the left.

But just take a
look to the right.

Behind the woman walking
toward the camera

is the spectral outline
of another woman

seemingly turning the corner.

You can see what looks to
be a face, hair, and an arm.

She also appears to be
wearing a long dress.

But the thing is,
during an interview

with a paranormal
investigator, Krissy says,

that ghostly woman
was not there.

- [Krissy] I don't
remember anybody else

coming around the corner.

But it's very clear to me,

I see the outline
of a woman's body,

and I think I noticed it

when we were going
back through photos

later that night on my camera.

- [Tony] That
ghostly female figure

is just the latest potentially
paranormal encounter

in the long and eerie
history of the Stanley Hotel.

- Since its opening in 1909,

multiple guests have
reported ghostly phenomena,

such as cold spots in the rooms,

a feeling like they
get poked or shoved

by some sort of unseen figure.

- [Tony] But the hotel's most
well-known paranormal story

involved perhaps its most
famous guest, Stephen King.

- When Stephen King
and his wife Tabitha

stayed at the Stanley,

the hotel was being closed
up for the winter season.

They were the only guests
that night in the dining room.

And if that weren't creepy
enough, Steven had a nightmare

that night in room 217
which involved a fire hose

that was coiled up in the
corridor outside his room

uncoiling itself and chasing
after his five-year-old son,

events that you'll
see in "The Shining."

King's nightmare was not
the only paranormal event

to take place in room 217.

Residents and
guests have reported

seeing the ghost of
Elizabeth Wilson,

the chamber maid who was blown

from the second to the
first floor by an explosion

in that room in 1911.

- Ghost hunters try to detect
spirits with an EMF meter.

It measures fluctuations

in the surrounding
electromagnetic field,

the theory being that spirits

might be made from
electromagnetic energy

or interact with these
fields in some way.

But can a ghost be
captured in photographs?

Let's see what our experts say.

First, how can we explain our
mystery figure in the hallway?

For one thing, we can
take a closer look.

- There's a number of other
things going on in this image.

We see in the background,

these lights are
all kind of blurred

and they're stretched out,

and this mirror which is
stretched out in this direction.

So everything is smeared
in that direction,

probably because of the
motion of the camera

'cause it's flashed, plus
a slightly longer exposure.

- [Tony] In other words,
objects in the foreground

that are closer to the camera's
flash, like Krissy's friend,

appears sharp.

But objects farther
away from the flash,

like this woman walking toward
the camera, get blurred,

especially if the camera moved.

- We see here this woman's
head has a shadow behind it,

kind of a dark shadow, also
stretch out in that direction,

which makes you think that, is
this perhaps an actual dress,

or could it be just the
shadow of her sweatshirt here?

And if we look down here, her
leg actually kind of matches

with her hand here on the
edge of her shorts here.

So is this actually
a ghostly leg,

or is this just a little
bit of a camera artifact

from the motion of the
camera and her hand?

The most likely thing to me

is that it's just an
artifact of the camera

and it just happens
to look like a person.

- [Tony] There's another
issue with the ghost theory.

Krissy said she didn't see it

when she took the
photo in the hall.

That suggests the
apparition is invisible.

So how could any camera
capture it on film?

- If an object is
truly transparent,

you can't actually
photograph it.

You need light to
bounce off of it

and enter the
device you're using

to capture an image of that.

There's just too much
blurriness in this photo

due to a lack of
focus, due to motion,

either of the individuals
being photographed,

the camera itself, or both.

I think that all of these
much more mundane explanations

make it so that we
don't need to jump

to any paranormal
explanation here.

- Our verdict,
camera distortion.

We agree with Mick West.

No ghosts here, just a
person distorted by motion,

distance, and the lighting.

But if anyone out
there is planning

a stay at the Stanley anytime
soon, a word of advice.

If you scare easy,
avoid room 217.

- The line between
legend and history

often gets blurred over time.

Stories get embellished,
documentation gets lost.

But sometimes,
researchers make a find

that proves a myth
might be real.

And in this case,

the proof was found at
the bottom of a well.

1938, Sverresborg Castle
in central Norway,

a team of archeologists
is excavating a well

on the grounds of this
12th century landmark,

the first medieval
castle in Norway.

Digging down through
layers of stone,

they're more than
20 feet underground

when they suddenly find this.

A partial skeleton is
embedded in the mud.

A closer look reveals
a torso and spine,

with most of the
ribcage still visible,

along with one of the hip bones.

But before any serious
study can be done,

world War II interrupts.

Nearly 80 years later, a new
excavation turns up more bones,

including a left
hand and a skull.

- We could see on the skull

that there is a heavy trauma
on the back right side.

It was fresh when he fell in
or was thrown into the well.

But we can't say for certain
what actually killed him.

- [Tony] Now, this story
takes a really cool twist,

because in this case,
what science can't answer,

local legend can.

- Almost immediately, they
connect these bones with a story

from a book called Sverres Saga,

which is about King
Sverre, in Norway,

from the 12th century.

It discusses all of
his wars, his battles,

his heroic speeches.

- [Tony] Among the
tales from this text

is a rival clan's siege
on Sverresborg Castle

in the year 1197.

- There's one line in
the saga where it says,

they took a guy who
was already dead,

and threw him in the well
and covered him with rocks.

- [Tony] Some people don't
buy that he was already dead.

An even weirder theory

is that something in
the well killed him,

a troll, called a Brondmand,
said to live in wells.

- The Brondmand often
carries a crook.

So if a child, or
maybe even an adult,

is leaning too
far over the well,

they'll take the crook and
pull them into the well

so that they die.

Legends are generally based
upon the fears of the populace.

And there are cases where
people fall into wells and die.

So could this be proof
that the legends were true?

- This would not be the
first medieval legend

to have a shred of truth.

Some claim that Merlin,

the famous wizard of
a Arthurian legend,

is based in part on the
medieval Welsh poet and prophet

Myrddin than the Wild.

Could our Wellman legend
also be based in reality?

Let's ask our experts.

First, could our Wellman
have been a victim

of the well-dwelling monster
known as the Brondmand?

The issue there is that if the
Brondmand had really existed,

it would have made life almost
unlivable for everybody.

- If you do not have
a pure water source,

it would be extremely
difficult in these times.

You're not gonna survive,

because everything
depends on it,

your crops, your
animals, the people.

So I think the Brondmand
is more or less used

to scare children from
hanging around wells.

- [Tony] So could our
Wellman be the dead body

mentioned in the Sverres Saga?

- The skeleton does come
from about 900 years ago,

just when that saga was written.

And we've done DNA
studies on the skeleton,

which do show that this
person was of Danish descent,

with blonde hair, blue eyes.

The DNA shows that he was
part of the invading force

who came from another
area some distance away.

- [Tony] In other words,
the forensic findings

confirm the line
from the Sverres Saga

about a man from a rival
clan being tossed into a well

during the siege on
King Sverre's castle.

But why would anybody do this?

According to the text
of the Sverres Saga,

it was a grisly but
effective war tactic,

and the evidence matches.

- If this was a person
who already died,

throwing a body down in the well

would definitely
pollute that water

and get the people who
were using it sick,

and eventually they
could invade the keep.

That's certainly a cold
and mercenary hypothesis,

but it's not out of the
realm of possibility.

- Our verdict, true story.

The Wellman is no myth.

The forensic examination
backs up the story

that's told in the Sverres Saga.

On this show, we often
ask whether the folklore of

ancient or so-called primitive
cultures might be real.

In this case, the answer is yes.

- Fish tend to be
quiet creatures,

but they do communicate
in their own way.

Using specific movements,

they say things to other fish,

like, this is my coral,

or, follow me to food.

But lately, some fish
off the coast of Florida

had been moving very strangely.

What are they trying to say?

It's October 6th, 2023
in the Florida Keys.

Gregg Furstenwerth is
out for a night dive

when he sees something
peculiar in the water.

A distressed pinfish is
spinning over and over

in upside down circles.

- I just know that
I was recording

something odd at the time,

and then I decided to
ask people around me

if they had ever seen
the behavior before,

but nobody had any answers.

- [Tony] On subsequent dives,

Gregg observes the same
behavior again and again.

- I was noticing it in
a vast array of species.

My wife and I recorded 78
species that were impacted.

Oh, no.

- [Tony] From pinfish,
to mangrove snappers,

to Goliath groupers,

these fish aren't
just spinning for fun,

they're spinning
until it kills them.

- Look at that.
That's a baby Goliath.

That one took about
two and a half hours

to die in front of me,

and that's a protected species,

which really set me to,
this is a serious problem.

- [Tony] Gregg and his
observations make national news,

drawing attention to the
deepening marine mystery.

- Probably of greatest concern
is the smalltooth sawfish.

It's very endangered.

And sure enough, just a month
after this video was taken,

marine biologists identified

over 20 of the
smalltooth sawfish

had been inflicted by
whatever's going on here.

- [Tony] What's
causing all this?

Some wonder if it could involve
some aquatic alien activity.

- In January, 2025,
Congressman Tim Burchett

actually said that he believes

there are alien bases
beneath our oceans.

As ridiculous and improbable
as that may sound,

we as humans have
actually been working

on creating underwater bases.

Currently we have the
Aquarius Reef Base,

which, as a scientist,
I absolutely love.

This was established
to host researchers

to conduct experiments,

and researchers there are
referred to as aquanauts.

- [Tony] If aliens are
also operating underwater,

what does that mean for
the animals living there?

- People are suggesting
that perhaps frequencies,

or other more sinister things,

might be affecting
fish in the estuaries.

Fish have something
called a lateral line,

so they can feel vibrations.

The lateral line is
actually what enables fish

to school together,

because one slight
change in one fish

is felt on their side by all
the other fish in the school

and they can
navigate accordingly.

That means fish are
very much more sensitive

to vibrations in
their environments.

- We also know that human
craft can harm sea life.

For decades, research
studies have suggested

a link between navy sonar
and whale beachings.

Could something like that be
what we're looking at here?

Let's ask the experts.

The spinning fish phenomenon
is certainly strange,

but is it
underwater-alien-base strange?

- The Florida Keys are
a really populated area,

and I would expect,

if there were something
incredibly strange

harming animals,

we would also see it in
things like manatees, birds,

and even reptiles.

This phenomenon, whatever it is,

seems to be directly
linked to fish.

- [Tony] And we can rule out
sonar for a similar reason.

- We would see dozens if
not hundreds of animals

on the surface of the water.

For example, in
September of 2002,

there was a mass stranding

of beaked whales in
the Canary Islands,

and this was directly
tied to sonar activities.

- [Tony] Instead,
this may tie back

to a major marine heat wave

that hit the Florida
Keys in summer 2023.

- In the tidal zone
along these areas,

water got to above
a hundred degrees,

which is equivalent
to a hot tub.

And these warm temps can
make things like pathogens,

and parasites, and
bacteria, and viruses,

reproduce even more quickly.

- Scientists determined there
is a higher concentration

of dinoflagellates in the water.

This species is a
single celled organism

that normally lives on
the bottom of the ocean,

but warmer temperatures
have caused it

to go higher up in
the water column,

and these can
produce neurotoxins.

- [Tony] That was the consensus,

but then something happened.

The behavior recurred,

this time in places without
high levels of dinoflagellates.

- The reality is,
there's a lot going on

that we don't
totally understand,

and the only way
we're gonna be able to

a hundred percent define
what's going on here

is through molecular
sequencing and diagnostics

of both the fish and
whatever's affecting it.

- Our verdict, unexplained.

We think toxins can
affect fish behavior,

but the more recent
reports of spinning fish

make us question
their role here.

Meanwhile, a 2004
ban on military sonar

surrounding the Canary Islands

led to a major reduction
in whale beaching there.

Let that be a
lesson to all of us.

That's our show for tonight.

Thank you so much for watching.

And as always, keep
those cameras rolling.

[dramatic music]