Menhaden: Most Important Fish in the Bay Page #6

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we actually ever see him.

- That's not an insult. I like her.

- He died that night.

- I know you do.

- A lot of this footage

is thanks to him.

Where are you going?

Governor's office.

Yeah, hi.

This is Dr. Jack Abrams.

I'm at the Atlantic Hospital

in Claridge.

I need to speak

to the governor immediately.

The governor is

away from his desk.

I don't

understand how the nurses

are just hurrying by

and they're not even stopping.

Look at that.

She didn't even stop.

Scoot up.

- Look, I am.

- There are like 20 feet in front of us.

- Jesus.

- Dad!

Stop honking the horn!

- Please stop texting.

- I'm not texting.

Please don't be YouTubeing this.

Please.

Oh, my God. She

just said "YouTubeing."

We're having an

outbreak of some kind here.

A medical outbreak

down here in Claridge.

People are dying here.

I have been speaking to the CDC

They are moving

at a snail's pace...

I will pass the

message on to the governor

- as soon as he gets back.

- What do you mean, you have it?

Well, go. Go out there and

document everybody that you see.

Don't document me.

Don't waste the damn film.

Get back in, please.

Nobody

ever got off that bridge.

It was shut down

for three days, actually.

Um...

I did a lot of research.

There's no record

of who ordered it shut down.

I got it on autopilot.

- Oh, good.

- Yeah.

- GPS is amazing.

- Oh, yeah?

Really mastered the technology.

- Yeah, well...

- They said take the next right, though.

And I don't know

what they're referring to.

- Just go around in circles.

- That's fine by me.

You know, we don't

have to be here.

They're not gonna

post any of this.

The FBI are not gonna allow it.

They said we shouldn't

try and scare people.

Well, there's a little

something called the First Amendment.

- Is it rolling?

- Yeah, we're rolling.

Good evening.

This is Donna Thompson

reporting from what used to be

the fairgrounds

of the July 4th party...

- Did you hear that?

- Yeah, what was it?

What the f*** is that?

I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

You say you

were hearing these screams

all across...

I'm sorry. The Skype

broke up a little bit.

What did you say?

Just echoing through the air?

I mean, all different

directions?

Oh, yeah.

I mean, there...

it was very faint,

but it was very,

um, prominent.

I heard them coming from here.

I've heard them

coming from there.

It was far away, but...

it was very ghostlike.

You know, I...

And the pain in the people's

voices, I could hear them.

They were like cries or...

like cries for help.

But you didn't know

where anyone was?

No. I had no idea

where anybody was.

Be advised.

Need you to respond

to the corner of

St. James and Highmarket.

We just got a phone call

in reference to

hearing some screaming

or some type of

loud verbal noises

from across the street.

You think it's, like,

a group or one person?

- I don't know.

- Like, maybe one of those cults, you know?

Like they were talking

about on the radio?

I don't know.

All right.

Stay here and keep

your eyes out, huh?

All right.

What was that?

Did you hear that?

Police, open up.

Police, open up.

I'm gonna go in.

Hello?

Hello?

This is Donna Thompson

reporting from what used to be

the fairgrounds of the July 4th party.

Um, at the moment, we are not

quite sure what's going on.

Central, this is SM 10-12.

Be advised, shots fired,

shots fired

at 352 St. James Street.

Send assistance immediately.

Central, advise.

Did you copy?

Central, please advise.

Do you copy?

Send backup.

A shot has been fired

- Jim?

- at 352 St. James Street.

- Central, be advised...

- Jim, are you in there?

I don't know if

anyone's listening there.

I'm gonna enter

the premises now.

SM 10-18 is

currently inside.

- Please send backup.

- Jim?

Jim!

I'm coming in!

I'm coming in!

- Oh, my God. What's this?

- Please!

What are you doing?

No, no, they're not

dying, they're not dying.

They're all dying, they're all dying.

Look at them all.

No way. What

have you done, Jim?

Oh, my God.

I don't know...

I don't know what they are.

- What is on those people?

- I don't know what it is.

It's crawling on their bodies.

Let's get out of here!

Did you cut it off?

You can't do this.

You can't do this!

Oh, my God!

Get it off, get it off!

Jim, wait.

Jim, no, no, no, no!

It's me, Paul.

This is Cessna 1-5-7.

Go ahead, Cessna 1-5-7.

I'm just trying to

figure out what the hell's going on.

I know they shut down all the

roads going into Claridge,

but now I'm flying over

the water here

and there's just, like,

a shitload

of dead fish everywhere.

Did you say "dead fish"?

I don't know

how many, but, um...

it goes as far as I can see.

So you just got this?

Yeah, from a research professor

at the University of Maryland.

And this, uh, Cymothoa exigua?

Do we have any

information on this?

Yeah, the exigua

is a crustaceous isopod

normally found in the Pacific.

It's been making a number of

appearances in the Atlantic.

Last year, they found a

two-and-a-half-foot one

trying to burrow its way

into a submarine.

The thing thought it

was a dead whale.

Are you making this up?

This looks Photoshopped.

No, it's real.

So, how's that getting

into the water supply?

Well, at normal

scale, they're quite common.

The fishermen

call them "sea lice."

Yeah, but, I mean,

it's this big.

How's it gonna get through

a filtration system?

Well, what about the larvae?

All right, now we're bringing up

more questions than we can answer.

We gotta find out what

happened to those two divers.

Yeah?

Let's go.

Okay, here we are.

We got a nice break

in the weather.

So, we're gonna go catch

the current out to Claridge,

take an up-close, personal

look at these parasites.

See what we're dealing with.

See, you take a look around,

it's beautiful.

It's breathtaking.

One of the most beautiful

estuaries in all of America.

You'd have no idea

what's underneath.

How was that? Was that

not very good at all?

- Great.

- What?

- That was very good.

- Okay, one more time.

A little crisper.

I feel like I'm sitting

very strangely.

Do people sit

like this? Okay.

Now bring the camera to me.

I'm gonna get us

some beauty shots here.

Get a sense of place here.

You wanna see the vista,

here, and the sun.

Beautiful water.

Beautiful, placid water.

You have no sense

of how the ecosystem's

actually being affected.

You have no idea of the

nightmare underneath here.

Take an up close and personal

look at these parasites.

See what we're actually

dealing with.

We'll go take a look ourselves.

You can see in this footage

that the oceanographers dove

right into a school

of fully-grown isopods.

This is not

the sea lice variety

or the larvae.

This is what killed them.

And what killed

those young teenagers.

The question we

continue to ask is,

did the authorities

not look at this footage?

Or chose not to reveal it?

Jim?

Jim?

Do you hear that?

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