Reality TV Blog: Monster Fish

Bigger Is Better 

 Reasons to watch Monster Fish 

Monster Fish has been on the air for 6 years, the episodes are about a man, Zeb Hogan, he goes all around the world searching for giant fish and how to catch them. Not only does Zeb catch the giant fish in most episodes he searches for endangered species of fish and puts them back into their specific environments that they can survive in. The episodes are very educational, you get many chances to see several different techniques on different ways of fishing.

Jeb with a giant Payara or also known as the Vampire Fish

Jeb has caught several different types of fish in very extreme and non extreme locations. He has gone to Florida to Nicaragua. If you enjoy around the world exploration and the different species they contain, Monster Fish is easily a must watch. The bodies of water Zeb explore can be murky, muddy, and full of sediment and find dark and ugly fish that are big and mean and then can go to a fresh clear water area and find bright and shiny fish that aren't as ugly and mean. Jeb specifically goes to locations like this to find enormous sized fish to record and tag. 

Red Tail Catfish

Why are these fish getting so big? the fish in certain locations have a variety of reasons to why they are gaining in width and length so vastly.  Fresh Biology says "Growth could be at its greatest when warm temperatures are coupled with flow pulses" (TONKIN 2011). Zeb, when searching for his giant aquatic wild life will specifically search for higher temperatures of water because the fish there are more intense in size. During the show Zeb explains and shows off the fish that he catches so the viewers can get more information on the fish and learn about them. Zeb always gives great detail when it comes to the advanced information when it comes to the types of fish he catches.  

When Zeb is out in the water you can feel the passion he has for finding these amazing monsters. He gets very emotional and passionate about the size and style of the what ever type he's after. Once he lands a big one, no matter how hard it was to reel in he always throws the monster fish back with a monster smile. When Zeb went to Mekong to catch a rare catfish he was blown away with that he caught, “This catch is exciting because it signals that the incredibly rare, endangered fish are still in the river and still making their annual spawning migration out of the Tonle Sap Lake and into the Mekong River,” Hogan says (National Geographic) 

Giant Mekong Catfish

Zeb helped write a paper about how most species that are getting bigger are more likely to be rare and eventually possibly go extinct."While the relationship between body size and extinction risk is complex, a considerable body of ecological theory predicts that small-bodied species are less vulnerable to extinction" (Hogan 2007). Zeb typically catches giant fish then puts them in places where they can't be harmed by the environment issues that cause it to be harmed. 

This show is very good if you enjoy the out doors and learning about different giant aquatic animals. Zeb Hogan is in my opinion the best biologist to have as the leader of this show. he knows exactly what to do and how to do it when it comes to fishing and capturing monsters. Monster Fish is the show that makes you want to go outside and help a species out. 

Work Cited

Early Fish Growth Varies in Response to Components of the Flow Regime in a Temperate Floodplain River." TONKIN - 2011 - Freshwater Biology - Wiley Online Library. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Feb. 2017. 

"Rare Giant Catfish Signals Hope for Species." National Geographic. National Geographic Society, n.d. Web. Feb. 2017.

Olden, Julian D., and Zeb S. Hogan. "Small Fish, Big Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish: Size-biased Extinction Risk of the World’s Freshwater and Marine Fishes." N.p., 2007. Web.