Strange World (2016) - Season 1 Episode 5 -

Investigative Journalist Alex Hannaford heads to Australia’s Northern Territory to investigate Mother Nature’s strangest weather phenomenon of all. On February 25th 2010, during a downpour in the wet season, hundreds of fish were reported to have rained down on the remote outback town of Lajamanu. Alex’s mission: to find a scientific explanation for this bizarre event. Knowing that small, indigenous communities are often wary of outsiders, Alex is not surprised when the town’s Aboriginal residents seem reluctant to discuss the events of February 25th. But just when he fears his investigation is stalling, Alex is approached by two women. Both are adamant they saw live fish lying in the town’s streets and are convinced that they rained down from the sky. But intriguingly, neither woman actually witnessed them fall. Unable to find any other Eyewitnesses willing to talk to him, Alex decides to follow a new line of enquiry. Could the particular species of fish at the centre of this bizarre event, the spangled perch, provide him with the answers he’s looking for? Meeting with an expert in Alice Springs, Alex hears of reports that the fish adopts a survival technique known as aestivation. In countries like Australia, where periods of drought can last for months at a time; some water dependant creatures have evolved to survive by burying down into wet sand and mud, lowering their heart and breathing rate to conserve energy while waiting for rain. Could the fish have been living, burrowed underground in Lajamanu during the dry season? Intriguing as these accounts are, they are unproven. What is undisputed though, Alex learns, is that spangled perch are extremely hardy and thrive in conditions where other fish fail. They can be found living in watercourses right across the North and East of the country, including Lajamanu’s closest water body; Hooker Creek. But how did they end up on the town’s streets? To solve the mystery, Alex enlists the help of Australia’s foremost aquatic biology experts who reveals that the spangled perch has developed an incredible dispersal technique. As soon as it rains they fly out their waterhole, swimming across the landscape, through the shallow film of flood water, in search of a new home. Could this be how they reached the streets of Lajamanu? Just when Alex seems to have finally solved the mystery of the raining fish, he receives a call which blows his enquiry wide open.