02x01 - Aquarist for a Day, Mandarinfish, Whale sharks of Holbox

[bunniefuu]

- [Narrator] Coming up next on
"Jonathan Bird's Blue World,"

Jonathan searches for a
rare and elusive reef fish.

Then he tries to keep up with
the world's largest shark,

the whale shark.

But first, he's in Aquarius for a day

at the New England Aquarium.

All of this today on
"Jonathan Bird's Blue World."

Meet Jonathan Bird,

one of the world's top underwater
nature cinematographers.

[bright music]

Traveling the world on assignment

for all the major networks,

he is an Emmy Award-winning authority

on the underwater world.

[bright music]

In freshwater or salt,

reefs, wrecks, or caves,

Jonathan documents the
world beneath the waves.

[bright music]

Welcome to the "Blue World."

[bright music]

- I've always wanted
to know what it's like

to work in a big aquarium.

So I came to the New
England Aquarium in Boston

to learn what it takes to be an Aquarist,

how hard can it be?

Founded in 1969, the New England Aquarium

is one of the most famous public aquarium

in the United States
and an icon of Boston.

Over a million people visit
the New England Aquarium

every year to see amazing exhibits

and the world famous giant ocean tank,

a 200,000 gallon tropical
coral reef exhibit.

I arrive nice and early
to meet Sherry Floyd,

the senior Aquarist.

Hi Sherry.
- Hey Jonathan, how you doing?

- Good, how are you?
- This is my coworker, Alicia.

- Hi.
- Hi, nice to meet you.

- And she's gonna be spending

a good portion of the day with you today.

- Oh, great.

- Whip you into shape.

- Lucky you.

- Okay, we're gonna be feeding sharks

in the giant ocean tank today,

but before we do that,

you're gonna have to earn your dive

in the giant ocean tank.

- Oh, oh.

We're gonna start by scrubbing the floor.

So come with me.

- I can hardly wait.

Shh, people work here.

Dozens of Aquarius work here,

and I'm going to find out what it takes

to keep the exhibits running

by becoming an Aquarist-in-training.

I must look smart

because they start me right
away on an important job.

Being an Aquarist is hard work.

Soon Sherry recognizes my natural talents

and moves me up to something

with much more responsibility.

- [Sherry] Okay, ready?

- I'm an Aquarist-in-training
baby, right here.

But cleaning the drain is
definitely paying my dues.

[playful music]

You know...

[playful music]

When I thought I was gonna
be an Aquarist today,

I figured I'd be feeding
the fish and hanging out,

scientists, learning all kinds of biology,

but I'm getting goo out of a drain.

At last I've graduated
to something important,

food preparation.

All the fish needs
something special to eat,

and all of that food has
to be prepared in advance.

- Oh yeah, smells good, huh?

- Fishy.

- We keep it in a-
- Squid are one of the

main items on the menu,

and they have to be prepared
by removing the beaks

and then cutting them into
appropriately sized pieces.

Alright buddy, you're getting debeaked.

- [Sherry] Flip the tentacles open.

- [Jonathan] Okay, tentacle man.

- [Sherry] Pop it like a pimple.

It's from the bottom.
- Like this?

- [Sherry] Yep. And then pull
it out with your fingers.

- [Jonathan] Oh dude. Ugh.

- You can give it to me.
- Oh, thanks.

Oh look, some squid goo.

- [Sherry] Oh yeah,

lots of goo comes out.
- That's goo.

Ooh, delicious. Hmm.

This will be a bad time to cut yourself.

Okay, so I have some little squid rings.

- Yep, so then we'll put that-
- We deep fry them?

- [Sherry] No.

- Oh, good gracious

look at the size of that.
- So this is a large squid.

- I'll say.
- This is what the sharks eat.

- Ooh, yummy.
- So the beak

is much larger here.

- Food preparation takes a lot of time

and it has to be done four times a day.

Okay.

- [Sherry] What else can I show you guys?

- Ew.
- Oh, it's not.

So yeah-
- So far there's nothing here

that I really want to eat.

- Oh, come on.
- Except for the squid.

- [Sherry] You'd eat a squid.

You'd eat a squid?

- No, I wouldn't.

- Here you can hold that.
- Next, I learned to burp

the air out of the swim bladder

of a smelt so it will sink.

- Wanna burp one?
- Sure. I'll burp one.

- [Sherry] They're very slimy.

- [Jonathan] Oh, a slimy smelt.

- Push like up the stomach.
- Like this?

- Push from down up.
- I'm gonna aim 'em at you

when I do this.
- No, no, no.

- [Jonathan] Then I remove
the row from Caplin.

The eggs are food for smaller
animals in the exhibits

and the fish themselves
are fed to larger animals.

Mm-hmm.
- Mm-hmm.

- Fish eggs.
- Yeah.

- And?
- Do they smell fresh?

- They smell very fishy.

- It's about as fresh as you get.

- Finally, it's out to the
GOT, the giant ocean tank

to start feeding some of the fish.

I'm surprised to learn
that the fish are hand fed.

It's hard to believe
that with this big tank

we have to actually sit
here and feed specific fish.

You can't just throw the food in.

You have to actually pick

and choose which fish you're feeding.

That seems like a lot of work to me.

Here you go.
- And go.

- Oh yeah. Good job.

- Finally, Sherry gives me a briefing

on what to expect in the GOT

and I start suiting up for my dive.

Outside it's the middle
of winter in Boston

with temperatures below freezing,

but I'm getting ready
to do a tropical dive.

I check my camera and
it's off to the dive site.

And off I go.

Down the hallway and
through the double doors.

[lively music]

I'm really excited about my dive,

but I can't help worrying about

what tasks lay ahead of me in
my Aquarist training program.

Alright, it's the moment of truth.

[crowd indistinctly chattering]

It's February in Boston
and I'm going diving.

- [Sherry] With no hood.

- With no hood,

All right, here we go.

[crowd indistinctly chattering]

Okay, here we go.

- [Sherry] Here we go.

[crowd indistinctly chattering]

- [Announcer] There is Jonathan Bird.

- I hit the warm water with a splash

while hundreds of people watch

and head down below the surface

to swim with the fish in
this enormous fish tank.

Except for all the people
looking in through the glass,

it would be easy to believe

that this was a real Caribbean reef.

There are so many fish
and the water is so clear.

I feel just like I'm diving

at some beautiful Caribbean island.

[ambient music]

Of all the animals in the tank,

of course, the sand tiger
sharks are my favorite.

The Aquarist keep them well fed,

so they're not aggressive at all,

but they are beautiful to watch.

Unfortunately, I have to work.

A diver has to scrub
these windows every day

to keep the algae from growing on them.

I tried to tell them I don't do windows,

but an Aquarist job is never finished.

Meanwhile, Sherry is checking
the health of the fish.

She's down on the bottom
examining a nurse shark

that has a small cut.

[ambient music]

When I finally finish the windows,

Sherry demonstrates how she
feeds the sand tiger sharks.

They aren't always hungry

since they're fed regularly,

but the Aquarist use a pole to feed them

because when they do decide to eat,

you wouldn't want your fingers
anywhere near those teeth.

[ambient music]

I hang back and film
the action for a while,

but soon Sherry decides that I'm ready

to try feeding the fish.

This is exciting. I finally
get to do the fun stuff.

She hands me some squid
and I look for a taker.

The pressure is on because
everyone's watching.

A cownose ray comes up and
tries to take the squid from me,

but I haven't quite gotten the hang of it.

[playful music]

The ray gives up and moves on.

So I try feeding the
nurse shark using the pole

just like Sherry showed me.

But talk about getting the cold shoulder.

At last, Sherry takes pity
on my pathetic attempts

and gives me some caplin.

I'm told I can't go wrong
with this irresistible,

delicious fish.

My first taker is a cownosed ray,

and I can't resist giving her

a little belly rub as she swims over.

I must be doing something right

because she takes a lap around the tank

and comes back for more.

[water rippling]

Next Myrtle the turtle comes over.

Turtles are supposed to
eat plants and jellyfish,

but Myrtle isn't picky as
you can see from her figure,

she likes food.

And when Myrtle wants food,
you just give it to her.

Forget the sharks, Myrtle runs this tank.

The cownosed ray is back for thirds.

[water ripping]

Aren't they cute?

[water rippling]

Next I try my luck with a large Pompano.

[water rippling]

With all the fish fed, my
job in the GOT is finished

and I head for the surface.

It's been a long but
thrilling tropical reef dive

right in the heart of Boston.

I head back to the swim step,

reluctantly, I must get out of the water.

That was great.

Three sharks and none of 'em
would eat anything from me.

They don't like me.

Back in the dive locker room,

I can enjoy a nice clean shower

and I know that the drain
won't get plugged up.

So what did I learn?

Being an Aquarist is hard work,

it's not all fun in games.

Much of the job is
devoted to prepping food

and cleaning exhibits,

but if you love the
creatures of the ocean,

few things can beat the fun

of working with animals like this.

And if you're lucky enough

to spend a few hours a day
diving in the giant ocean tank,

well this just might be
the best job in the world.

- [Sherry] Next on "Jonathan
Bird's Blue World,"

Jonathan goes into the ocean

with the world's largest shark,

but first he searches for an elusive fish.

- The ocean is full of amazing fish

like this school of surgeon fish

feeding on algae on the reef,

[water rippling]

colorful anemone fish,

[water rippling]

or this school of sweepers

hiding in the coral for protection.

[water rippling]

One of the most beautiful

but rarely seen fish is the mandarin fish

found on coral reefs of the Pacific.

Mandarin fish are extremely shy

and only come out of the
reef at dusk to mate.

I'm here in Micronesia
on an island called Yap,

one of the best places in the
world to find mandarin fish.

And this evening I'm going on a dive

to see if I can find a few.

[water rippling]

I enter the water right at sunset.

As the light levels get lower on the reef,

the daytime fish feed before
they must hide for the night.

A lot of changes take
place on the reef at dusk.

[water rippling]

Just before the sun sets,

I have my best chance of
finding a mandarin fish.

In the dim light I search
the reef carefully.

I can't use a flashlight

because it would scare the tiny fish.

Mandarin fish are very shy,

they rarely leave the protection

offered by the nooks and
crannies in the reef.

There, a small amount of
movement catches my eye,

a mandarin fish.

[water rippling]

If I didn't know where and when to look,

I would never find it.

[water rippling]

As the sun sinks lower in the sky,

the light levels drop and
something magical happens.

The mandarin fish peaks out
to see if the coast is clear.

These reclusive fish

only venture from the safety
of their coral home to mate,

and they only do it in a
narrow window of time at dusk.

[soft music]

A male wanders from female
to female courting each one.

His goal is to spawn
as many times as he can

with as many females as possible.

He's not particularly
choosy about a partner.

The female size him up,

they're a little more selective
about a mate than he is.

He's not worried.

If one female gets cold fins,

another one will jump
in at the last minute.

Then the male and the female pair up

and begin to make practice runs

rising up off the reef cheek to cheek.

[water rippling]
[soft music]

At last, the pear spawns for real,

rising well above the reef

to keep the eggs from
being eaten by the coral.

The male and the female

release their spawn at the same time.

The eggs are fertilized
in the water column.

Over and over the male spawns
as many times as he can,

perhaps as many as 10
times in half an hour.

The fertilized eggs then
drift off into open water

to develop into tiny baby mandarin fish.

Most will not survive to adulthood.

Once darkness comes, the spawning ends.

The mandarin fish seek
protection in the reef

safe for another day.

[water rippling]
[soft music]

[water rippling]

Well, it's after sunset

and the mandarin fish have
finished mating for the night

and gone back into the reef.

They won't come back out of the reef

until tomorrow night.

So for now, it's time for me to go to bed.

- [Narrator] Don't go away,

Jonathan is about to swim
with the world's biggest fish,

a whale shark.

- I've journeyed to the warm

and shallow waters of tiny Holbox Island

in the Gulf of Mexico

to find and film the world's largest fish.

Holbox is barely more than
a sandy speck on the map

at the northern end of the Yucatan.

It's not your typical tourist destination.

Until recently, this sleepy island

wasn't much more than a fishing village.

There are no paved roads

and everyone gets around in golf carts

or other non-conventional transportation.

The highway here is a stretch of beach

where you can hit maybe 20 miles an hour

if you have a fast cart.

Downtown, this island
has the charm of a place

not yet discovered by throngs of tourists.

But everywhere there are signs,

something special has
been discovered here.

Offshore in the cool waters
of the Gulf of Mexico,

a giant lurks.

[upbeat music]

I get up early to meet the boats

to take me and a few
other intrepid snorkelers

on the adventure of a lifetime.

Right, let's go find some whale sharks.

Instead of catching fish,

these former fishermen are
now making their living

taking tourists to swim with
a fish, a really big fish.

Using a GPS receiver to help him navigate,

the captain takes us
about an hour offshore.

[upbeat music]

Our guide, Andreas, watches the water

with a carefully trained
eye on the horizon.

[upbeat music]

Soon we pass a pod of dolphins.

[snorkelers indistinctly chattering]

They circle the boat a few times

to check us out, then vanish.

Then we come across a group of eagle rays,

frolicking at the calm surface.

[water rippling]

I've never seen eagle
rays doing this before.

I'm not even sure what they're up to,

but after a few minutes,
we have to move on.

We put the boat back in
gear and keep looking.

A ripple up ahead catches
Andreas's keen eye.

As we approach, we find a giant manta ray

feeding right at the
surface, mouth wide open.

[water rippling]

Mantas can reach 20 feet across,

but this is just a small one,

only about the size of a car.

[water rippling]

Finally, Andreas spots
what we're looking for,

the huge head of a whale shark

sticking up out of the water.

As we pull the boat up
alongside the shark,

I can see its massive mouth open

and funneling water in like
a gigantic storm drain.

The shark is feeding, but
what could it be eating?

It's more than 30 feet long.

What could feed such an enormous animal?

To find out, I dawn my snorkel
gear and hop over the side.

[water rippling]

The whale shark passes
right in front of me.

The water is not very clear,

and this is where I get my first
clue what is going on here.

The sharks have come to
this section of the ocean

because it's filled with plankton.

Whale sharks might be the
biggest fish in the sea,

but they eat only plankton and small fish.

The word plankton comes from
a Greek word meaning dr*fter.

So plankton are drifting organisms

like these tiny copepods.

The water is filled with
copepods, jellyfish,

and other drifting animals.

They might be small,

but these planktonic animals are all food

for the mighty whale shark.

Early in the morning
when the water is calm,

the plankton forms a thick
layer near the surface.

Whoa.

[bright music]

He is just surface feeding.

What the whale sharks do here

is they swim across the
surface of the water

with their mouths open wide,

and all that plankton

that's sitting right at the surface

gets funneled right into their mouths.

[bright music]

The enormous mouths wallows
up huge quantities of water.

The water comes back out
through the shark gills,

but comb like structures in the gills

capture the plankton like an
enormous spaghetti strainer.

So the whale shark
swimming through the water

is like a big pool skimmer,

filtering the plankton for breakfast.

[water rippling]
[bright music]

Each shark eats hundreds of
pounds of food every hour.

It turns out that eating
plankton is very efficient

for a large animal.

[bright music]

Conditions here around Holbox island

are perfect for plankton in the summer,

The plankton makes the water really murky,

but all that food attracts
huge schools of fish.

[bright music]

It's a bounty that feeds
many kinds of animals.

Manta rays feed on the plankton,

but the whale shark is by far

the most impressive
animal that comes here.

Reaching 50 feet long,

whale sharks grow as
large as a school bus,

but they're completely harmless,

all they eat are plankton and tiny fish.

That is incredible.

They are so huge

and there's so much plankton in the water

that we can only see
maybe 20 feet underwater,

so they're bigger than the visibility,

you can't even see the tail from the head.

[water rippling]

- I can't believe how
many sharks are feeding

around the boat.

There's so much plankton here

that it attracts whale sharks
for hundreds of miles around.

Some of the sharks have escorts,

schools of fish that swarm
around them for protection.

They too eat the plankton,

splashing at the surface

as they feed alongside the shark.

[water rippling]

- You can go.

[water rippling]

- But when I swim over to investigate,

they hide under the shark

as if it were a huge swimming reef.

[water rippling]

Free diving and keeping up
with these sharks is hard work.

They don't look like
they're moving that fast,

I mean, their tail is just,

you know, gently swishing back and forth.

But they are so big, that tail is so huge

that they're actually moving faster

than we can keep up with them.

You swim as hard as you
can for about 30 seconds,

and then you're pooped and
you give up and off they go.

Later, as the sun gets higher in the sky

and the air gets warmer,

the wind picks up and waves start to form.

The plankton layer dissipates

and the sharks get harder
and harder to find.

They're diving deeper out of sight.

Once they dive below, we
have no way to find them,

so we head back to shore.

[bright music]

My trip to Holbox has
been a tremendous success

and a lot of fun.

The economy of this tiny
island has been transformed

by this big harmless polka dotted shark.

Here in Holbox, people love whale sharks

and they're protected by law,

and that's the best part of this story.

[bright music]

[water rippling]