02x03 - Malaysia + Micronesia + Maine, USA + Vancouver, Canada

[bunniefuu]

[upbeat adventurous music]

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

Jonathan investigates the
life in mangrove forests.

Then he goes coast to coast
in search of wolffish.

But first, he heads to Malaysia
to investigate sea turtles.

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

Meet Jonathan Bird,
[upbeat adventurous music]

one of the world's top underwater
nature cinematographers.

Traveling the world on assignment

for all the major networks,

he is an Emmy Award-winning authority

on the underwater world.

In freshwater or salt,
reefs, wrecks, or caves,

Jonathan documents the
world beneath the waves.

Welcome to the Blue World.

[bubbles rippling]

- Sea turtles have been
swimming in the world's oceans

for 65 million years, since
the time of the dinosaurs.

It may be surprising that these
animals could be endangered

after existing for so long
on earth, but it's true,

there are only a few places left

where sea turtles still thrive.

And this is one of those places.

I've come all the way to
Sipadan Island in Malaysia

to explore one of the
world's most incredible

sea turtle sanctuaries.

Well, now we go.

[upbeat groove music]

We head out towards the
reefs of Sipadan Island.

This island is so small

that you can walk all the way around it

on the beach in an hour.

Yet, it has a huge
population of sea turtles.

I suit up for a dive to explore the reefs,

and hopefully find a few sea turtles.

Immediately I end up

right in the middle of
a huge school of jacks.

Sipadan is known for
massive schools of fish.

As the school of jacks swims away,

I spot my first sea turtle,

a green sea turtle swimming over the reef.

[majestic music]

It wasn't hard, because
they're everywhere.

Some are swimming around

while others are napping
on and in the reef.

Sea turtles actually sleep underwater

while holding their breath.

A sea turtle can easily hold
its breath over an hour.

A few hundred feet away,

I find a hawksbill sea
turtle munching on the reef.

She's plucking out tasty
sponges and invertebrates

that hide in the coral, rather
than eat the coral itself.

It takes a tough stomach
to digest this stuff.

That was incredible,

I have never seen such big
schools of fish anywhere.

But the sea turtles,

man, I must have seen 30
sea turtles on one dive.

Amazing.

As we circle the island,

I can see the tracks left in the sand

by females that have climbed
the beach to lay their eggs.

It all starts when a male,
identified by his long tail,

catches up with a cooperative
female and courts her.

From the surface, I see the action,

and I prepare to film it.

Here's the plan, I'm gonna slip
in, quietly grab the camera,

and off I go.

And I need somebody to stand on the bow

and just point at the turtles, okay?

Just so I can see where the heck they are.

As we approach closer,
I gear up to head in.

[wondrous music]
The mating has begun,

and I quietly approach to film the action.

Mating is not easy for
the female sea turtle,

she must swim and rise to
breathe for both of them.

The male's long tail holds the female

and fertilizes the eggs,

while claws on his front
flippers give him the ability

to grasp the female's shell.

The commotion doesn't go unnoticed

by other males in the area,
they flock to the mating pair,

which have drifted away from the reef.

In competition for a
limited number of females,

the other males look for
ways to dislodge the suitor.

One challenger bites his flipper.

[wondrous music]

When that doesn't work, he
tries a blast of air bubbles.

He tries sticking his head
between the mating pair,

hoping to wedge them apart.

Through it all,

the mating male must
hang on and tough it out.

Fighting back would mean losing his grip,

and that's just what his rivals want.

Eventually, no less than four
additional male turtles arrive

to challenge the suitor.

They all try the same techniques,

and it's starting to wear him down.

Meanwhile, the female is near exhaustion.

The male is only struggling to hold on,

the female is struggling to survive.

[wondrous music continues]

Seeing this incredible struggle
in person for the first time

gives me a lot of respect for sea turtles.

Hours later, the male
has outlasted his rivals,

he fertilizes the female's eggs,

and with luck, his genes will continue on.

As if her job weren't hard enough already,

the female now faces
another tremendous task,

to lay the eggs, but it
must wait until nightfall.

After the sun sets, I head to
the beach in total darkness.

I've come ashore at night

to see if I can find some nesting turtles.

The females come ashore and
they lay their eggs in the sand,

but I have to be really quiet,

because if they see me or they hear me,

they'll take off right
back into the ocean.

Using infrared night vision equipment,

I found a turtle hauling
herself out of the water,

painstakingly clawing her way
up the beach to high ground.

Although sea turtles live their
entire lives in the ocean,

they lay their eggs in
a nest on the beach.

After the sea turtle reaches an area

well above the high tide line,

she begins to throw sand
around to create a pit.

I have to be very quiet

because I'm sneaking up on
a turtle that's nesting.

They get pretty nervous
when they're nesting,

because predators are everywhere.

She must stop frequently
to catch her breath,

her crushing weight on land
literally asphyxiates her.

Whoa.

This is a good place to be if
you wanna get covered in sand.

She begins to dig a hole
about three feet deep

with her rear flippers.

The hole doesn't just protect
the eggs from predators,

the sex of the baby turtles is a function

of the incubation temperature.

A shallow nest baking in
the sun will be too warm,

and all the babies will be female.

A deep one will be too cold,

and the babies will all be male.

Digging to the right
depth ensures a good mix

of males and females.

She can't see what she's doing,

the hole must be dug entirely by feel.

As she begins laying her eggs,

we can gradually bring
up some normal lighting,

she's committed to the nest now.

At last, she begins to lay
as many as 100 squishy eggs,

about the size of ping
pong ba*ls, into the nest.

In two months, these eggs will hatch,

and the baby sea turtles will emerge.

After she's finished laying her eggs,

she carefully fills in the hole.

Then she cleverly disguises
the exact location of the nest

by flinging some more sand around.

After two hours of effort,

she plods her way
laboriously back to the sea,

completely exhausted.

For a sea turtle,

a hundred feet back to the water
is like running a marathon,

it requires enormous effort,

her body is just not
designed for travel on land.

She needs the weightlessness of the ocean

to catch her breath and cool down.

Finally, she heads back to the reef

for a well-deserved rest.

[playful music]
Two months later,

newly hatched sea turtles race to the sea.

Each baby turtle must rush
past a gauntlet of predators

from land, sky, and sea
to reach the open ocean.

Odds are, only one of these
baby sea turtles will survive.

On their journey,

the sea turtles must fight
their way through the surf,

swim across the shallows,

and then make their way to the open ocean,

away from predators on the reef.

They won't return to
their home on the reef

until they're large enough to be safe,

about the size of a dinner plate.

[sober music]

It's a long and perilous journey,

but if this sea turtle survives,

it may go on to live over a hundred years.

[upbeat adventurous music]

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

Jonathan is investigating
a mean looking fish.

But first, an exploration
of coastal mangrove forests.

- Most people come here to Yap,

in the middle of the Pacific Ocean,

to dive on beautiful coral reefs

and meet the manta rays.

I noticed that 90% of
the island is covered

in these beautiful lush mangrove forests,

so I got special permission

from the chief of Bechiyal
Village to explore the mangroves.

[upbeat groove music]

Mangroves are a type of plant

living in the tidal coastal
areas between sea and land.

All share the trait of being able

to tolerate partial
submersion in salt water,

and pour oxygen content in the ground

where their roots penetrate.

Mangroves only grow in the tropics.

like these rich mangrove forests in Yap.

Mangroves are extremely
important for several reasons.

First, they serve as a buffer zone

between the ocean and the shore.

Their roots hold the shoreline
together, limiting erosion

and attenuating the waves.

In effect, they form a protective barrier

between the ocean and the land.

Second, and perhaps more importantly,

mangroves serve as a
refuge for marine life.

The tangled maze of roots
in the mangrove forest

creates a confusing
shallow-water labyrinth

Taking refuge in this protective maze,

many animals survive here

when they couldn't survive anywhere else.

The mangrove is a nursery

for juvenile fish and invertebrates.

In the protection of the calm,

sheltered waters of the
mangroves, away from predators,

the juvenile fish find food and safety.

Without the mangrove nursery,

life on the reefs would be in trouble.

Mangroves live in salt water,

which is a tough environment for a plant.

The roots are designed
to soak up the water

and exclude as much salt
as possible in the process,

they have little filters
built into their cells.

But the plants still take
in a fair amount of salt,

and they have to get rid of
it, or it'll k*ll the tree.

And they get rid of it by
concentrating it in their leaves.

Some mangrove trees excrete
the salt out through the leaf

as a crystal, which is
then washed away by rain.

You can taste the salt on the leaves.

Mm.

Other trees concentrate
the salt in older leaves,

which then turn yellow and fall off,

taking the salt with them.

All those leaves land in the water,

sink to the bottom and decompose.

The mud has a high
concentration of bacteria

to break down all the organic material.

These bubbles on the
bottom are mostly methane,

the byproduct of decomposition.

The bacteria consume the leaves,

releasing nutrients that
wash out to sea every day

on the receding tide.

So, the mangroves are an
important food and nutrient source

for animals and plants on the
reefs and in the open ocean.

Most trees have their roots
completely underground,

mangrove trees have their roots
coming up out of the water

into the air like this.

That's because the soil
down below the water here

is a black muck that's high in bacteria,

it has very little oxygen in it,

so the roots can't absorb any oxygen.

So when they come up into the air,

they absorb the oxygen
directly through their skin.

Partially submerged
conditions in mangrove forests

make it hard for traditional
seeds to take root,

so reproduction requires special seeds.

This is a mangrove seed,
the seed part's up here,

but it has a long root already on it.

When it falls off the tree,
it floats like a cork,

with this part up and this part down,

and when it floats into shallow water,

this part will go right
into the soft bottom,

and the leaves will come out the top,

and you have an instant mangrove tree

ready to start growing.

This adaptation allows a seed
to take root in shallow water,

with the root in the bottom
and the leaves at the surface.

[wondrous music]
Exploring the mangroves,

I realize not only how
fascinating this habitat is,

but important as well.

It's imperative that as
coastal development continues,

care is taken not to
overlook the importance

and beauty of the mangrove forests,

the nurseries of the reefs.

They're not just part of the
land, or part of the ocean,

but a critically important
link between these two worlds.

[playful music]
- [Announcer] Don't go away,

Jonathan is off looking for wolffish,

and they're not what they appear to be.

[wondrous music]

- One of my favorite places
to dive is Eastport, Maine.

The water's cold, but
the bottom is covered

with an incredible amount
of colorful marine life.

Eastport is near the Canadian border,

at the mouth of the Bay of Fundy.

The huge tidal range in Eastport means

that the water's almost always
flowing one way or the other

as the tide comes in or goes out.

The moving water full of plankton

feeds a ton of invertebrates,
making the bottom lush.

It gives me plenty of things
to film on every dive.

There's pink soft coral
feeding on the plankton.

Anemones clinging to everything,
even an old drain pipe.

The lobsters reach epic proportions.

And fish thrive, like
this camouflaged sea raven

blending in with the bottom.

A shrimp rests on a sponge.

And a whelk, a kind of large
snail, searches for a meal.

Unfortunately, the whelk
is about to become dinner

for my favorite animal,
the Atlantic wolffish.

[elegant waltz music]

Wolffish might have big teeth,

but these fish are no threat to people,

they like to eat whelks and crabs.

Wolffish often get together
in pairs during the summer

to lay their eggs,

they hang out in the
same den under a rock.

After the female lays around 10,000 eggs,

the male kicks her out

and guards the eggs for several
months until they hatch.

Here you can see the egg
mass behind the male,

way inside his den.

Over the years, I've become friendly

with a wolffish I call Gene,
he can't resist a whelk or two

when I bring them right to his front door.

It took me a couple of years

to get him comfortable enough with me

to come all the way out of his den.

Even then, he's pretty skittish.

I've heard about Pacific wolffish

that are bigger and friendlier,
and I wanna go meet them,

so I'll have to travel from Maine

all the way to British Columbia.

My journey takes me from
Eastport to Vancouver.

[upbeat groove music]

Next, I have to drive out to Port Hardy

where my dive boat awaits.

Well, four hours to Port Hardy.

On the beautiful roads
of Vancouver Island.

In the drizzling rain, I board the Mamro,

my dive boat for the week.

Soon, under a clearing
sky, we're underway.

Captain Dan drives the boat
past gorgeous forest wilderness

on our way to Clam Cove,

where we'll anchor the boat for a few days

in search of Pacific wolf eels.

Pacific wolf eel is the local
name for this impressive fish,

but it's not an eel at all,

it's actually a fish, just
like the Atlantic wolffish,

so it should be called a Pacific wolffish.

Whatever you want to call
it, I'm going to find one.

We depart aboard the
skiff for our first dive.

I start suiting up in anticipation.

The water's 45 degrees, but
my dry suit will keep me warm.

And now I'm ready. Voila.

I'm ready to dive in the
cold Pacific Northwest.

[upbeat groove music]

My cold water dive gear
is bulky and cumbersome,

but I'm used to it.

Let's go check it out.

[wondrous music]

Descending through the kelp,

I find a world as rich in
marine life as Eastport,

driven by similar tidal
action and nutrients.

I swim over the edge of the wall

to search for a Pacific wolf eel.

There, sticking just its
head out from its den,

a fully grown male wolf
eel stares at my camera.

[suspenseful music]

Nearby, a younger one,
with darker coloration,

also curious what I'm up to,
but not about to come out.

Both have prominent teeth just
like the Atlantic wolffish,

but they appear just as docile.

Soon I turn back to observe the big male,

and he starts coming right at me.

He's coming out of his den.

He's a lot longer than
the Atlantic wolffish.

I'm not sure what he's up to.

He comes up to closely
investigate my lens.

Maybe he sees his reflection.

[suspenseful music continues]

He lets me hold him in my hand.

They told me the Pacific
ones were friendly,

but this is incredible.

I'm beginning to think,

maybe this fish has been fed quite a bit

and he's looking for a handout.

But I didn't bring him any food.

He tries my arm to see how it tastes,

but dry suits apparently
aren't very good eating.

Before long, he gets the idea

that I haven't got anything to eat,

so he goes over to see my dive buddy, Tim,

who just happens to have brought a snack.

[suspenseful music continues]

Now, I would bet that there's no way

a wolf eel would eat a sausage,

but as it turns out, they love sausages.

Who'd a thunk?

After he gets his snack, the
wolf eel heads back to his den,

and then I can see why
they call them wolf eels.

This fish has a body six feet long,

and it's more eellike than fish like.

So why do we call the Atlantic ones fish

and the Pacific ones eels?

Good question.

But they're both fish,

and probably one of the
most interesting fish

to interact with in the entire world.

No matter what you call
them, they're cool.

[playful adventurous music]

[playful adventurous music subsides]

[brief ethereal music]