08x13 - Jonathan Bird's Blue World

[bunniefuu]

- [Narrator] Coming up,

Jonathan explores the
reefs of Belize after dark,

then a mysterious cave hidden
within a big pond in Florida.

But first, a spooky cave
in the middle of the ocean.

Meet Jonathan Bird,

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."

- [Jonathan] Thousands of years
ago during the last ice age,

sea levels were hundreds of
feet lower than they are today.

Many cave entrances that formed back then

are now hidden under the
surface of the ocean.

Cameraman, Todd and I have
traveled to Caye Caulker

just off the coast of Belize

to explore a famous ocean cave.

We arrive at Sunrise Scuba

and immediately realize

that we are going to have some
challenging conditions today.

Normally, we don't worry about
wind when we're cave diving,

but when the entrance to
the cave is in the ocean,

the surface conditions matter.

We leave the dock with Captain
Max Novello at the helm.

Before we can even think about diving,

we have to find the cave entrance.

As we get close to the
cave, a squall blows in

and conditions are getting rough.

I'm using a GPS app on my cell phone

to help find the entrance.

Unfortunately, we can't
see it through the water

because the storm has
churned up the bottom

and made the ocean milky.

Our dive master cave explorer, Ilia Rosado

will attempt to locate the cave by scuba.

While he looks for the cave,

Todd and I start pulling
our gear together.

Soon Ilia has found the cave
and marks it with a buoy.

It doesn't seem like great
conditions for a dive,

but in theory, it should be fine

once we get inside the cave.

I am anxious to get going
and get out of this wind.

Underwater, things don't look good.

The visibility is about five feet.

We can barely see the
entrance to the cave,

even when we're right on it.

Ilia heads down first and we follow.

Things aren't much better inside,

and I'm starting to get a
bad feeling about this dive.

The first couple of hundred
feet into the cave are terrible,

and frankly, a little scary.

Ilia places an arrow on the line,

which has overgrown with marine growth.

As the tides come and go,

ocean water is pulled
in and out of the cave,

so bad visibility can come with it.

But slowly as we push on

getting further and
further from the ocean,

things start to clear up.

About 500 feet from the
entrance, we can finally see,

and we realize why it's
called winter wonderland.

Particles drawn in from the ocean

settle like snow on the formations,

but the floor of this cave is pure silt,

and we have to stay way up off the bottom

to avoid creating a silt out.

As we progress further into the cave,

the water continues to get clearer,

but our bubbles are knocking
particles off the ceiling.

It really does look like a
scene out of a Christmas movie.

[soft music]

[soft music continues]

Eventually, we enter a section of the cave

where the calcite
formations are almost black

instead of white like most caves.

Scientists think it's caused by bacteria

that cover the formations during a period

when the water levels are down.

I can't get over the fact

that literally every
formation in here is black.

It looks like soot covering everything,

and with the white silt,

it has a winter wonderland feel for sure.

[soft music]

[soft music continues]

We reach a place

where we can't really
go much further easily,

so it's time to turn around.

Now we follow the guideline back out.

We know that we're getting
closer to the entrance

as the visibility goes down.

Back in the cavern zone,

we pick up our oxygen stage
bottles for decompression.

This dive reached 150 feet deep,

so we have about 20 minutes of deco.

We start at 20 feet in the cave,

then progress to 10 feet
just above the cave.

The visibility is so bad

that we have to follow the
anchor line back to the boat.

Got better in the end

once we got back to all the silt.

Well, I gotta say

that was a lot of work for a cave dive,

but it was fun.

The good thing about cave diving

is that caves stay right
where you left them.

However, caves in the ocean
can present challenges.

Our expedition to winter wonderland

was not without challenges,

but this fascinating cave
was well worth the effort.

Without question, it was the
most interesting ocean cave

I've yet seen in the "Blue World."

- [Narrator] Don't go away.

Jonathan and Todd explore
a mysterious cave.

But first, a night dive
on the reefs of Belize.

- [Jonathan] The Central
American nation of Belize

is known for some of the
most spectacular diving

in the Caribbean

with crystal clear water
and healthy coral reefs.

Located between Mexico and Honduras,

this small country is a scuba
diver's dream destination.

Zach and I are diving with
the Belize Aggressor 3,

a liveaboard dive boat.

All right.

We eat, sleep, and dive
from this luxury yacht.

But the diving doesn't end
when the sun goes down.

We are suiting up for a night dive.

Once the sun has set,

we hit the water in search of adventure.

Woo-hoo!

Time for a night dive.

Just as lights attract
insects above water,

they attract plankton underwater.

Zach and I are quickly
swarmed by bug like plankton

because of our powerful video lights.

The local tarpon population

has learned to use the divers
lights to their benefit,

zooming around us eating the plankton.

[gentle music]

The coral polyps open up at night

to capture plankton
with stinging tentacles.

I like to bring my light close
to the coral to feed them.

You might ask, why dive at night?

Because the animals on the reef

are completely different at night.

For example, nocturnal animals
like the Caribbean king crab

hide in the reef during the day

and only come out to feed after dark.

The octopus is another example.

They're much too vulnerable
to predators during the day,

so they hide,

but at night, they become the predators.

And octopus uses long sucker equipped arms

to reach into cracks and crevices,

looking for unwary sleeping fish.

Like the octopus,

a moray eel takes advantage of the fact

that fish sleep in the reef.

By slithering into holes,

it can catch them off
guard and corner them.

Basket sea stars spread
their finely branched arms

to capture plankton like a net.

However, they're so sensitive to light

that when I try to film them,

they immediately close up and hide.

The basket star's distant cousin,

the donkey dung sea cucumber

is not afraid of light

as it sifts through the sand for food.

Yes, it's actually called
a donkey dung sea cucumber,

I did not make that up.

I find a stingray hunting.

Like a living metal detector,

the stingray uses his
electro sensory system

to find clams and worms
buried in the sand.

The stingrays have a sharp barb

at the base of their tail for defense,

but they don't use it
unless they feel threatened.

Soon, my tank is getting low

and it's time to head back to the boat.

People who don't dive

often imagine that night
diving is scary and dangerous,

but actually it's peaceful and fascinating

because of all the different
animals to be seen.

It's a great way to spend an
evening in the blue world.

Merritt's Mill pond in Marianna, Florida

is filled with crystal clear water

that originates at Jackson Blue Spring.

But this diver's paradise

actually has seven divable
caves within its waters.

Located about an hour west of Tallahassee,

Merrit's Mill Pond is actually
a long, skinny section

of damned up river.

We start our day getting our tanks filled

at Cave Adventurers,

Edd Sorenson's awesome dive
shop right on the pond.

Then we load our pontoon boat

and head out to find
hole in the wall cave.

To a non-cave diver,

a dock in the middle of nowhere
probably makes no sense,

but it's right next to the cave.

Who keeps tying knots in this?

With our boat tied up,

Todd and I start putting
our gear together.

Soon we begin the dive.

Normally Todd and I
dive with a third diver

who handles the lines so
we can focus on filming.

But today it's just the two of us.

So I'm holding Todd's
camera as he runs the reel.

The beginning of the cave
has an incredible chimney

that drops straight down
to more than 50 feet

from just behind the stop sign.

Down at the bottom of the chimney,

Todd ties our reel into the main line.

Once that's done, he can take
his camera and off we go.

The cave is quite murky today,

so it's hard to illustrate

just how large some of the rooms are.

They go on beyond visibility.

Much of the floor of this cave

consists of extremely fine silt,

so we have to be very careful

to stay up away from the bottom.

This makes filming a cave
crayfish really hard.

I have to basically float upside down

with my feet way up high

to film this little guy
without kicking up a storm.

Every time we leave a large room

and the passage gets smaller,

it opens back up again
into another huge room.

This cave is enormous.

We swim past shelf like formations

that were clearly formed
when the water was lower.

This cave's passages go
on for thousands of feet,

but it's pretty deep
so we don't go too far

before it's time to turn around.

As we get back near the entrance,

we start to see signs of the world above,

sticks and organic material

that have worked their way into the cave.

We pass through a
medium-sized restriction,

and then back into the chamber
at the base of the chimney.

Now I'm carrying two cameras again

while Todd is reeling our line in.

We soon emerge back into the cavern zone

and see the light of day.

Out in the pond, a fishy
welcoming committee greets us.

- Wow.
- Wow.

- That was a big cave.

- That was huge.

- We saw the entrance and I'm like,

oh, this is gonna be small

and like, really gnarly, tight cave.

- Yeah.

- And then once you get
through that beginning,

it just goes boom.

It's like, whoa!

- It's just room after room
after room of huge cave.

- Huge open cave

- Hole in the Wall Cave

is a famous and popular
dive in Merrit's Mill Pond.

For our first dive there,
the visibility was not great,

so we didn't go too far.

But this means that we're ready

for a much further exploration

on our next trip to this
part of the "Blue World."

[gentle music]