02x02 - Manta Rays of Yap, Tropical Fish Rescue, Tiger Sharks

[bunniefuu]

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

Jonathan goes on a fish rescue mission.

[upbeat music]

Then he searches for a tiger shark

and gets more than he bargained for.

But first, he investigates
the world's largest rays.

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

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.

- I've come to Yap in Micronesia.

Famous for its huge stone money

and its giant manta rays.

Yap is a remote island in
the Pacific about halfway

between Japan and Australia.

Divers travel here from all
over the world to see an amazing

and huge animal.

I'm talking about Manta Rays,
the largest rays in the world,

and they should be right under the boat.

Let's go take a look.

As I drop into the water, I
notice that it's pretty murky.

I'm diving in a channel
through the fringing reef

between the open ocean and the land.

As the tide changes, water flows
in and out of this channel.

The current is moving me along rapidly

and I ride it like a river,

following my guide John to a
section of reef where we hope

to find mantas.

I tuck into a position at
the base of a coral head,

out of the current and weight.

The swift current blows
the coral polyps like wind

and sweeps along pieces of eel grass

and mangrove leaves from the lagoon.

I wait a long time.

It takes nearly an hour,

but finally, a shape emerges
from the murky distance.

I would recognize that shape anywhere.

The beautiful and graceful motion

of a manta ray soaring like a
huge bird through the water.

It stops over the coral.

A dozen or so tiny fish converge
on the ray while it hovers

just over their home.

[soft music]

The fish are cleaner wrasses,

they pluck parasites from the rays,

and this coral head is
known as a cleaning station.

It's a great symbiotic
relationship because both the fish

and the rays benefit from it.

The fish get a meal of tasty
parasites like copepods

and scraps of dead skin
while the manta ray gets rid

of parasitic annoyances
that can cause infection.

Cleaning is not always
a pleasant experience,

though, sometimes one of the cleaner fish

nibbles a little too hard

and the manta jumps away.

At the end of my dive, I do
a short decompression stop

for safety then head up.

- That was incredible!

The current was really strong

and it was blowing me
back, I barely hold on.

Manta ray was just lying
gently into the current holding

his position over the cleaning station.

Really incredible to see.

It's no coincidence that
the mantas like a little bit

of current while they're being cleaned.

Mantas, like all rays and
shark, have no swim bladder.

A bony fish can hover in
mid-water perfectly still

because it has a swim bladder
to control its buoyancy.

Sharks and rays sink
if they stop swimming.

The enormous wings of the manta,

reaching 25 feet across, allow them to fly

through the water like a bird,

and like a bird, if they
stop flapping, they'll begin

to glide towards the bottom.

The mantas come to the cleaning
station at a particular

time, but it has nothing
to do with the time of day.

Like a runner on a treadmill

the mantas required just the
right amount of water movement

so they can swim in place
to be cleaned by the fish

They follow the timing of the tides,

preferring to be cleaned
just before or after

slack tide when the water is moving,

but not too fast.

This manta is holding its mouth wide open

so the cleaners can go inside.

[upbeat music]

As long as we don't get too close,

the mantas are not bothered by our cameras

and bubbles at all.

There are only a few
prime cleaning stations

and they have become social stops as much

as hygienic visits.

Often there are a dozen or more manta rays

at the cleaning station,

all taking turns being cleaned

and interacting with
each other while waiting.

Each manta ray has a unique
pattern of spots on its belly,

which can be used like a fingerprint

to identify individual animals.

Here at Yap Divers,
they've been documenting

and photographing these spot
patterns for many years,

and they've identified more
than 60 individual manta rays

and given them nicknames.

This morning I got to meet Zoro.

Zoro has three little spots

and a pair of stripes between her gills.

Underwater she's easy to identify.

The three spots and the stripes.

Being able to identify
individuals has proved

that the mantas around Yap stay here

for long periods of time.

They're not just passing through,

they live here, and the
divers see the same ones

over and over and over.

Yap has more to see than
just mantas, though.

I cruise over to the
other side of the island

to explore the outer reefs.

There, I see magnificent
coral and crystal clear water,

far away from the murky
water in the channel.

[angelic music]

I swim with a big school of barracuda.

When I get too close, I spook them.

I watch a sea turtle munching on a sponge,

and I swim in magnificent coral
caverns, tunnels that snake

between the coral heads

and make me feel like I'm
exploring another planet.

Yet at the end of my dive
as I emerge from the cavern,

I see another manta ray
flying over far from

the cleaning station.

It's almost as if this
single manta has come

to bid me farewell.

It's a magical and fitting
end to an astonishing journey.

- Geronimo!

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

Jonathan goes looking for
tiger sharks in The Bahamas,

but first he goes on a
tropical fish rescue mission.

- On most of my dive
expeditions, I'm just going down

to observe, but today
I'm on a rescue mission.

I'm going to rescue some juvenile fish.

This might be hard to believe,

but if I don't go get
them, they will surely die.

You see, every year, millions
of tropical fish eggs

from the Caribbean get caught in the

Gulf Stream and take a ride
up north where they hatch

and grow for several months.

And a lot of these juvenile
fish end up here off the coast

of Rhode Island, a long way from home,

more than a thousand
miles from the Caribbean.

The problem is that when winter comes

and this water gets cold, they'll die.

- Even if we don't have our--

- So every year the New
England Aquarium Dive Club

organizes a tropical fish rescue.

People come from miles around

to try their hand at
collecting tropical fish

for the New England Aquarium exhibits.

So I've come down to give it a try,

but you know, I'm a little concerned

because I've photographed a lot of fish,

but I've never caught fish.

Yeah, I don't really know how to do it

and I'm concerned about
actually hurting the fish.

So I'm here with Michael Schruben,

who's an expert in
collecting tropical fish

and he's gonna help me out.

Michael, can you tell me, is this hard?

I mean, what do I need to know?

- It's not hard. The
biggest thing is to be calm.

I've got all the tools and
I know where the fish are.

I can show you how to do it. You wanna?

- Alright, let's go.

- [Michael] Alright.

- All right, Micheal, so show
me this gear you have here.

It's kind of interesting.

- Well, it's funny.

It's the various evolutions
of catching tropicals.

This is what I started out
with, which is a soda bottle

with the end cutoff of it.

And if this were a rock,

you put the soda bottle down

and you just use your
hand and get the fish in

and you can see what kind of fish he is.

This is the way I normally catch fish

and have been for a long time.

And what it is, it's a net

and the trick is, is this is the container

that everything ends up in that I want,

and it always keeps water going through.

There are holes in there, a valve

to keep the fish from going back out,

and if I don't want it, I can cap it off

and let that animal out the valve.

[upbeat music]

- [Jonathan] So we put on
our suits, check our gear,

and head into the water.

The fish are small

and they hide in the rocks
in very shallow water.

So Michael inches along
looking closely at the

bottom in search of them.

Then his eye catches a
juvenile butterfly fish,

a baby tropical fish that looks
out of place in New England.

I watch as Michael easily
catches the fish in his net.

Does the fish have any idea
of its fate as it descends

through Michael's apparatus?

Who knows?

But one thing is certain,

this little fish will die
if we don't rescue it.

[classical music]

Now it's my turn. I grab
my net and start looking.

Then I see what looks like a pea

with a face bobbing in the water.

It's a juvenile box fish.

I coax it into my net.

This fish is so tiny,
I'm afraid of hurting it.

So as you can imagine, I'm very gentle.

I slowly work the fish all
the way down to my bottle.

While we're looking for
more fish to rescue,

I'm startled to see a fully grown seahorse

battered by the strong surge.

I thought seahorses were
exclusively tropical fish.

But Michael says, no.

- [Michael] I don't believe he is.

A lot of people believe
that he belongs in our water

and can live in our cold water all the

way up to Nova Scotia.

It's something that most
people never ever see

and wouldn't believe that you could see

in the North Atlantic.

- [Jonathan] Just to be
sure we decide to rescue him

and check which species he is.

He clings to the algae with his tail

and I have to coax him into
the bottle with my hand.

I could easily hurt him
so I'm super careful.

To try and make him more comfortable,

I bring some of the algae
he likes into the bottle.

He seems too large to be a juvenile,

so I'm betting he's a full-time resident

of these northern waters.

After the dive, we check
out the fish we rescued.

Michael keeps them alive
in a small aquarium

until they reach their final home

at the New England Aquarium.

They will start out in a smaller tank,

but as they grow, these fish
will eventually end up in the


the main attraction at
the New England Aquarium.

These three amigos will be on their way

to the New England Aquarium within hours.

The seahorse, as it turns out, is a local

so we'll let him go.

It's been a long and perilous
journey from the Caribbean,

but thanks to the many volunteers,

these fish have been spared
a certain death from the cold

winter water here in New England.

Turns out these guys
will survive their ordeal

and probably even thrive
in their new homes.

- [Narrator] Don't go away.

Jonathan is about to go eye to eye

with a really big tiger shark.

- The tiger shark, one of
the world's most feared

and dangerous sharks.

It patrols the shallows

of tropical oceans looking for a meal.

But what would it be like
to dive with a tiger shark?

How would it react to a diver?

I'm going to investigate tiger sharks.

I'm gonna do it without a cage.

My adventure begins when
I board the dolphin dream

in West Palm Beach, Florida.

This boat will be my home
away from home for a week.

We begin our journey by crossing
the Gulf Stream on a course

to The Bahamas.

It's an eight hour journey
across some very rough water.

It's 55 miles of the open Atlantic ocean

between Florida and The Bahamas,

and it can get pretty rough out here.

Captain Andy drives the boat
through the swells all day

to reach West End, Grand Bahama,
where we go through customs

and then continue to a secret
spot called Tiger Wreck.

We anchor the boat securely.

We will sit here for the
whole week looking for sharks.

Next we begin chumming.

The boat's freezers are full of bait

because we need a lot of
fish to bring tiger sharks

to the boat.

[curious music]

Within only an hour, sharks
start coming to the boat.

- [Man] I wouldn't want an arm wrestle.

- [Man] Six, seven, eight.

- This is incredible.

We've only been chumming for about an hour

and there's already more
than 20 lemon sharks

around the back of the
boat and I gotta go in.

Now it's time to suit up
and get into the water.

I am wearing a black
wetsuit, black gloves,

and even a black hood because underwater,

skin looks like fish.

And the last thing that
I want is for the sharks

to think my hands are
pieces of fish they can eat.

So I have to go to this
length to make sure

that I have no skin showing.

Uh, I guess this is the part

where I have to go in the water.

Oh, well, this is what I came here for.

Geronimo.

I grabbed my camera and head
down to the sandy bottom.

Only 20 feet below.

Lemon sharks are everywhere.

You can tell that these are lemon sharks

by their two dorsal fins,
which are nearly the same size.

You might be wondering why
they call them lemon sharks.

I mean, they don't
really look like lemons.

They call 'em lemon sharks actually,

because they have yellowy skin

and it really has nothing
to do with lemons.

There are also many fish around
the boat that are attracted

to the chum.

With so many sharks and fish around,

the sharks even get a few live ones.

Although there are no tiger sharks,

I have a fantastic dive
full of excitement.

I head back to the surface for a rest.

- Whoa, that's a lot of sharks.

Wow!

I think that's the most
sharks I've ever been in

with at the same time.

And the ladder is probably
not a great place to hang out.

Hoo. Whoa, that was incredible.

I can only imagine what it's gonna be like

when the tiger shark shows up.

Woo.

We will continue chumming
and hope the tigers

pick up the scent.

Meanwhile, the lemon
sharks just keep coming

and the water around the boat is starting

to look downright frightening.

Later after sunset, I
start suiting up again.

Tiger sharks are nocturnal,

which means they're more active at night.

So it makes sense that if
I wanna find tiger sharks,

I should go diving at night.

There's really only one
small problem with that.

It's dark.

Oh well, here it goes.

[eerie music]

- I descend towards the bottom

and switch on my video lights.

On the ocean floor, gorgonian
sea fans sway in the current.

Then, out of the darkness, comes a shark.

It's not a tiger, it's
another lemon shark,

but it still provides
a thrill as it swims by

and takes a look at my camera.

The lemons seem just as active at night

as they are during the day.

I wonder if they ever rest.

They find my video lights
worthy of inspection.

After an hour underwater in the dark,

I surface without finding a tiger shark.

I guess we just need to chum and wait.

Tiger sharks can be elusive.

- Whoa, that was amazing.

I have to tell you, no tiger sharks,

but the lemons are pretty spooky at night.

The next day I head back
to the bottom once again.

Thank you.

[upbeat music]

There are still plenty
of lemon sharks around,

but then a shape in the
distance catches my eye.

It's a tiger shark!

At last, a tiger shark has appeared.

It takes her a while to get comfortable

with divers in the water,

but eventually she approaches
closer to investigate me.

She comes up and makes a
few passes by the bait,

cautiously keeping an eye on me.

For such large animals,

tiger sharks seem a lot less aggressive

than you might expect.

It's as if they carefully
consider each step,

trying to decide if it's safe.

[dramatic music]

Finally, she comes right
up to a huge piece of bait

and takes it away in one bite.

The shark is also interested
in the chunks of fish

that have fallen into the sand.

As the sharks go by,

I take the opportunity to
compare the two species.

There are several differences
between the tiger shark

and the lemon sharks.

Besides the different type of dorsal fins,

the tiger shark also has
a broader flatter head

and the distinctive tiger
stripes for which they're named.

The sharks seem interested
in my video lights,

even though they're not
being used during the day,

the white housing of the lights
probably looks like a piece

of fish to the sharks

and they often come up to
closely investigate them.

[dramatic music]

Occasionally a shark takes a
test bite out of the light,

and if I don't see it coming,
it takes me by surprise.

I'm not prepared for a
large tiger shark to come in

after my video light, though.

She keeps coming closer and closer.

Then as she tries to bite it

and I try to keep it away from her,

we spin around on the sandy
bottom like two dancers.

She eventually pushes me into the bottom

and gets a hold of my light.

There's nothing I can do
about it except use my camera

as a shield and hopes she
doesn't eat the whole thing.

When she's satisfied that
the light isn't food,

she turns and swims off,
and I'm glad she does.

That was a little bit
too close for comfort

and that's the reason
we wear dark clothing

and gloves when we dive with sharks.

If that had been my hand,

I would be in serious trouble right now.

I head to the surface,

impressed by the strength
of the large tiger shark

and ready to escape the sea for a while.

I've enjoyed many adventures in the ocean

and many exciting encounters with sharks,

but this one will stick
with me for a long time.

[dramatic music]