04x07 - Aquarius Reef Base and Skates & Rays

[bunniefuu]

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

Jonathan explores the fascinating biology

of skates and rays,

but first, a visit to the
world's only undersea laboratory.

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.

[gentle music]

Welcome to the "Blue World."

- When I was a kid,

I dreamed about exploring the
oceans from an undersea lab,

far away from the distractions
of the world above.

Now that might seem like
a science fiction fantasy,

even less likely than a space station.

As it turns out, a bunch of scientists

and engineers thought an
undersea lab might be a great way

to study the ocean and life in the ocean.

With funding from the National Oceanic

and Atmospheric Administration,

they created the Aquarius Reef
Base near Key Largo, Florida.

My childhood dream has become a reality.

Here, six people can live and work

for weeks at a time without
ever going to the surface.

Sure, it seems really cool,

but to truly understand

how this underwater habitat
benefits the study of the ocean,

you really need to understand a little bit

about the physiology of scuba diving.

Scuba gear has given humans the ability

to explore the shallow parts of the ocean.

We can hover weightless like
fish breathing underwater

for as long as our scuba tank lasts,

which is generally about an hour.

But even with an unlimited scuba tank,

we can't stay down too long

because of something called
decompression sick or the bend.

When I submerge underwater,

the increasing water pressure at depth,

pushing in on my lungs
won't allow me to breathe,

unless my regulator supplies air to me

at the same pressure
as the water around me.

The deeper I go, the more
water pressure there is,

and therefore, the air I'm breathing is

at a higher pressure too,

pushing out at the same pressure
as the water pushing in.

Since about 79% of the atmosphere
is composed of nitrogen,

and our bodies can't metabolize nitrogen,

all this high pressure nitrogen
builds up in my muscles

and other tissues when I dive.

If I stay under underwater for too long,

too much nitrogen builds up in my body.

When I come up to the lower
ambient pressure at the surface,

it can form bubbles in my
blood, sort of like this.

Those bubbles get stuck
in arteries and veins,

blocking circulation
and causing great pain.

But what if I didn't
have to come back here

to the lower ambient pressure
at the surface after a dive?

What if I could stay at
a high ambient pressure

by living in an undersea lab?

Well, I could scuba dive all day long,

and I'd never get the bends,

that's the idea behind
the Aquarius Reef Base.

The Blue World team has been invited

to film an Aquarius mission,

so cameraman Tim and I have come

to beautiful Key Largo, Florida,

for an adventure.

We load the Aquarius support boat,

and join the staff as
we depart from the dock

for a 45 minute ride out to the Aquarius.

[bright upbeat music]

Once we clear the canal
and reach the ocean,

we still have a few miles to go.

The Florida Keys have huge areas

of shallow coral reefs before
the sea floor drops off

into deeper water.

So Aquarius is located a bit further

from shore than you might expect.

Our ride takes us over miles
of beautiful coral reef.

I can hardly contain my excitement

to see this astonishing
underwater habitat.

[bright upbeat music]

At last, we reach the life support buoy.

This floating structure
contains generators

and compressors supplying power
and air to Aquarius below.

We tie up our boat to
the life support buoy.

Aquarius is sitting on the sea floor,


Tim and I suit up and prepare

to not only see Aquarius
up close, but go inside

and meet the team of
divers called Aquanauts,

with whom we'll be working for the week.

Well, I'm all geared up and ready to go.

This is so cool.

You have got to see this.

[water splashes]

As soon as I hit the ocean,

I can see Aquarius directly
beneath me in the clear water.

It's almost like a
submarine that doesn't move.

But unlike a submarine,

the pressure inside Aquarius is the same

as the pressure outside.

So even though there's an open hatch

at the bottom of the
habitat, water doesn't go in.

This allows people to go
in and out of Aquarius

as much as they like,

which is totally awesome.

So this is it, the Aquarius, amazing.

I can come right in through
an open hole in the floor,

and yet, the water stays out.

That's cool.

Now, time for a shower.

We have to shower before
you go inside the Aquarius,

because really, they don't
want salt water and everything.

I mean, we might be underwater,

but this is civilized.

So the Aquarius, you can think of it

as basically like a big school
bus with no seats in it.

It's sort of like a long tube,

and everything is spread
throughout that tube.

At this end, behind this power door,

is the front porch, and
that's where I came inside.

We like to keep that closed

because it's quite humid in there,

and it's air conditioned in here.

Now, the next feature,

you'll find right inside
the front door here,

is the bathroom.

There's your bathroom.

You get your privacy curtain,

you know, it's pretty small bathroom,

but gets the job done.

And of course, right
across over here, a sink.

And of course, some laboratory equipment,

you know, just in case you need

to do some biological studies.

And then we come down a little further.

We have a computer.

Well, you gotta be able to get

on the internet even
when you're underwater.

I mean, come on.

So here, in the middle of the Aquarius,

we have the kitchen,

or what you would call
on a boat, the galley.

So if you come in here,
we've got the sink,

and we have a sort of a place to eat,

a kitchen table, if you will,

and a picture window.

But unlike your picture window at home,

this picture window
looks out on a coral reef

with fish swimming by.

Where's the fish?

Come here, Fishies.

And the last part, down
here at the far end,

this would be sort of like
the back of the school bus,

you have six bunks all
stacked up together.

You see, there's not a
lot of space in here.

In fact, if you're sleeping,

you only have about a foot and a half

from your head to the next bunk up.

It's pretty tight,

but it's cozy, and it's dry,

and you can't beat the view out the window

at the foot of the bed.

So now, you might be wondering,

"What do you eat down here?"

Well, they eat sort of like astronauts.

It's freeze-dried food.

If you're a camper, you might
have used some of this stuff.

You rip the package open,
you put hot water in it,

you let it sit for a while

and then you can eat it
right out of the package.

They don't really have a lot
of facilities for cooking.

They have a microwave,

and they have hot water,
and that's about it.

There's no stove, there's no oven.

Some of the food that gets brought down

in very tight containers,

gets compressed with
the pressure down here.

So this is something that was
fully inflated at the surface,

but once it gets brought
down here to 50 feet,

the pressure in here squishes it down,

and that's what it ends up looking like.

And you can feel the
pressure all around you,

even though you don't really feel,

like you're under pressure.

The air that we're breathing
is a little bit more dense

because it's compressed.

And several things happen,

my voice sounds a little funny to me,

but on top of that,

[Jonathan whistles]

it's really hard to whistle.

[Jonathan whistling]

There we go.

[Jonathan whistles]

Even though the scientists
are out scuba diving,

there are always two technicians

in Aquarius maintaining the life support,

fixing little things that break,

monitoring the various systems

and keeping track of the divers.

While technician Mark Hulsbeck
is giving me an introduction

to the life support systems,

we're being watched by someone on shore.

There are cameras all over Aquarius.

They send their signals

through a cable up to
the life support buoy,

where the signal is beamed wirelessly back

to the antenna on shore.

Here at the watch desk,

another technician monitors activity,

electrical systems, and life support.

This is an additional layer of safety.

If there's some kind of emergency,

help will be on the way immediately.

Meanwhile, down at Aquarius,

I have to leave.

I can only stay a little more than an hour

because I have to return
to the lower pressure

at the surface, or I'll
have decompression sickness.

The biologists, however,

are out working on the
reef conducting their study

of reef sponges.

They wear double scuba tanks
so they can carry a lot of air.

Even though they dive 100 feet deep,

they can spend hours and
hours doing their research,

utterly unconcerned
about such trivial things

as decompression sickness.

They can spend as much time
as they like on the reef

because they don't need to
go to the lower pressure

of the surface after the dive.

Instead, these aquanauts
will return to Aquarius.

When their scuba tanks get low,

the aquanauts head over
to the nearest gazebo.

It's sort of like an oasis for divers.

It's filled with air.

Inside, they can take their masks off,

talk to each other and
fill their scuba tanks

from a high pressure hose from Aquarius.

After an air fill, the aquanauts
can go back out on the reef

for a few more hours.

Eventually though, they get hungry,

and come back to Aquarius for lunch.

[bright upbeat music]

The scientists are still down there.

It's hard to believe they
can stay for a whole week,

but I can only stay for an hour.

The next day, I have another
hour to spend in Aquarius,

so I go during lunch

to meet these sponge-studying Aquanauts.

What is it that you can do here

that you can't do from the surface?

Now, why do you gotta go through all this?

- We have about six different
projects going on right now,

but one of the largest projects

that we go to the same sponges every year,

and each one has a tag so
we know which one's which,

and we go back and we
see which ones are alive,

how well they're doing,

and really that we have over 900 sponges

that we visit every year.

And it just takes so long

that we really need a lot of bottom time.

And like this morning,
we did a six-hour dive,

and we did I think one part.

But if we were to do that
from boats from the surface,

that would've taken us
probably six to 10 dives.

- [Jonathan] After lunch,
the aquanauts gear back up

and head out for another few hours work.

[bright upbeat music]

They may swim quite aways
to their research site,

but they have safety lines

to lead them back home to Aquarius.

Aquarius isn't just a home for aquanauts.

Over the years,

coral and sponges have grown
all over the structure.

It's been transformed
into an artificial reef

with thousands of fish
taking up residence.

They're all used to divers.

One of the resident tarpon
comes right up to my camera

for a close look.

Cameraman Tim investigates
a purple coloration

on the hull of Aquarius
only to be attacked

by an angry sergeant major,
a kind of damsel fish.

The purple coloration is an egg nest.

The tiny eggs are stuck
to the hull by the female

and guarded by the male,
and he's not happy.

Aquarius is home to
fish as well as people.

While the marine residents
have all they need,

the humans inside need constant
supplies from the surface.

Drinking water is brought down each day

by surface support divers.

Air gets pumped down all the time

by the life support buoy overhead.

It continually overflows out
the bottom of the wet porch

so the air inside stays fresh.

If the pumps in the life
support buoy failed,

there's a huge supply of air

in reserve tanks next to Aquarius.

Getting dry things like food, cameras,

and towels down to Aquarius,

presents a bit more of a challenge,

but the team came up with a
brilliantly simple solution.

It looks like a giant pressure cooker.

- So this is a modified paint pot.

So they, apparently,
don't use them anymore.

That'll make them-

- [Jonathan] This heavy steel
container has a valve on top

for equalizing internal pressure,

and eight strong clamps to keep it closed.

- [Colleague] So when we
close the valve up top,

shut everything down, tighten it down,

all these dogs all the way around.

- [Jonathan] Yeah.

Depending on how heavy
the stuff inside is,

a diver may be able to handle it alone,

or an air-filled lift
bag might be required

to keep it from sinking.

Once the pot is delivered,

the valve is opened to bring it up

to the same internal pressure as Aquarius,

and the clamps come off.

With any luck, everything is dry.

In the last 10 years, only one has leaked.

- Thank you, Brad.

- [Brad] You're welcome, Otter.

- [Jonathan] At the end
of their week in Aquarius,

the aquanauts must go through
one long decompression

to bring their bodies
back to surface pressure.

They rest for about 18 hours
watching Blue World DVDs,

of course, while the
pressure inside Aquarius,

is brought back down
to that of the surface.

For a few hours, they wear
masks and breathe pure oxygen.

Aquarius serves as one
huge decompression chamber.

In spite of all the effort required

to keep Aquarius running,

this underwater lab is actually
not very expensive to run,

about $10,000 per mission day.

That might sound like a lot,

but it's actually
inexpensive when the number

of diving hours are all added up.

Four scientific divers can rack up 32

to 40 combined hours underwater each day.

We know very little about the oceans just

because they're so difficult to study,

but we do know that the oceans
are incredibly important

to our planet, our atmosphere,

and all life on earth.

The more we know about the
oceans, the better we can protect

and nurture the entire
earth's environment.

Aquarius Reef Base,

is the world's only underwater
research station serving

on the front lines of
cutting-edge ocean research,

and with continued funding,

it will be helping
scientists study the ocean

for many years to come.

- [Artcohen] Don't go away,

Jonathan is about to
explore the incredible world

of skates and rays.

- You know me, I love sharks.

It doesn't matter if it's a
big shark like the great white,

or the whale shark,

or if it's a small one like
the white tip reef shark.

Sharks are cool.

Skates and rays are the
evolutionary cousins of sharks.

They're contained within the
same class, Chondrichthyes,

along with the sharks,

but they're in their own
subdivision known as the batoids.

The batoids share many
characteristics with sharks,

such as the cartilaginous skeleton,

the lack of a swim bladder,
and multiple gill slits.

In fact, they're so similar,

that you almost could think
of them as flat sharks.

But there are some flat sharks.

The wobbegong shark, for example,

actually looks more
like a ray than a shark,

because it's flattened, and
tends to lie on the bottom.

So how do you tell a
ray from a flat shark?

First of all, skates and
rays are always flat.

Biologists call them
dorso-ventrally flattened.

But unlike a dorso-ventrally
flattened shark,

a skate or ray has wing-like pectoral fins

that are just an extension of its body,

making it look a bit like a flying carpet,

or maybe if you squint a little, a bat,

hence the name batoids.

Also, skates and rays have their gills

on the underside of their
bodies while a shark,

even a flattened shark,
has them on the side.

One of the most well-known
rays is the stingray.

This is a southern stingray
common in the Caribbean.

It gets its name from its stinger,

a sharp venomous spine
at the base of the tail.

This powerful weapon is
used to defend the animal

from its most feared predator, sharks.

Wait a minute.

Sharks eating their own
evolutionary cousins?

That is so uncivilized.

The southern stingray feeds on animals

that live in the sand
like mollusks and worms.

The stingrays mouth is on its
underside just like its gills.

It blows water into the sand
to excavate around prey,

then slurps it up with powerful suction.

Because it feeds in the sand,

the southern stingray tends
to swim close to the bottom,

though it certainly doesn't have to,

but this poses a problem with breathing.

A shark breathe by taking
water in through its mouth,

and then sending it back
out through the gills

to extract oxygen from the water.

However, since the stingray
has its mouth on its underside

and swim so close to the bottom,

you would think that the
stingray would get a lot of sand

into its gills,

and you would be right,
except for one thing.

On top of the stingrays head are a pair

of openings called spiracles.

They're kind of like big nostrils.

Instead of breathing in through its mouth,

the stingray breathes
in through the spiracles

on top of its head,
and away from the sand.

Sharks have spiracles too,

but they're really small on most sharks,

and they can't breathe through them.

The only sharks that breathe
through their spiracles are,

you guessed it,

flattened-bottom dwellers
like the wobbegong.

Notice how this ray swims
by flapping its wings

and gliding along just over the sand.

By comparison, meet
the little skate common

in the waters of New England.

It looks just like a miniature stingray,

but it's a skate because
it has no stinger.

Although it can swim
by flapping its wings,

it often scoots along the bottom

by repeatedly pushing off the
bottom with its pelvic fins,

kind of like riding a skateboard.

This type of locomotion
has been termed punting.

Most batoids have pelvic fins like this,

but only a few use them
to move in this way.

And if you think that's weird,

check out this strange-looking ray.

The torpedo ray doesn't
look much different

from any other ray when
it's lying on the bottom.

But when it gets up to swim,

it has a vertical tail fin like a shark.

Instead of flapping its
wing-like pectoral fins,

it swishes its tail
back and forth to swim.

And that's not even the weirdest thing

about this unique ray.

The torpedo ray is also
known as the electric ray

because it can produce

to shock its prey.

Most rays can't electrocute
their dinner into submission.

[gentle music]

The spotted eagle ray
spends a lot of time soaring

through the water like the
eagle for which it's named.

But look closely, it
has a shovel-shaped face

for digging around in the sea floor.

It's a bottom feeder,
just like the stingray.

And look here, not just
one but three stingers.

Another ray that likes to
swim up off the bottom,

the manta ray.

If ever there was an animal

that looked like a flying
carpet, this is it.

Unlike most other rays,
this animal eats plankton.

It swims through the water
with its mouth wide open,

allowing the tiny plankton
to go into its mouth

and get stuck on comb-like
filters on its gills.

Then it swallows them down.

Mantas don't have spines for protection.

They rely partly on their
large size to deter predators.

But they could jump pretty
far out of the water

to escape predators too.

Sometimes that doesn't help.

This manta has a bite cleanly
taken out of it by a shark.

Ouch, that's gotta hurt.

It probably happened when
this ray was much smaller.

Manta rays are ovoviviparous,

meaning that they produce
eggs that hatch internally.

Baby manta rays emerge from
their mother alive and swimming.

All rays use this reproductive strategy.

However, skates like the
little skate are ovoviviparous,

they lay eggs.

This is the egg of a skate.

The mother produced five to 15 of them.

They're laid on the sand and
given no parental protection.

Inside the egg, a baby skate develops

for up to a year depending
on the water temperature.

Finally, the day comes
when the baby skates,

slowly forces its way out of
the egg case and swims away.

Even a newborn knows to
camouflage itself quickly

to avoid predators.

Skates and rays are a diverse group.

Not all batoids look like the typical ray.

This animal's called
a sawshark or sawfish,

it looks more like a
shark, but it's a ray.

Don't believe me?

Where are its gill slits?

A shark's gills would be here,

but they're underneath.

And look, it's breathing
through large spiracles.

The sawfish uses its saw to hunt

by swinging it back and forth in the sand,

impaling soft-belied
creatures on the teeth.

So skates and rays are a
diverse group of animals

with many adaptations to survive.

And while they're not as well known

as their cousins, the sharks,

their every bit is fascinating.

[bright upbeat music]

[gentle music]