06x08 - Jonathan Bird's Blue World

[bunniefuu]

[light music]

- [Narrator] Today on "Blue World,"

Jonathan meets the manatees of Florida.

But first, he visits the
amazing island of Bonaire

to dive with his whole family

in the first ever Bird
family dive adventure.

[bright music]

Meet Jonathan Bird,

[water splashes]

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."

[bright music]

- [Jonathan] Scuba diving has
defined my life for 30 years.

You could say that I'm
in love with the ocean

and the creatures that live there.

I'm at home in the underwater world.

My wife, Christine, and I
have been diving together

since we met at a dive club meeting.

Ever since our kids were born,

we've longed to share this
underwater world with them.

In 2013, our daughter, Elise,

was old enough to get certified to dive.

She took her class with
instructor Kat Apse.

- 54, right?

'Cause that was our penalty.

- [Jonathan] In 2017, our son
Liam got certified to dive

with instructor Scott Reed.

[water splashes]

Both of them learned to dive

in the cold waters of New England

where we have thick
wetsuits, big weight belts,

and very limited visibility.

So this winter, it's time
for a family diving trip.

When it comes to family diving,

there's no place better than
Buddy Dive resort in Bonaire.

[upbeat music]

Bonaire is a territory of the Netherlands

located in the Southern Caribbean Sea,

just off the coast of Venezuela.

It's known as one of the best
scuba diving destinations

in the Caribbean,

with warm, clear water, healthy reefs,

and almost no current,

Bonaire is the perfect
place to take our kids

on their first tropical diving trip.

February school vacation
is an awesome time

to hit the airport to escape winter.

Through the miracle of air travel,

we soon land in tropical Bonaire.

- We landed in Bonaire!
- Yeah, we're in Bonaire!

- We're here.

- [Jonathan] Then we head
on over to Buddy Dive,

an oceanfront luxury resort

catering specifically to scuba divers.

Our first morning we
get a quick introduction

to the facilities from
dive operations manager,

Augusto Montbrun.

Soon we'll be diving,

but first things first,

we review the marine park rules,

the most important of which
is to not touch anything

or break any coral.

Buoyancy, buoyancy, buoyancy.

- And buoyancy.
- You won't break anything

if your buoyancy is under control.

And with buoyancy in mind,

our first dive will be a checkout dive.

We're heading to the dive shop.

All right guys, so what we're gonna do

is for our first dive,

we're just gonna go out in the
shallows here over the sand,

like 15 feet deep.

We're just gonna practice
our buoyancy skills.

- Okay.

- So that we have our buoyancy
and our weight all worked out

before we go out on the coral.

Okay?
- [Children] Okay.

- All right, let's do it.

- Yeah.

- [Jonathan] The dive shop
is right on the water,

so we can do a dive right
off the end of the dock.

The kids haven't been
diving in a couple months,

so I'm curious to see if they can remember

how to assemble all their gear correctly.

[bright music]

I'm impressed. They do it like pros!

[air blows]

Once we're sure that all
their stuff is right,

Christine and I get our gear set up.

And now for the fun part.

- [Christine] Sounds good.

- You guys giant striding?
- Yep.

- Okay. A giant stride
off the end of the dock

is a super fun way to start any dive.

[water splashes]

Elise goes first.

- [Liam] You okay?

- [Elise] Woo hoo!

- [Jonathan] Okay, Liam.

[water splashes]

After Liam, Christine hits the water

and we're off.

[water splashes]

Sinking 20 feet down to the sandy bottom,

I first demonstrate a buoyancy exercise

for the kids to practice.

They adjust the amount of air
in their buoyancy compensators

to get neutrally buoyant.

[gentle music]

When you're really good at it,

you can hover without
using your hands or feet.

With our buoyancy exercises complete,

we decide to spend the rest of the dive

having a look around in the shallows

at the edge of the reef.

There's a flounder in the sand,

a fish wonderfully adapted
to hide in plain sight.

A colony of garden eels
poke out of their holes,

plucking plankton from
the water as it passes.

And near an isolated brain coral,

a barracuda is just hanging out

with its toothy mouth wide open.

This is a very special brain coral,

and as I will discover
in the days to come,

this barracuda comes to this
brain coral every morning.

Elise is fascinated watching the action,

and once the big fish gets used to us,

it opens its mouth again.

Tiny cleaner fish are swimming
into the barracuda's mouth

and gills picking off
parasites and dead skin.

They give the barracuda a good grooming.

The cleaner fish live
around this brain coral

providing a cleaning station for any fish

that might need their services.

Soon the kids are getting chilly,

so we turn and swim back to the dive shop.

- That was awesome!

Woo hoo!

- [Jonathan] In the
afternoon, we join a boat dive

to explore a reef on Klein Bonaire.

It's only a 10 minute ride from the dock

to reach Klein Bonaire, a
small uninhabited island,

which is a protected national park.

The reefs are pristine.

We suit up for a dive on a beautiful reef

right below the boat.

Boat diving is so convenient.

Alright, you guys. Are you ready?

- Ready.
- Yep.

- All right, well, let's
have fun and remember,

watch the buoyancy.

- Okay.
- All right.

All right, you guys.

Let's do it!

- [Liam] Woo!

Woo!

- Yeah.

- [Elise] On we go!

[water splashes]

[all cheering]

- [Jonathan] Finally, the
Bird family is scuba diving

on a gorgeous Caribbean reef together.

We pass the mooring block.

All the dive sites use permanent moorings

so there are no anchors
thrown on the reef.

That means the reef is in beautiful shape

with lots of healthy coral.

[gentle music]

There are ginormous tube sponges.

A French angelfish is one of the few fish

that can digest the
tough tissue of sponges.

[sponge scrapes]

A big school of blue tangs
is moving across the reef,

feeding on algae.

They're critical to
the health of the coral

because without them,

the algae would take over
and smother the coral.

A parrotfish is also
snacking on the algae.

[coral scrapes]

We head down the reef
behind the dive master,

and soon he's found us a special treat.

A yellow blob sitting on an sponge.

That blob is a frogfish.

It stays perfectly still
acting like a sponge itself,

flicking a lure to attract
smaller fish to eat.

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

At 15 feet, we do a safety
stop for three minutes.

The purpose of this

is to reduce the pressure
on our bodies slowly

so nobody develops decompression sickness,

then it's up the ladder to the boat.

- That was awesome.

- What he said!

[upbeat music]

Bonaire is an arid place

with the terrain dominated by cactuses.

The eastern side of the
island has strong trade winds.

The western side of the
island, away from the wind,

has calm conditions perfect for diving.

Popular places for shore diving

are marked with a yellow rock

indicating the name of the dive site.

Shore diving is really popular on Bonaire,

so we decide to give it a try.

Dive master Tina Wall from
Buddy Dive takes us down south

to a dive site called Invisibles.

- And as we get closer,
once it's deep enough

and we know where the
buoy is, we'll descend

because that's our best marker

for our entry and exit point, okay?

Alright, guys, stop.

- [Jonathan] We have to be
very careful getting in.

The rocks are uneven and slippery.

We swim out until the water
is deep enough to submerge.

Then we head across the
sand to reach the reef.

Tina leads the way,

and with that shirt,
she's very hard to lose.

We find a venomous scorpionfish
sitting very still.

My camera lights make
it look really colorful,

but without lights, it blends in

and looks like a rock.

Hiding near a soft coral,
there's a trumpetfish.

They hang vertically
head down in the water

to look like part of the coral.

It's an effective way to ambush prey,

but when it realizes
that it's been spotted,

the fish abandons its position

and makes a break for it.

Only to try to fool me again.

We turn our dive and start meandering back

towards the beach.

Along the way, we come across
a couple intense characters.

On one side of a rock,

a male sailfin blenny
furiously putting on a display

designed to impress a female.

[water splashes]
[jaunty music]

Less than a meter away, another male,

also intent on getting
that female's attention.

As they both put on their best moves,

the female comes to check them both out,

and frankly, she's not very impressed.

[water splashes]

They both get the cold fin,

but that only causes them to
intensify their competition

with each male trying to
out display the other one.

[water splashes]

I leave the sailfin
blennys to their antics

and follow a goatfish for a while.

Goat fish have two whiskers
called barbels under the chin,

which provides a goat like appearance.

These barbels are chemically sensitive.

They can basically smell
things like worms in the sand.

When it smells something yummy,

the goatfish dives right in for a snack.

[sand rustles]

We've made our way back to the beach

and surface to swim to shore.

After the dive, we pile back into the van

and head back to Buddy Dive.

We have one more adventure for the day.

- Yeah, definitely.

- [Jonathan] The sun is
setting over Klein Bonaire,

but we are not getting ready for bed.

Once the sun has gone down,
it's time for a night dive

and this will be Liam's
first night dive ever.

If he's nervous, he's hiding it well.

[water splashes]

[water splashes]

[water splashes]

We jump off the dock into the dark water.

With our dive lights blazing,

we set off to the reef.

At night, the colors are brighter

without the strong blue
cast from the water.

Purple tube sponges look like something

out of a science fiction movie.

[gentle music]

And on the sponges, an
alien looking arrow crab.

Nearby, a parrotfish is
sleeping inside a bubble.

It blows the bubble to disguise its scent

from nocturnal predators like moray eels.

Suddenly a large shadow

and then a pair of fish
more than a meter long.

These are tarpon.

Normally they would not
come this close to divers,

but the tarpon here at Buddy Dive

have learned to hunt using
the divers flashlights.

So they follow us around
for the whole dive.

[gentle music continues]

The fish are so shiny that they look

like they're made of aluminum foil.

A night dive in the
company of these huge fish

is a real treat.

Our trip to Bonaire has been epic.

[upbeat music]

Our whole family dove
together for the week,

and my kids got to experience

a little bit of why I
love the ocean so much.

We dove from the shore and from a boat,

during the day and at night

in the divers paradise of Bonaire.

And the question isn't, "Did we have fun?"

The question is, "When
are we coming back?"

- [Narrator] Coming up,

Jonathan and his new friend Elizabeth

visit the warm water springs of Florida

in search of manatees.

[gentle music]

- [Jonathan] The town of Crystal
River in Florida is famous

around the world for
its warm water springs.

During the winter, these springs fill

with the world's largest
aggregation of manatees.

Todd, Zach and I have arrived
not just for manatees,

but to meet up with a very special kid.

Elizabeth is a 7-year-old
swimming prodigy.

From an early age, she took
to the water like a fish.

- [Videographer] You can do it.

- In fact, when she
was only 16 months old,

she could swim across a
swimming pool by herself,

becoming a YouTube sensation.

But she's never been swimming in the wild

with a large aquatic animal.

So today we're gonna change all that

and take her to meet one of
Florida's most famous residents.

Elizabeth and her dad, Adam,

are meeting me in the
town of Crystal River

for an underwater adventure.

Elizabeth! Hey, great to meet you!

- Hi.

- Are you ready to go
swim with some manatees?

- Yeah!
- Let's go!

[upbeat music]

Our guides to the manatees
are Captain Stacey Dunn

and her husband Mike.

We load the pontoon boat

and then Captain Stacey explains the rules

for manatee interactions.

- Alright, Elizabeth,

have you done your homework on manatees?

- No.

- No?

- [Jonathan] With Mike at
the helm, we leave the dock

and slowly make our way
through a series of canals

to Kings Bay.

We pass lots of no wake signs

reminding us that the area is filled

with vulnerable manatees.

Manatees swimming just under
the surface can be injured

or k*lled by propellers.

So we go very slowly keeping an eye peeled

for manatees near the boat.

We pass quite a few along the way.

Soon we arrive at the mouth
of Three Sisters Spring,

one of the best places to see manatees.

This spot is no secret.

There are five boats here

and 20 people already in the water,

but the swimmers can't go past the ropes

giving the manatees some personal space.

From the air,

we can see that there are
at least 200 animals here,

most of which are resting behind the rope,

close to the warm water

coming from the mouth of the spring.

Cameraman Todd and I hop into the water.

Going very smooth and quiet.

Oh, so cold, so cold.

Due to a recent cold snap in Florida,

the water's only in the mid sixties.

Next, it's Elizabeth's turn,

and I'm a little worried

that the water's going
to be too cold for her.

She has a wetsuit, so that will help.

As it turns out, she
handles the cold just fine,

but the murky water over
where we anchored the boat

freaks her out a little,

so her dad hops in the water to help out.

[water bubbles]

We move to a shallow spot
where Elizabeth can stand up

and get her bearings.

She's using a pool noodle to float,

which is actually something
that the tour operators

are asking people to do.

And this is the reason:
the water is shallow

and manatees go under people all the time.

So good flotation keeps people

from accidentally kicking them.

Elizabeth grabs her noodle and
off we go to the clear water

near the spring.

We hang out together in the clear water

until a manatee comes
over to check us out.

[gentle music]

These are huge but gentle animals.

As long as we don't bother them,

they don't mind us being
in the water at all.

West Indian manatees are
largely solitary animals

that live in shallow coastal areas.

Around Florida and the Caribbean.

They feed on sea grasses

so in the past they were
often called sea cows.

Florida is at the northern
end of their range.

So in winter, when the ocean gets cold,

they go looking for warmth.

Fortunately, the water spilling
out of Florida's springs

is a constant 72 degrees Fahrenheit.

Manatees swim up rivers from the ocean

to reach the springs.

At the springs, they mostly just rest

and wait for the weather to get warmer,

but there's almost nothing to eat.

So a tree leaf that lands on
the water is a welcome snack.

Some of the manatees are quite skinny.

They are not getting enough to eat here.

During the day,

some of the manatees will
swim out into the river

to find food, but many of them
just can't handle the cold

and stay hunkered down at the springs.

After a manatee has been
lounging in shallow fresh water

for a while, it may develop
a coat of algae on its back.

The fish love this delicious salad bar,

and the manatees don't seem to mind

getting rid of the algae.

Because manatees are mammals,

they have lungs and breathe air.

So every few minutes a
manatee will rise to breathe

once or twice before settling down

and going back to sleep,
holding its breath.

Their nostrils feature
perfectly watertight valves

so they don't have to worry
about water in the nose.

But it's not easy sharing these
shallow waters with boats.

Many manatees have terrible injuries

from close encounters with propellers,

and these are the ones that survived.

Around 75 manatees are k*lled by boats

every year in Florida.

It's not all bad news, though.

Manatees are doing much better
than they were 20 years ago.

With strong protection in place,

their numbers have tripled since 1994.

Elizabeth and I are having a great time

hanging out with the manatees,

but now we're both freezing

and it's time to warm up.

So we say goodbye to our aquatic friends.

By getting the chance to
see manatees up close,

I hope Elizabeth will become
as enchanted with marine life

as I am

and become another
advocate for the protection

and appreciation of marine life

all around the blue world.

[bright music]

[wood bangs]