05x01 - Tiger Sharks in the Bahamas & Crystal Cave of Abaco, Bahamas

[bunniefuu]

[upbeat music]

- [Narrator] Coming up on "Blue World",

Jonathan goes deep into a Bahamas cave

to find spectacular crystal formations,

but first learning to handle

[upbeat music]

Meet Jonathan Bird,

one of the world's top underwater
nature cinematographers.

- [Jonathan] Ooh, ooh.

- [Narrator] 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."

[letters whooshing]

[water bubbling]

[shark thudding]

[pensive music]

- [Jonathan] The tiger shark,

it's one of the most dangerous
animals in the world,

infamous for attacking surfers
in Hawaii and Australia.

It patrols the shallow
tropical ocean near shore

where people swim, creating a
situation ripe for disaster.

[bright music]

But there is a place in The Bahamas,

where tiger sharks and divers

can come face to face on equal terms,

it's called Tiger Beach,

and that's where we're
heading in this episode

of "Blue World."

To reach Tiger Beach, I've
organized a unique expedition

to The Bahamas on one of
my favorite dive boats,

The Dolphin Dream, run by
Captain Wayne Scott Smith,

a friend of mine for over 20 years.

We'll be diving with at
least five different species

of sharks for nine days,

in an effort to learn
more about shark behavior.

[transition whooshing]
[bright music]

On the way to Tiger Beach,

a small pod of spotted
dolphins plays in the bow wave.

Upon arrival, shark
handlers Connor Cassidy

and Rich D'Argento, tie The
Dolphin Dream into a mooring.

Our team will be sitting
here for a week of adventure.

Rich gets the action started
by dropping a big box

of chum into the water.

Then he cuts some smaller bait
that the sharks can't resist.

- [Rich] Then still have
the tigers kicking around.

Okay.

- [Jonathan] Within only minutes,

there are sharks around the boat.

[water splattering]

[upbeat music]

Caribbean reef sharks and lemon sharks

are circling the chum box,

and up at the surface,

they're devouring snacks.

While we wait for the
tiger sharks to show up,

Connor gives us

a free-dive briefing.
- Rapid hand movements.

- [Jonathan] Then Captain Scotty

follows up with a few words of wisdom,

something about not
getting an arm bitten off.

- And then as week goes on,

we increase with more and more sharks.

- [Jonathan] Finally,
it's time to hit the water

and find out if the tigers have shown up.

Rich hands me my camera,

and I'm ready to descend to the bottom.

[bright music]

As soon as I sink below the surface,

it's immediately apparent
we've got tiger sharks.

Rich soon joins us on the bottom

with his feeding crate full of fish.

These are big tiger sharks,

but this routine happens every week.

They know the drill, be cool and get fed.

The sharks are pretty good
about taking turns, going around

and getting fed one at a time.

Anything left too close to the fishy scent

from the bait box could be a snack.

[playful music]

You have to dole out the food slowly.

Feed them too much,
they get full and leave.

Feed them not enough,
they get bored and leave.

They have to be fed only just enough

to keep them interested.

Sometimes the shark handlers
have to deal with six

or more tiger sharks.

Today we have three, which is plenty.

When a lemon shark moves in on the action,

the tiger sharks have a way

of making their displeasure understood.

Since the tigers are so big,

they aren't particularly maneuverable.

When a shark misses the snack,
she opens her mouth quickly,

which produces suction,

in an attempt to inhale the food.

It looks aggressive, but
she's not trying to bite.

A tiger shark produces
extraordinary suction

by opening its mouth quickly.

The tigers do get a little
pushy with each other,

but they never actually bite.

[bright music]

With this feeding going
on for many years now,

most of the tiger sharks
have gotten used to

being handled by divers.

Some of them even seem to like it.

[oxygen sucking]

[water bubbling]

They come around time after
time to have their noses rubbed

and even get flipped upside down.

[water bubbling]

[oxygen sucking]

[water bubbling]
[oxygen sucking]

Sometimes they even tolerate being spun.

[water bubbling]

[oxygen sucking]

[transition whooshing]

[bright music]

Interactions with tiger
sharks have come a long way

since the last time I was here
at Tiger Beach back in 2008.

It used to be exciting just
diving with tiger sharks

outside a cage,

but now divers play
with them like puppies,

big hungry puppies that
could bite your arm off.

Connor and Rich have given
me a few lessons in flipping

tiger sharks, but now it's my turn to try,

and at first I'm not that good at it.

You wait for a shark to approach,

at least a meter or so off the bottom,

one hand goes on the nose

and the other hand under the
chin to hold its mouth closed.

Then you sort of, okay, it's
going to take a few more tries.

With a shark at the right height,

you sort of push the nose down.

In response, the shark twists its body

and throws its tail up to turn.

Honestly, you aren't
really flipping the shark.

The shark is doing all the
work, but it looks cool.

[Jonathan cheering]

It seems like a silly thing to do,

like teaching your dog to roll over,

it has no real purpose,

yet, some of the sharks
really seem to like it.

[Jonathan cheering]

Interestingly, a small female

keeps coming back me to be flipped.

Even though I'm not the
one doing the feeding,

she keeps coming to me.

[water bubbling]

[oxygen sucking]

[oxygen sucking]

[water bubbling]
[oxygen sucking]

Tiger sharks are amazing animals.

They're huge powerful sharks,

easily capable of eating a scuba diver.

Yet, around us, they're almost docile.

They're intelligent enough
to know what's going on,

play nice and get fed.

[oxygen sucking]

Like any wild animal,

tiger sharks are not totally predictable,

and who knows what dangers

a really hungry tiger shark might present.

But here at Tiger Beach in The Bahamas,

tigers are very cool cats.

[water bubbling]

[upbeat music]

- [Narrator] Next on "Blue World",

Jonathan goes deep into a Bahamas cave

to find spectacular crystal formations.

[relaxing music]

From the cenotes of the Yucatan

to the blue holes of The Bahamas.

Caves are astonishingly
beautiful environments,

often filled with lavish
decorations, crystal clear water

and strange alien life forms

hidden in the pitch darkness.

[bright music]

- [Jonathan] For years, I've
heard about a remote cave

in The Bahamas, filled
with incredibly fragile

crystal formations.

It's been compared to
diving inside a chandelier.

Only a handful of people have ever been

into the so-called Crystal Cave

and I really want to see it.

[transition whooshing]

World renowned Cave Explorer, Brian Kakuk

operates Bahamas Underground,

a cave diving operation
in remote Abaco, Bahamas.

He leads expeditions into the caves

and advocates for the
protection of Bahamas caves.

Brian agreed to take me
into the Crystal Cave.

[oxygen sucking]
[upbeat music]

Our team flies to sunny Abaco, Bahamas

on the cave exploration,
expedition of a lifetime.

[transition whooshing]

At Brian's shop, we
prepare gear, fill tanks,

and load the van for what
will be a very long day.

[oxygen tank clanking]

[birds chirping]
[door thudding]

The Crystal Cave is way
out in the pine forest.

[car rumbling]

It's not the kind of place
would imagine to have caves

beneath the surface.

[insect chirping]

The opening to Crystal Cave
has just a thin ceiling

of limestones separating
it from the forest above.

[steps crunching]

Brian built a set of
steps down into the water

with a platform for the gear.

Except for the low ceiling,

it's very convenient.

- Wow.
[water dripping]

- [Jonathan] I can't imagine
what it would've been like

to be the first to dive
this cave from the surface.

It sure doesn't look like much.

[metal clanking]

Brian has extensively mapped Crystal Cave,

and most of it is totally
inaccessible to divers

with traditional backmount tanks.

Most cave divers wear
their tanks on their backs,

but some caves have tight restrictions

where back mount divers won't fit.

Sidemount divers wear
their tanks on their sides,

so they have a thinner profile

and fit through smaller spaces.

[gear rumbling]

Today, the entire team
must be diving sidemount,

if they hope to reach a famous room

in the Crystal Cave
called the Glass Factory.

[oxygen hissing]

With the plan in place, we suit up.

Then the moment of truth, we
head over to the cave entrance

to begin what will be a
two-hour dive into Crystal Cave.

- [Diver] Ooh-wee.

- [Jonathan] Standing in the
water less than two feet deep,

it's hard to believe that this
cave actually goes anywhere.

Brian, Todd and I dawn our
tanks and check our lights.

[water splattering]
[elastic snapping]

- [Brian] 'Cause you're getting fast

at this stuff. [chuckling]

- Yeah. [indistinct]

We go through an extensive checklist

of safety checks

because that's what cave divers do,

no matter how experienced they are.

[oxygen hissing]

- I'm a little nervous
because this cave has

a lot of very small
passages with fragile stuff,

and I don't want to break anything,

so I'm gonna be trying to move
just as little as possible.

Just be very skilled and
not be a spaz. [laughing]

- Okay, prepare to be amazed.

- [Jonathan] We head to a tiny opening

at the back of the cave,
only about two feet tall,

and pass through into another world.

[mysterious music]

Just beyond that restriction,

it opens up into a massive room.

There's hardly any cavern zone.

[oxygen sucking]

I fire up the lights on my camera

and start following Brian on our path

towards the Glass Factory,

which is about a thousand
feet from the entrance.

[oxygen sucking]

Almost immediately, we
hit a tight restriction.

Brian and I already made
a plan for this one.

I pass my big camera through to him first,

then wiggle up and through myself.

Things are tight as we make our way closer

to the Glass Factory,

and in many cases, Brian has me go first

to get the clearest water for my shots.

He also keeps an eye on my fins

to be sure I don't kick anything fragile.

Almost all the formations
in Crystal Cave are made

of calcite crystal.

In most caves, a fat stalagmite
like this would be made

of opaque white calcite,
otherwise known as limestone,

but here in Crystal Cave,

it's a translucent crystalline
treasure that glows

with Brian's light.

Nobody is quite sure why the
calcite here forms crystals.

Over the last a hundred thousand years,

this cave has alternated between submerged

and dry at least five times.

During an Ice Age, when glaciers
cover much of the world,

sea levels fall and The
Bahamas caves go dry.

Water dripping in from above

creates cave formations like
stalactites and stalagmite.

They can only form in a dry cave.

With the Earth currently between ice ages,

sea levels are high and
the caves are flooded,

allowing us to swim from
formation to formation.

As Brian leads us further into the cave,

we arrive at what looks like
a crystalline cake frosting.

He sticks his hand out

to gently demonstrate how thin it is.

I carefully position
myself for a closeup shot,

and then I see clearly what he's doing.

These formations, called draperies,

are so thin that I can see
Brian's hand right through them.

It's like they're made of frosted glass.

[oxygen sucking]

Formed by thousands of
years of dripping water,

these exquisite crystal
curtains are super fragile.

Brian motions me over to a shelf

to show me a thick layer of red dust.

Tens of thousands of years
ago during a long dry spell,

strong winds picked up iron-rich
sand in the Sahara Desert.

The finest particles blew all
the way across the Atlantic

and landed in North America,
especially The Bahamas.

Rain eventually washed this
dust down into the limestone

where it formed a layer.

The high iron content
makes it red like rust.

The Sahara dust shows up in
many of the cave formations

as a red layer.

Next leads us to an area
of crystal drip stone

where water was running
gently along the floor.

A bat skeleton 15,000 years old,

frozen permanently in
crystal like a bug in amber.

Bats flew all the way in
here back when it was dry.

When Brian uses his light
up close to the crystal,

I can see the reddish tint in
a deeper layer of the stone.

That's the Sahara dust layer again.

[water bubbling]

[oxygen sucking]

As we continue on, we finally
reach the Glass Factory.

[oxygen sucking]

It's a room full of extremely
delicate formations,

known as soda straws
dripping from the ceiling.

Brian squeezes in first
to provide some light.

There's a section of the floor

that was damaged sometime
in the distant past

when the floor of the caves settled.

That's where divers can go in,

staying low, to avoid
breaking the formations

on the ceiling.

This is one of the few times
where Brian actually wants us

to crawl on the floor, not float.

[oxygen sucking]

I make my way slowly
into the Glass Factory.

I can't believe I'm really here.

I've seen pictures of this place for years

and never suspected I
would be here myself.

Brian calls this formation frozen rain.

Some of the formations
have bulbous crystal ends

showing that at some point the water level

was probably right at the
base of these formations.

Brian calls these flower formations.

With Brian's help, I'm
positioned in a place

where I can film safely
without breaking anything.

It's sensory overload,
almost too much to take in.

[water bubbling]

[oxygen sucking]

[water bubbling]

[oxygen sucking]

All of the soda straws have a gap

between the top and the bottom.

They were once connected as thin columns,

but as the floor subsided,
they broke into upper

and lower halves.

The floor is littered with
thousands of thin formations

that broke when that happened,

but the majority of the thicker
formations are still intact.

[oxygen sucking]

So why do they call these
formations soda straws?

Many of them really are
hollow like a straw.

You could sip a beverage
through this piece

of fragile crystal.

[oxygen sucking]

[bright music]

The Glass Factory has another surprise.

Up at the ceiling, some of the formations

have formed offshoots going
sideways instead of down.

Brian points out a large section

with this type of crystal growth.

[oxygen sucking]

They're called helictites.

Even experts in cave
formations aren't quite sure

how they form, but the
general consensus is

that it's a combination of wind

and surface tension causing
them to grow sideways.

So it's possible that there
was once a breeze through here,

which means another entrance,

one that has never been discovered.

Having consumed a third of our air supply,

our team has to start the long
swim back to the entrance.

[oxygen sucking]

We've been gone so long,

the surface cameraman has fallen asleep.

Brian leads the way out
through the swirly water

of the halocline.

Eventually, we come back
to that tight restriction,

and I have to squirm my way through again.

[oxygen sucking]

After some time decompressing,

we emerge back into the
cavern and onto the surface.

[water splattering]

That cave is like another
planet. [laughing]

The Glass Factory room is like

nothing you've ever seen.

- [Brian] Point that we
show you the good stuff.

- There can't possibly be
anything better than that.

But the fact is, maybe
there is something better.

I've only seen a fraction
of this massive cave system,

which means I definitely will
be coming back to Abaco soon

for more cave diving with Brian.

With our grand adventure
into Crystal Cave over,

once again, we begin the tedious process

of hauling our gear back to the van,

but I don't mind,

because all this gear
made it possible for me

to visit a place that
only a few dozen people

have ever seen.

Many more people have been to the summit

of Mount Everest than have
ever ventured into this cave

and seen the Glass Factory.
[bright music]

Yes, I will admit that I have a lot

of memorable adventures in the blue world,

but this one by far is
one of the most special.

The caves of Abaco are indeed
treasures that need protection

with Brian Kay Kakuk as
their most ardent advocate,

there's no doubt I'll be doing my part

to help Brian in his quest
to protect these caves.

The exquisite Crystal Caves of Abaco.

[upbeat music]

[gentle music]