08x09 - Jonathan Bird's Blue World

[bunniefuu]

- [Narrator] Coming up,
Jonathan and Todd explore

a super small cave.

It's a claustrophobic's nightmare,

but first, Jonathan meets some
hungry sea turtles in Roatan.

[adventurous music]

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."

[adventurous music]

[music stops]

- [Narrator 2] The Blue
World team has traveled

to the tropical island
of Roatan to explore some

of the healthiest reefs in the Caribbean.

Roatan is an island located

of mainland Honduras in Central America.

It's a popular vacation
destination for North Americans,

not only because of nice
beaches and proximity to the US,

but also because of the
healthy marine environment.

Zach, diver Ed, and I
start our day meeting

Lindy Warren of Infinity Divers.

Lindy is a very famous Roatan dive master,

and we're lucky to have
him to show us around.

[bright music]

- Well, we're here in
beautiful Roatan, Honduras.

It's a beautiful day, and
we're gonna do some nice

tropical diving, baby.

This is my favorite kind of diving.

Nice warm water.

Check this out.

- [Narrator 2] Roatan is known
for super healthy coral reefs

and a robust population of sea turtles.

And while we have seen sea
turtles many times, we're hoping

to capture some really
interesting behaviors.

We tie up at a popular site
known for really great coral

and deep channels that bring
clear water into the shallows.

- [Diver] I love the sand
on the rig, that's great.

Adds some flavor.

- [Narrator 2] I'm gonna have
a super easy and fun dive

because I'm testing
out my new IMAX camera.

Actually, it's a GoPro
hero 10 that shoots in 5K.

Even though Lindy has done
more than 10,000 dives,

he never gets bored of showing
people these beautiful sites.

He leads us down through
a channel in the reef.

[tranquil music]

It dumps us out on the wall at 110 feet.

Here, the reef drops
precipitously into the blue.

The light down here is low,

and the GoPro image
quality's kind of noisy.

We follow Lindy on a
search for a sea turtle.

[tranquil music]

Along the way,

I can't help but notice all
of the interesting sponges.

I'm a sucker for a pretty sponge.

Some of these barrel
sponges grow quite large,

and the beauty of a GoPro is getting an

interesting perspective.

Eventually, we find our first sea turtle.

[tranquil music]

It's a small female hawksbill
searching for lunch.

[tranquil music]

She has some red algae on her shell.

She could really use a few surgeon fish.

I'm gonna call her fuzz butt.

[tranquil music]

Even though sea turtles live
their whole lives in the ocean,

they're still reptiles

and need to breathe air at the surface.

So every five to 10 minutes,
a sea turtle must go up

for a few breaths.

Catch you later, fuzz butt.

In the meantime, we have a look around.

We find a few more lion fish.

They might not belong here,

but they're still one

of the most beautiful fish on the reef.

But don't touch because those
spines are extremely venomous.

Speaking of venomous, the
scorpion fish is easy to miss with

that awesome camouflage.

And this fish packs
venomous dorsal spines too.

I spy an indigo hamlet.

They're a little more
common here than in the rest

of the Caribbean, but
it's still a rare site.

Lindy is filming something with his GoPro

and another turtle comes
down to investigate.

Turtles can be quite curious,

and they know that divers
will not hurt them.

This lady is hungry and she's
on a mission to find a snack.

[tranquil music]

Finally, she finds her favorite food,

which is a particularly tough sponge.

Fish can't eat these sponges

because they simply can't bite into them,

and she's having a hard time too.

Not many animals find sponges
particularly good to eat,

but sea turtles

and a few species of fish
can digest the tough fibers.

[bright music]

Finally, she finds the perfect sponge

and begins ripping it open.

[bright music]

Almost immediately, a queen
angel fish joins the party

to mooch a few scraps.

[bright music]

The angel fish could never
eat this sponge without

the turtle's help.

[bright music]

And word gets out fast.

Soon a gray angel fish
shows up at the table

and then another, it's a full on buffet.

This sea turtle has a
scar on her left side,

maybe from a shark bite
when she was younger.

So I'm calling her shark bait.

[bright music]

She doesn't mind if I
get in close to watch.

[bright music]

All this eating is making me hungry.

[bright music]

The food at this
restaurant is pretty good,

but she needs to breathe.

[calm music]

While shark bait goes for a breath,

two more hawksbills show up.

Oh wait, it's fuzz butt
followed closely behind

by another female hawksbill.

I don't know where all the males are.

Maybe they slept in.

[calm music]

Fuzz butt and the other
hawksbill are circling around,

almost as if they're
trying to find something.

[calm music]

A few minutes later,

fuzz butt has somehow
discovered shark bait's

half eaten sponge and picks
up where she left off,

biting off large chunks.

The angel fish don't seem
particularly picky about

who they steal their scraps from.

But soon shark bait is back
from her trip to the surface

to breathe, and she's not happy to find

fuzz butt eating her sponge.

It comes to a head and
an argument breaks out.

[tense music]

It looks violent, but they're
not really hurting each other.

[tense music]

Eventually, fuzz butt swims
away, leaving shark bait

to continue feeding on her sponge.

[bright music]

I'm really excited to witness
this interesting behavior.

Who knew that fish could take advantage

of a sea turtle's strong jaws?

We might have scuba gear allowing
us to breathe underwater,

but like the sea turtles,

we must eventually surface as well.

And all that feeding
action is making me hungry,

so it's time to head back
to the dock for lunch.

The beautiful reefs of Roatan
certainly did not disappoint,

from the coral swim throughs
to the abundance of fish,

and of course the amazing sea turtles,

Roatan is a lovely place
to explore the blue world.

- [Narrator] Don't go away.

Jonathan and Todd are
going to squeeze into

the smallest cave they've ever attempted.

[calm music]

- It's a beautiful day
on Merrits Mill Pond.

Located in Marianna, Florida,
just west of Tallahassee,

this small manmade lake contains entrances

to seven different caves.

Today, cameraman Todd, Zach of all trades,

and I are looking for one of
the smallest caves on the pond.

We rented a pontoon boat to
explore as many of the caves

as we can manage in our short visit.

We head north from our
rental house in search

of Shangri La Cave.

It's easy to find

because of the crystal clear
water surrounding the entrance.

We pull our boat gently into
the shallow water near shore.

There's a small metal
post to tie off the boat.

I'm gonna lasso a little more.

That one's on.

Next to us, clear water flows
strongly from this spring.

It's the kind of inviting
water that cave divers crave.

We got some pointers from
local instructor Medi Zanetti,

so we know this is gonna
be a very tight cave,

which sounds fun.

With this in mind, we suit
up for some adventure.

[upbeat music]

We have a quick peek inside
so we can figure out our plan.

[upbeat music]

We have a short chat and decide
to bring only GoPro cameras

because our regular cameras are too big

for this cave.

- The main line, but I couldn't see

where the main line really began.

- [Narrator 2] At last, we begin the dive

with Todd leading the way.

[tranquil music]

If you think the entrance looks small,

you haven't seen anything yet.

- [Todd] We fight our way in
against the flow and discover

it's a pretty spacious cavern zone.

[tranquil music]

- [Narrator 2] We have
only a single video light

to keep the GoPro rig small.

[tranquil music]

I follow Todd into the cave
while he ties off our reel.

[tranquil music]

Heading further into the cave.

We quickly arrive at a tiny
restriction going down into the

floor, and that's the only way to proceed,

so Todd pushes on down.

It's a tighter squeeze than it looks.

[curious music]

- [Todd] Once I get down in
there, I can see the line,

but there doesn't appear to
be an easy way to follow it.

Ceiling and floor is so close together,

I'm wondering if I'll even fit.

- [Narrator 2] From behind
Todd, I can see the problem.

Man this is one tiny cave.

Todd picks the biggest opening
and starts heading that way.

There's literally just enough
room to squirm through.

[calm music]

Up ahead, Todd follows the main line.

We expected the cave
to open up once we got

through the first restriction, and it has,

but not very much.

I'm hanging back far enough
that if we need to turn around,

we won't be kicking each other too much.

[tranquil music]

Thankfully, the floor of
the cave is not super silty,

and the silt we do manage to
kick up is being washed away

quickly in the flow of water.

[tranquil music]

Todd continues his slow
progression upstream into the cave.

I have it a little easier
because I'm following,

but I have worse visibility
being downstream.

[tranquil music]

[tranquil music continues]

[diver mumbling]

- [Todd] Someone has laid line in here,

so we know people can fit,

but many had said that
in order to go further,

you'd have to remove both tanks.

And it looks like we've
reached that point.

[tranquil music]

- [Narrator 2] Because I'm behind,

I do a very clumsy turnaround
and begin leading the way out.

- [Todd] I'm turning around as well,

but there isn't much space.

[tranquil music]

[diver mumbling]

- [Narrator 2] Soon
we're both turned around

and heading out.

[calm music]

At last, we claw our way
back to the hole in the floor

and emerge back into the cavern.

[calm music]

As much as we enjoyed
that little adventure,

I think we're both glad
to be back into a space

large enough to swim.

In five minutes all the silt we kicked up

will be totally gone.

[tranquil music]

- [Todd] It's time to
head back to the light.

Since we never exceeded 25 feet,

we don't even have to do a safety stop.

[tranquil music]

[diver laughing]

- Man.

- That restriction at
the end where I turned,

I don't think I could fit through.

Without taking the tank off.
- Yeah.

- So I went as far

as I could.
- You know it

looked bigger inside than it was.

And even as I went further,
as far as I could see into

that next area, it was the
same low ceiling and mud.

But you know, I tried that
second time trying to get through

and it's like, it's just like
I have to take the tank off.

It's just not quite wide enough.

- Yeah.

- Or I gotta stop eating the pizza.

- Yeah, one or the other.

- [Narrator 2] Shangri La is one

of the smallest caves
in Merrits Mill Pond.

It's not deep and it doesn't go very far,

but it's an incredible dive

for adventurous side mount cave divers.

Meanwhile, we have many other caves

to explore in this extraordinary pond

and the blue world.

[tranquil music]

[adventurous music]