06x12 - Global Search for the Rare Dugongs; Cave Diving in Florida, USA

[bunniefuu]

[bright music]

- [Announcer] Today on "Blue World,"

Jonathan goes in one cave
and comes out another.

But first, a trip to the Philippines

in search of an elusive dugong.

[upbeat 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."

- [Jonathan] In the waters
of Florida and the Caribbean,

there exists a gentle marine
mammal called a manatee.

Because they often live
in shore, close to people,

and have enjoyed more than 40 years

of protection from hunting or harassment,

manatees are often quite friendly.

Many of them have become acclimated

to gentle interactions with people.

[manatee squeaking]
[calm music]

But the manatee has a wild
cousin called a dugong,

living far away in the Indo-Pacific Ocean.

This animal is still hunted
in much of its range.

It's shy and hard to
approach, wary of humans,

and exceptionally rare to see underwater.

Which is why I have
come to the Philippines,

one of a handful of places in the world

where there are enough
dugongs left to have a chance

of seeing one in the wild.

I'm heading to Busuanga
in Palawan, Philippines,

a remote and beautiful area

where the endangered
dugong still roams wild.

But I didn't come alone.

Award-winning IMAX filmmaking team

Howard and Michelle Hall
have joined me on this trip.

They've been here before

and agreed to give me a
hand with this daunting

and challenging assignment.

Our journey begins with a flight

from the capital city of
Manila down to Busuanga,

then a drive from the
local airport to the water.

Next, we take a ferry ride across the bay

to our home away from home,

El Rio why Mar Resort on
the north side of Busuanga.

We arrive just after
sunset in time for dinner.

The next morning, we awake
to fog in the nearby hills,

and our dive boat,

a traditional Filipino bangka ready to go.

We get our gear together
and load the boat.

It's going to be a long day.

- [Group] Good morning.

- [Jonathan] In the
experienced hands of captains

Benny Martinez and Wilmar Bansolon,

we set out on our first day of adventure.

Dugongs are wild animals
that roam the ocean freely,

and it's a big ocean.

But we know where they
saw dugongs recently,

so at least we know
where to start looking.

Unfortunately, that
spot is two hours away.

Since it's going to be a while,

Howard and Michelle do the
only logical thing, take a nap.

I've never been here before,

so I spent some time
watching the scenery go by.

I'm always amazed by the natural
beauty of the Philippines.

Lush green hills surrounded
by beautiful warm water

filled with untold species of animals

to be discovered and filmed.

Eventually we make it to the area

where some dugongs were last seen,

and we start looking.

With experienced eyes,

Divemasters Omar Linsingan
and Brian Deremas

begins scanning the surface of the water.

Dugongs are solitary animals,

so they're looking for just one.

It's like finding a needle in a haystack.

After driving around looking
for an hour, at last,

we spot a dugong.

- [Michelle] One, two, three, yes.

- [Howard] There's his nose. What a shot.

There he goes. Good one.

Oh, nice.

- [Jonathan] There's no
time to waste in suiting up

and getting into the water.

[upbeat music]

We don't really need to
make a stealthy water entry

because we're anchored
really far from the dugong.

Woo-hoo!

We will swim several hundred
yards to reach the dugong

because the boat spooks them.

We follow Brian for a few minutes

looking around carefully in anticipation

of finding the dugong.

Finally, we find it,

and Howard takes the lead,

sneaking up on her while she's sleeping.

The master at work.

The dugong is covered in remoras,

suction cup-equipped fish that
hang around larger animals

for scraps.

But why are there so
many around this dugong?

Michelle films from above for a shot of me

and Howard inching closer
and closer to the dugong,

hoping it will tolerate our presence.

But when the dugong wakes up

and finds two cameras in its face,

the scene is over as it swims away.

This is definitely going to be more work

than filming manatees in Florida.

[gentle music]

With Howard and Michelle leading,

we head back to the boat.

With the light fading,

it's time to head for home.

Back at the resort,

we enjoy a beautiful Philippines sunset

and get a good night's sleep.

The next morning, we're heading
back, cameras at the ready.

[upbeat music]

We find a dugong quickly this time,

so we get suited up and into
the water as fast as we can.

Today is nice and sunny,

and the water's a little
clearer on an incoming tide.

Omar leads us to the dugong.
This time we get lucky.

The dugong is actively feeding,

and fortunately, he's more
interested in food than us.

So as I sneak up close for some shots,

he doesn't seem to mind.

[bright music]

Like manatees, dugongs are herbivores.

The eat only plants,

and their favorite plants
to eat are seagrasses

that grow in the sandy
sea floor in shallow water

where there's plenty of light.

While there's no shortage
of this aquatic salad

for dugongs to eat,

it's not exactly dense
in nutritional value.

So dugongs need to spend
more than half their lives

chomping away at seagrasses

and packing in nearly a
hundred pounds of it a day.

Dugongs and manatees are in fact

the only completely
herbivorous marine mammals.

So in spite of reaching the length

and weight of a small car,
dugongs are completely harmless.

A school of golden
trevally are hanging around

because as the dugong feeds,

he scares up shrimp and other
creatures hiding in the sand.

It's an easy feast for the fish.

The dugong also has
those other freeloaders.

More than a dozen remoras
are hanging onto him

and following along.

They must drive the poor
dugong absolutely crazy

because every once in a while,

he engages in an elaborate ritual

to try to rid himself of some of them.

It starts with some acrobatics,

rolling and twisting in the sand.

[lively music]

The acrobatics kicks up a bunch of silt

and reduces the visibility to near zero

in a giant cloud around the dugong.

[lively music continues]

Once the dust cloud
reaches epic proportions,

he shoots out of the cloud and zooms away

at up to 15 miles per hour,

which is actually pretty fast under water,

and literally leaves
the remoras in the dust.

Unfortunately, the remoras
always seem to catch up again.

I keep watching because
I really wanna know

why so many remoras hang around.

What is their interest in the dugong?

Then I see it, and it's pretty disgusting.

The remoras eat the dugong's poop.

[gentle music]

Dugongs eat a lot, so they poop a lot.

For the remoras,

the dugong is like a swimming
poop vending machine.

If you are what you eat,

that explains why even
sharks won't eat remoras.

Like dolphins and whales,
dugongs are mammals.

Their ancient ancestors
once lived on land.

But in spite of their
similarity to whales,

dugongs and manatees are more
closely related to elephants.

Since they're mammals, they
must rise to the surface

to breathe every few minutes.

While the dugong can hold
its breath for 15 minutes,

they tend to breathe much
more frequently than that,

every three to six minutes.

[gentle music]

In spite of their similarity,

dugongs and manatees have
one striking difference.

The tail of a dugong looks like the fluke

of a whale or a dolphin.

A manatee, on the other hand,

has a rounded paddle-like tail.

The dugong has a huge range,

spreading across the tropical
Pacific and Indian Oceans

all the way up into the Red Sea.

The dugong is highly
endangered in its entire range,

but the strongest holdouts
of stable populations

are in Northern Australia
and the Arabian Gulf.

Most countries now protect the dugong,

and ever so slowly, its
numbers are growing,

bringing this remarkable, harmless,

and I would say adorable marine mammal

back from the brink of extinction.

[gentle music]

As our new friend settles back into a nap,

pestered by his annoying
poop-eating remora freeloaders,

I watch for a while, having
finely gained his trust.

[lively music]

But then with our scuba tanks getting low,

it's time for the long
swim back to the boat.

It took me 20 years to finally
see a dugong in the wild,

but with continued protection,

it's my fervent hope that
dugongs will be much easier

for future generations to see

here in the wild blue world.

[bright music]

- [Announcer] Coming up,
the "Blue World" team

goes into one cave and comes out another.

- It's a cool morning in North Florida

with steam rising off
the warm Suwanee River.

This section of Florida
is known as cave country

because it's made of
porous karst limestone

and full of caves.

There are hundreds of caves here.

Zach, Todd, and I are
heading out for a day

of cave diving adventure.

We're meeting up with our
good friend Wayne Kinard,

who's taking us on one of
his favorite dives today.

So we head over to his dive shop,

Amigos Dive Center in Fort White.

Hey, Wayne.
- Good morning, Jonathan.

- How are you?
- Doing well.

You ready to go dive Peacock?

- Yeah, man.

- It's gonna be the best day ever.

- Let's go.

- Let's go.
- All right.

First, we rig and fill our scuba tanks.

We put all of our stuff
in poor Wayne's truck.

Next, it's off to Peacock Springs.

[gentle music]

It kind of looks like a swamp at first.

Even from the air, it
doesn't look that inviting,

but this is a really popular cave dive

with easy access provided by
a beautiful set of stairs.

So Wayne, tell me what
we're gonna do here today.

- Well we're at West Giles
Peacock Springs State Park.

We will make our entrance
here right in the Peacock 1,

and we will swim through these tunnels,

passing a place called Pothole

where there's some deer
bones and other animal bones.

Until we reach Olsen Sink.

We will then surface at Olsen

and compare our thirds
and how the dive is going,

and then turn around

and come back in the
same route that we took

back to the exit of Peacock 1

where we originated our dive.

- [Jonathan] So what we're doing
today is called a traverse,

where we go in one cave
entrance and pop out another.

But the second entrance is close enough

that we can make it on one
third of our air supply,

so we can turn and go back
again on the same scuba tanks.

Next, it's time to suit up.

[bright music]

Wayne hoofs his big back-mount
doubles down to the water.

But Todd, Zack, and I
are using side-mount,

so we will don our tanks in the water.

- You ready? All right.

- The water in the spring is pretty green

and a bit murky,

but as we drop into the
cave, it's much clearer.

[gentle music]

Like most caves that see a lot of divers,

there's a stop sign at the
edge of the cavern zone,

warning people to go no
further without cave training

and equipment.

We get our cameras white balanced

and follow Wayne into the darkness.

[dramatic music]

Almost immediately,

Wayne finds a blind cave crayfish.

Over thousands of years living in caves,

these little crustaceans
have lost their pigment

and eyesight.

This species grows to about two inches

and is only found in Florida and Georgia.

Even though it can't see me filming,

it can sense my presence and
moves away as I get close.

[gentle music]

As we progress further into the cave,

I feel like I'm swimming
through an enormous piece

of Swiss cheese.

Over thousands of years,

water flowing through these passages

has slowly dissolved the limestone,

making the passages larger and larger.

We're careful not to kick up the silt

on the bottom of the cave,

which would ruin our visibility.

Wayne leads us to a little shelf

that the local divers call the Pothole.

This is where people have placed bones

that have been found in the
cave for easy inspection.

Wayne holds them up,

but he can't tell me what they are,

so I'll have to wait and
ask him after the dive.

[soft music]

This one looks like a turtle shell.

And this one looks like a cow skull.

He carefully puts the
bones back where they were

for other divers to see, and
then we continue on our way.

[gentle music]

Soon, we reach the 600 foot arrow.

Line arrows always point the
fastest way out of the cave,

so this one is telling us

that the entrance is 600
feet back the way we came.

The cave passages are getting
larger in this section,

and it doesn't take us long
to reach a double line arrow.

We're now exactly
halfway between Peacock 1

and Olsen Sink.

Both line arrows point the
way out, 700 feet either way.

So we keep following the
line towards Olsen Sink

through some pretty cool passages.

We enter a low section of
cave perfect for side-mount,

but Wayne manages to fit
with his back-mounted tanks.

[dramatic music]

Soon, we can see some light at
the end of the tunnel ahead.

Wayne goes first

up through a small opening
towards the surface.

One by one, we all emerge into Olsen Sink,

a tiny blue pool in the
middle of the forest.

[dramatic music continues]

Woo!
- Woo!

- [Jonathan] Oh man, that was great.

- Yeah, super great.
- That's a long swim.

- [Wayne] It is.

A lot of interesting creatures down there.

- Well.
- Should we head back in?

- [Jonathan] I guess we should head back.

We got a long swim.

- [Wayne] We got us to swim ahead.

It's been a great day. Let's head back.

[gentle music]

- Wayne leads the way back into the cave.

We kicked up a bit of silt

squeezing through that small restriction,

so we have some murky
water to get through.

But soon we pass back into the
nice clear water in the cave

and begin our long swim back
to the Peacock 1 entrance.

On the way out, we have
the current at our backs,

so the swim is easier.

We make good time.

When we enter the low section again,

I notice pockets of our air
have collected on the ceiling

looking like liquid metal.

[soft music]

The limestone walls
are an ancient sea bed,

so they're full of fossils and shells.

Finally, we make it back

to the stop sign in the cavern zone,

and we ascend back to the light of day.

[gentle music]

Woo! That was great.

- That was really amazing.

- [Jonathan] My trip to Peacock
Springs was a great success

because not only did I
get to go cave diving,

but I also did my first traverse,

swimming all the way to Olsen Sink.

It's only 1,400 feet,

just less than five football fields away.

But in a cave, that's a pretty long swim.

Fortunately, there was a lot of cool stuff

to see along the way.

Cave diving is one of my favorite ways

to explore the blue world.

[bright music]

[soft music]