03x01 - Blue Holes and the Georgia Aquarium

[bunniefuu]

[tranquil music]

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

Jonathan dives the largest
aquarium in the world,

and comes face to face with
its largest inhabitant,

the whale shark.

But first, he explores a really deep

and spooky blue hole in The Bahamas.

All of this today on
"Jonathan Bird's Blue World".

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.

[tranquil music]

In freshwater or salt,
reefs, wrecks, or caves,

Jonathan documents the
world beneath the waves.

[tranquil music]

Welcome to the "Blue World".

[tranquil music]

- Everyone knows that The
Bahamas have beautiful beaches

and lush coral reefs,

but they're also
world-renowned for cave diving.

And in The Bahamas, cave diving
usually means blue holes.

[water splashes]

In particular, the island
of Andros has dozens

of blue holes, clearly
visible from the air.

Walking through the forest
here on Andros, you can see

that the forest floors the
remains of an ancient seabed.

This limestone was formed

by coral reefs millions of years ago.

[wind gushes]

Rain, combining with carbon dioxide

in the atmosphere creates
mild carbonic acid,

otherwise known as acid rain,

which slowly dissolves limestone.

Millions of years of rain
falling on this rock,

and then draining in, have
slowly dissolved away the rock,

creating these odd little
crevices and holes,

and it's made the whole floor

of the forest look like a
gigantic piece of Swiss cheese.

Some of the holes have gotten pretty big.

I mean, this one's the size of a hot tub.

[whip swishes]

But in a few places,
the holes are enormous

and full of water.

These are the blue holes.

It's easy to see how the
blue holes got their name.

Andros is covered in them.

They look like circular ponds from the air

and often lead into vast
underwater cave systems.

I've teamed up with Small Hope Bay Lodge

and divemaster Mike Hornby
to explore The Guardian,

one of the more famous
blue holes on Andros.

It's a hike through
the brush to get there.

- [Mike] We have about
a quarter of a mile.

We're gonna have to carry our gear in.

- I gotta walk all the way in
here in my full scuba gear?

- [Mike] Yep.

- Oh, man.

- Well, we haven't got too far to go,

we're just about ready
to round the corner,

and it's gonna open up
into a beautiful blue hole.

Okay, Jonathan, here it is,
this is The Guardian Blue Hole.

- Wow, it doesn't look that blue.

- If you look off in the distance there,

and you see that little bit of an archway.

- [Jonathan] Yeah.

- [Mike] That is going to
lead into one cave system.

And right down here,

this is the entrance into
our other cave system.

- [Jonathan] So this is
where we're going down here?

- Yes, so The Guardian
Blue Hole is the portal

for the cave systems that lie underneath.

- So I head back to get my camera.

This is a lot less
convenient than boat diving.

It takes several trips to get my camera,

plus all the other gear to the water.

What I want to know is
who was the first guy

to discover this muddy hole

and say, "Hey, this
would be a great place"

"to go for a dive."

I mean, look at it.

[upbeat music]

Back at the truck,

Mike and I start suiting up.

We will walk in our gear to the water.

Mike, as a cave diving
instructor, will be my guide

to exploring the blue hole.

[zip stretching]

Thank you.

Mike wears some specific
gear for cave diving,

including redundant dive
computers, an extra regulator,

and he will even be
carrying a spare scuba tank.

So I'm not quite as technical as Mike,

but I do have some specialized
gear for cave diving.

So I have a scuba tank,
it's a normal scuba tank

but it has an H valve on it.

It has two separate
independent first stages.

So I've got my normal regulator

that I always use on the first one,

and a completely separate
redundant backup regulator

on the other one,

so that way I can turn one
off, turn the other one on.

If I were to have a
problem with either one

of my regulators, I have a
completely secondary backup.

For lighting, my lights on my
camera, my huge video lights,

those are my primary lights,

but I have another, a
flashlight in my pocket,

and a chemical light stick,
which you break it, it glows,

you have 12 hours of light
and it has no batteries.

That's probably more
light than I'm gonna need.

[upbeat music]

With all our gear assembled

and ready, we hike into the
brush and man, is it hot?

Nothing like a long walk
in the hot Bahamian sun

wearing full scuba gear and a wetsuit

to burn off a few calories.

- This water's gonna feel extremely good

after that warm walk through here.

- Oh yeah.

I'm Looking forward to that.

Finally, it's time to jump into the water

and explore The Guardian.

[water splashes]

Oh, that feels so good.

Well, it's time to go check it out.

[gas swooshes]

[water bubbling]

As I sink down into the
yellowish green water,

I can hardly see, because it's so murky.

I'm following Mike's pink fins.

He specifically uses the
brightest pink he can find,

so the people following

behind can see him in limited visibility.

Cameraman, Tim, is right
behind me bringing up the rear

as we sink down into the dark
spooky hole in the ground.

As we descend, we pass through layers

of what looks like smoke in the water.

Mike points out these clouds
of suspended sediments to me

as we keep sinking.

The blue hole leads
into a huge cave system,

and it's a lot deeper
than you might imagine.

Periodically, Mike turns to
make sure we're still here,

and his flashlight illuminates
a permanent guideline

that previous divers have installed.

This line guides the way out

in case we get disoriented.

The walls on each side
of us go straight down.

We're sinking into a deep crack.

[water rustling]

As we get deeper, the
walls get closer together,

but the water gets clearer.

We've passed into sea water.

from the fresh water above, I
can taste the salt on my lips.

If we could go far enough,

eventually we could reach the ocean.

Mike points to ancient
fossilized seashells embedded

into the limestone.

Here's a conch shell.

[tranquil music]

Our bubbles are hitting the rock overhangs

and knocking off sediment,
which is raining down around us,

reducing the visibility.

I continue to follow Mike,

until finally at 150 feet deep,

we reached some stalactites

in a formation called candle wax.

These were formed by dripping water

during the last ice age when
sea levels were much lower,

and this part of the cave was dry.

[tranquil music]

[gas exhaling]

Down below me,

It's more than 500 feet deep in this cave.

I don't think we'll be going down there.

We turn around and start heading back,

with Mike continuing to point out fossils.

Following our guideline back

into the shallower, murky water,

Tim is right behind me,

[tranquil music]

and Mike with his spare scuba tank slung

under his arm is right ahead.

Periodically, markers on
the line point the way out.

These can be used in the
event of a light failure

to feel your way to the surface.

At last, we can see the dim
glow of daylight from above

as we ascend towards the sun.

Back in the shallows of the
blue hole, Mike shows me around.

The bottom looks like it's sand,

but it's actually a deep layer of silt.

While Tim hovers high above the bottom

to keep from kicking up silt,

I perform a little experiment,
down on the bottom,

I plunge my arm into the
silt up to my shoulder,

and it's even deeper than that.

This is a layer of decomposing leaves

and other organic stuff.

The decomposition creates
hydrogen sulfide, a deadly gas

that smells like rotting eggs.

The water is saturated
with hydrogen sulfide,

and I can smell it in the water that seeps

around the edge of my mask.

[water bubbling]

Wow.

That dive can only

be described as spooky.

The water is kind of colored like mustard,

and you can't really
see where you're going,

and it's all swirly.

And if I wasn't following Mike,

I would've been totally lost.

That dive was very spooky,
but really interesting.

The next day, I'm out
on the ocean, suiting up

for another dive.

Mike has something he wants me to see.

After the last dive, I can't imagine

what crazy thing he's thinking now.

[water splashes]

I roll into the water and follow Mike

and his trademark pink
fins down to the reef.

Then, we keep going down
into a cavern below the reef.

At the bottom of the cavern,

Mike points to a hole

and motions for me to go in ahead of him.

Once again, it's pretty spooky,

but exciting at the same time.

So in I go with Tim

and Mike, right behind me

inside it opens up into a big cave.

We're not deep enough
for stalactites though.

As we come around a
corner, I look straight up

to see light coming in from above

through a huge crack in the rock.

[tranquil music]

We make our way right up the
fissure into the blue above.

I'm in an ocean blue hole, formed just

like an inland blue hole, 20,000 years ago

during an ice age when the
ocean levels were much lower.

Once the ocean levels rose,

this blue hole ended up underwater.

But this blue hole connects
through a vast labyrinth

of caves to the inland blue holes.

And as we emerge into the open
ocean, something looks weird.

When the tide goes out, all the water from

inside the caves get sucked
out into the ocean, bringing

with it silt and hydrogen sulfide

from the inland blue holes.

It forms clouds near the
bottom with a distinct line

between the clear ocean water above

and the silty hydrogen
sulfide layer below.

What you're seeing here
are the decomposing remains

of forest vegetation,
which have passed entirely

through the caves and out into the ocean.

Everywhere I find what look like strands

of mucus floating in the water,

it's most likely mucus
secreted by the coral

in response to the
caustic hydrogen sulfide.

It's stuck on everything,
including this gorgonian,

which has closed all its polyps

to protect itself from
the hydrogen sulfide.

As the tide carries the toxic water away,

the corals will go back to normal.

Finally, we head back to the boat.

Tim and Mike hang onto the anchor line

to do a short safety
stop before we surface.

My exploration of The
Guardian Blue Hole on Andros

was both fascinating and a little spooky,

but I have to admit, I'm intrigued.

There are quite a few more
blue holes on Andros for me

to explore, so I'll be back.

[pensive music]

[upbeat music]

- [Narrator] Next on
"Jonathan Bird's Blue World",

Jonathan visits the Georgia Aquarium,

the largest aquarium in the world

where he finds some pretty huge animals.

- The whale shark is the
largest fish in the sea,

and it would take an enormous aquarium

to hold a whale shark.

I'm here at the Georgia Aquarium,

the largest aquarium in the world.

They don't have a whale shark.

They have four.

The Georgia Aquarium is one of
the world's most spectacular.

It houses exhibits ranging from
coral reefs to kelp forests,

salt water to fresh water,

warm water to cold water,

and just about everything in between.

But there's no doubt

that the 6.3 million gallon
Ocean Voyager exhibit

is the most impressive part
of the Georgia Aquarium.

It's as deep as a three story building,

and the main viewing window is larger

than a movie theater screen,

creating a fantastic place to
sit and watch the fish go by.

- [Announcer] And that's
named after a port in Taiwan.

- [Jonathan] I enjoy the
bubble window where I can relax

and watch the sharks.

There's also a tunnel
through the Ocean Voyager

so people can walk
underneath the marine life,

which includes some of nature's
most magnificent animals

like manta rays and whale sharks.

- [Child] Giant manta ray.

[observers chattering]

- [Jonathan] Keeping manta rays

and whale sharks in
captivity is difficult.

First of all, these are huge animals.

Mantas grow larger than a car,

and whale sharks larger than
a bus, so they need a lot

of space, but they pose

another interesting challenge as well,

both are filter feeders.

In the wild, they strain their
planktonic food by swimming

with an open mouth

and capturing small animals

from the water on their gill rakers.

In an aquarium, there's no plankton.

Aquarists had to train the
animals for hand feeding.

To learn how they feed the mantas,

I make my way to the top of
the Ocean Voyager exhibit,

a nearly football field sized fish tank.

There I meet Chris Coco, the curator

of zoological operations.

- We'll be staged here, and
this is where you're gonna jump

and help us load the ladle.

He introduces me to
biologists, Christy Ihlo

and Kelly Maples, the Aquarists
who are going to show me how

to feed the mantas.

- All right, this is Christy and Kelly.

- Hi.
- Hi, nice to meet you.

- [Chris] Jonathan Bird.
- Jonathan.

- Kelly.
- Kelly, nice to meet you.

- These two are the biologists up here

that work the animals every day.

- You guys are lucky.

- And some others...

- The mantas are fed
a combination of krill

and small fish from a ladle.

Since the mantas can't
swim in place, they have

to be fed while they swim

by gently ladling the food
out in front of their mouths.

Wow, fantastic, here we go.

We'll fill it up, about that much?

- [Christy] That's good.

- That's good?

Excellent.

After observing a few times,

now it's my turn to try.

Okay, and then you just trickle it out.

- [Chris] Yeah, the key is
to not dump it too soon.

She's gonna stick with you and
stick with the ladle, so...

- [Jonathan] A little more, or is that?

- [Chris] Are you ready?

- I don't know, this is,
I'm a little nervous,

there's all these people watching,
I don't wanna mess it up.

I mean, it looks so
easy, but I know it's not

- The one thing that we do
ask though, the one thing

that can be a little difficult
when you get a little

bit of water, and as you go,

try to keep the ladle out in front of her.

She gets moving kind of fast,

though it is possible to kind

of hit her in the face
with the ladle, so...

- [Jonathan] Gonna try not to.

- [Kelly] All right, go ahead.

- How's that?

[biologist speaking indistinctly]

All right.

Woo!

Thank you very much.

- Take that from you.

- Thank you so much, that was cool.

How many people get to do that?

I got to feed a manta ray.

That is so cool.

Feeding the whale sharks

is even more complicated.

It involves the aquarists
using small boats to keep ahead

of the moving whale sharks.

This is like a precision
ballet of whale shark feeding.

These ropes go all the way across the tank

and each aquarist has to pull
themselves along in a boat,

scooping out the food,

staying just ahead of the whale shark.

But what's really amazing is

that each whale shark
gets a different diet,

so they're only feeding
one particular shark.

And the sharks are trained

to only follow one particular boat.

The best part about it is
nobody bumps into each other.

It's amazingly well orchestrated,

and really, I can't
imagine how long it took

to train the sharks to do this.

While I get the
bird's-eye-view of the feeding

from above, the aquarium
visitors get the fish-eye-view

from below in the tunnel

with the sharks feeding directly overhead.

If feeding these animals
looks a little complicated,

imagine how hard it was to get them here.

It all started in Taiwan

where the sharks are hunted for food.

The Georgia Aquarium teamed
up with a local fisherman

to capture a live whale shark.

Once they had it in a
pen, they transferred it

to a specially made sling.

- [Assistant] Go, go, go, go, go.

- [Assistant 2] Okay.

- Then it was transferred
into a custom tank

with life support for an overseas flight.

[dockworkers chatting indistinctly]

[tranquil music]

Finally, the shark was
flown on a private charter

across the Pacific, all the way to Atlanta

where it was driven to the aquarium.

It's quite a journey for a shark.

Given how expensive

and difficult it is to get
whale sharks all the way

to the Georgia Aquarium,

the staff isn't taking any chances

when it comes to their care.

The rooms where food
is prepared are nearly

as clean as operating rooms.

And the water quality
is constantly monitored.

I spend some time down in the
pump room with John Masson,

the assistant manager of life support.

John, this place is huge.

Tell me about these pumps.

- Well, here at the Georgia Aquarium,

we have about 36, 50 horsepower pumps

on this side of the room.


which means we pump about

through this room, which is enough

to turn over 6.3 million
gallons in under an hour.

- So you can pump the entire exhibit,


- Yeah, actually we can,
it's equivalent of one

of these pumps can actually
fill a swimming pool

in about 15 minutes, which
about 30,000 gallons.

So each one does about 2000 gallons.

- Wow, that's a lot of water.

- It is a lot of water.

- I notice there's no leaks.

- We try to minimize all of
our leaks, at least, yes.

- Good plumbing.

- Yeah, it's nice.

- Now, you might be wondering
if you're in Atlanta, Georgia

and you wanna have 6.3 million gallons

of ocean water, what do you do?

Well, instant ocean.

Gigantic bags of powdered
sea salt and minerals,

mix it with fresh water,
and you got ocean.

And I'm about ready to try
diving in this inland ocean.

So I head upstairs for my briefing

with divemaster Devon Fleming.

- All right, so basically
once we get done here,

we're gonna get you guys
set up in the locker rooms.

We're gonna throw in the dock for you,

move your gear down there.

It is also basically valet diving.

So once we get done with the briefing,

you guys are gonna get changed,

and we're gonna head down to the dock.

Just put your fins,
your mask and gloves on.

We'll get your gear put on for you guys,

and then we're gonna ask you

to do a forward roll into the water,

once your dive master's cleared you to go.

- While I go and get my gear on,

they put the dock in the water.

They don't leave it in all the time

because the animals might
injure themselves on it.

Now the moment I've been
waiting for all day...

Oh, and look, they gave me a sign,

so I won't mistake my
gear for anybody else's.

You know what's interesting
about this is they don't want

to get any contaminants into the exhibit,

so they don't even want us
to use our own dive gear.

We have to use wetsuits
from the aquarium, BCs,

regulators, everything.

They were really nice though,

and they let me use my own fins,

but first we had to put
'em in disinfectant.

So they are now extremely clean.

[Jonathan smacks lips]

Yeah, they won't hurt you at all.

- Okay to go in?

- Yes, you may enter the water.

Alright, let's go check it out.

- [Assistant] All right...

[water splashes]

- There's a whale shark right under me.

Oh, that's pretty cool.

Before I even have my camera,

a whale shark swims silently
right below the dock.

It's hard to believe that
I'm in a giant fish tank

with a whale shark.

[gas swooshing]

[Jonathan blowing bubbles]

- [Announcer] Welcome to the
world's largest aquarium.

Enjoy your dive and your
tour with Devon this morning

and five or 6,000 of your favorite friends

- On the bottom,

a great hammerhead comes
over to check me out.

I follow Devon down towards
the deep end of the exhibit,

and Tallulah, the manta ray,
swims over to say hello.

[water rustling]

[tranquil music]

[tranquil music continues]

Soon I pass over the tunnel
with lots of people inside.

They're looking up at me, and I can't help

but think how lucky I am
to be able to do this dive.

I wave to the kids

and keep moving with Devon to
the deep part of the exhibit.

A whale shark with a school

of jacks keeping him
company swims over me.

The whale sharks move

around this huge tank in
circles and figure eights.

They're used to the divers,
and don't mind us at all.

There's so much marine
life in this exhibit

that sometimes I forget.

I'm doing a dive in an aquarium.

My camera moves from whale
shark to great hammerhead,

then onto Nandi, the other
manta ray, doing barrel rolls.

[tranquil music]

Then back to another hammerhead.

[tranquil music]

Through the enormous viewing window,

the crowd watches the action,

a sand tiger shark passing
right in front of the glass.

The experience is almost overwhelming.

It would take quite a few
dives to get used to this.

I just can't believe my
eyes, there are so many fish.

On the bottom,

a saw fish catches my attention.

This is a kind of ray with a
saw-like nose for hunting prey.

I've never even seen one
of these in the wild,

but they have nearly a dozen
of them in this exhibit.

One of the aquarium
staff divers peacefully,

enjoys a sand tiger
shark lazily drifting by.

In spite of their fierce looking teeth,

these sharks are no threat to people.

They eat smaller prey.

[tranquil music]

[tranquil music continues]

Soon, my dive nears the end.

On our way back to the
shallow end of the exhibit,

I pass once again over the tunnel

with the people looking up.

And Tallulah buzzes by again
as if to bid me farewell.

Devon gives me the signal
to head up to the surface.

It was such a short dive.

I don't know if I can bring myself

to getting out of the water.

I have never been on a dive
with so many species of fish.

I don't even know where
to point my camera.

I gotta go back in.

[tranquil music]

Maybe they won't notice if I stay just a

little while longer.

This is one dive I just don't want to end.

[uplifting music]

[uplifting music continues]

[bright music]