08x01 - Filming Goliaths

[bunniefuu]

- [Announcer] Coming up, Jonathan

and Zach find a really big
fish on a wreck in Florida.

But first, Zach of All
Trades finally learns to dive

after he escapes from the office.

[bright 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."

[bright music]

- And so I've brought the entire family

on a Grand Cayman adventure

for a week of exciting diving.

- That's perfect, cut.

- I love being on location in the tropics.

It's fabulous, but it's also nice to know

that I've got someone at
home holding down the fort

and doing the editing.

I better call and check in on Zach.

[phone rings]

- Blue World Studios.

- Hey Zach, how's the editing going?

- Oh, it's a thrill a minute.

- Well, I'm really sorry
that you're chained to a desk

at home, but hey, you know,
someone's gotta do it.

- Yeah, I'm taking care of it.

- All right, well, I'll
see you when I get back.

- Okay.
- Later.

- Bye.

[sighs]

One of these days I'll get certified.

- Hey Zach, you here?

- In here!

[clippers click]

- [Jonathan] Meet Zach
Peterson, also known

around the Blue World headquarters
as Zach of All Trades.

We call him that because
he has multiple roles.

He films above the water in the field.

He shoots our aerials,

and he's our lead editor
back in the office.

But the one thing he
doesn't do is scuba dive.

"Blue World" has a lot of
underwater camera people,

and the last thing we need
is another diver on the team.

But when we were in Grand Cayman recently,

Zach got to try scuba diving
with a Discover Scuba class.

This is a scuba-diving mini
class where you can try it out

and decide if you like it

before you commit to
taking the whole course.

You do a little bit in the pool,

then go for a supervised ocean dive.

[chill music]

- Whew!

Now, I know Jonathan says he doesn't need

another scuba diver,
but what does he know?

So when we got home,
cameraman Zach busted me out

of the office and we headed over

to East Coast Divers in
Brookline, Massachusetts.

- Hey, how's it going?

- Hey, I'm Dan.
- I'm Zach.

- Nice to meet you.

- Nice to meet you too.

- Welcome to East Coast.

- Thank you.

- Ready to get started.

Do you have paperwork ready for him?

- Yeah, yeah, let's take
you to the back classroom.

- All righty.

- [Jonathan] Meanwhile,
back at the office,

I'm thinking I need a thicker chain.

- So welcome to the East
Coast Diver classroom.

- Thank you for having me.

- So this is our classroom.

- [Zach] Usually the classroom is full,

but I'm lucky enough
to get a private class

from cameraman Zach, who
is also a scuba instructor.

- We have one atmosphere of pressure.

- [Zach] The classroom
sessions are not as exciting

as the other parts of the course,

but it's important to understand
the physiology of diving

and its effects on the body

in order to stay safe under water.

In the classroom, we learn
about the effects of pressure

and buoyancy, how the equipment
works, as well as the rules

and regulations around the sport.

- So on the test coming up,
we're gonna ask questions.

Someone's gonna say, what
is the absolute pressure?

- [Zach] Now it's time
to take the written test,

and I'm a little nervous.

It would be embarrassing to fail.

Jonathan would never let me live it down.

- Ready?
- Yep.

- Question one.
- Yep.

- What do you get?
- B.

- Correct, question two.

- 18, D.

- 19.
- 48, C.

- 49.
- B.

- 50.
- A.

- Awesome.

How many did you get wrong?

- Three.
- You pass!

- [Zach] The next part of the
course involves actual water.

- So we're on our way over to the pool,

for his pool session of the day.

Are you excited?

- Oh, I'm so excited.

- It's gonna be good.

So today I'm gonna be cameraman, not host.

- [Zach] The pool session
starts with a swim test.

I have to float for five minutes.

- Oh man.

Talk about easy.

Back in my day we had to
tread water for two hours.

- [Zach] Now I have to set up my own gear.

Zach will check to see if I did it right.

Once he is satisfied that my
gear is correctly assembled,

he puts his together.

We help each other get our tanks on,

and that's when I learn it's
always better to be last.

So you aren't lifting a tank
while you are wearing one.

The giant-stride entry
is the most common way

to jump off a boat or a dock,

but you need to be sure
to step far enough out

so that you don't hit your tank.

So we practiced.

- Very nice.

[chill music]

- [Zach] Before we submerge,
we practice techniques

for towing an exhausted dive buddy.

- If I need to, I can get
away from the very first.

- [Zach] Finally, it's
time to breathe underwater.

[bright music]

Releasing the air from
our buoyancy compensators,

we sink slowly into weightlessness.

For most divers, this is the
first time that they ever get

to experience breathing underwater.

So we spend a few minutes just having fun

and getting the hang of it.

For many people taking a dive class,

this is the moment they
have been waiting for,

and it's really exciting.

But after a while, it's time
to get down to business.

Diving in the ocean,

it's easy to get your mask
kicked off by accident.

So it's important to learn how

to put it back on without a panic.

It's easy.

Just replace the mask,
tilt your head back,

and blow through your nose
to fill it back up with air.

Scuba divers have their
own type of sign language

for communicating things
like tank pressure

and decompression time.

I have to demonstrate
that I know how to do it.

[mid-tempo music]

This is the sign for a safety stop.

And this is when divers
do want a safety stop.

A little game of rock,
seaweed, dive knife.

It's pretty rare that
a diver would ever need

to remove gear like this underwater,

but practicing how to
do it builds confidence

in using the equipment under
different circumstances.

[mid-tempo music]

Zach has a whole checklist
of skills that I have

to practice and demonstrate.

One of the most important
is the out-of-air scenario

where Zach pretends he is out of air

and I have to give him a
regulator and find my backup.

[mid-tempo music]

- Check out the dugong
roll, critical move.

- [Zach] After a couple
of fun hours in the pool,

I'm all finished with my
pool portion of the course.

[mid-tempo music]

- Whew!

So we're switching jobs now, huh?

[Jonathan laughs]

- [Zach] Now is the moment of truth.

We head up to Folly Cove

in beautiful Cape Ann, Massachusetts,

where I will complete three
dives under supervision

and test my skills in the ocean.

We're diving from shore,

which is a little more
work than a boat dive,

but we can take our time
and go at a relaxed pace.

[relaxing music]

Zach has many dives here in Folly Cove,

so he gives me a rundown on the layout.

- Then we'll hang a left.

We'll have you navigate, we'll swim up.

We can have you take a
compass heading as well.

You actually use your compass.

- [Zach] The water is
chilly, but the air is hot.

Once we put on our warm suits,

we need to get in the water
quickly or we'll overheat.

[relaxing guitar music]

The entry here can be tricky

because the big rocks are
slippery and it's easy to trip.

Cold water actually feels really good.

[relaxing guitar music]

- [Announcer] Coming up,
Zach completes his training.

Then the team goes on a
search for a huge fish.

- [Zach] On the bottom,

the visibility is not
as good as in the pool.

We start with a navigation test,

using a compass to follow a heading.

Next, I have to recover a lost regulator.

But it's hidden in plain sight.

So I try again.

[soft music]

The mask removal is
different in the ocean.

First, it's hard to feel what you're doing

with thick gloves, but
also, the water is cold

and it's a shock when it hits your face.

[soft music]

After completing my skills, I
can spend some time exploring,

and even though the
visibility is not that good,

there's a lot of great stuff to see.

A horseshoe crab cruises
along the sea floor.

I've always wondered why
they have a long pointy tail.

Now I realize it's not
a weapon, it's a tool.

[whimsical music]

Flounders are flat fish,

normally found blending into the sand.

But this guy has found a
little spot near some algae

and turned red to blend in better.

Flounders lay on their sides

and have both eyes on one side of the head

as an adaptation for life in this habitat.

[soft music]

I come across a crab
with a poofy orange ball

on its underside.

- That's a female rock crab
carrying a big brood of eggs.

She carries them around to
keep them safe until they hatch

and the tiny planktonic hatchlings

float away in the current.

[soft music]

- [Zach] After a whole
day of diving Folly Cove,

I'm pretty chilly, but I am
finished with my scuba class

and I'm officially a
certified scuba diver.

[bright music]

- Whew.

Whew!

- Well, are you certified?

- Yeah, you passed, man.

- Yeah, thank you.
- Congratulations.

- Thank you.

- You're now a certified diver.

- Whoo!

All right.

- Sorry about your job with Jonathan.

- Let's go somewhere warm.

- Let's do it.

- [Zach] Learning how to scuba dive is not

as difficult as I thought it would be.

There are three basic parts.

You learn the science and
the rules in the classroom.

Then you learn the skills in the pool.

And finally you put it all
together in open water.

The whole process can be completed

in only a couple of weeks.

Now that I'm certified, I
can't wait to go on adventures

and see with my own eyes

what life looks like in the Blue World.

- Oh, don't get carried away there, Zach.

I think you gotta get back
to the edit suite now.

As you probably know,

I'm a professional
underwater cinematographer.

My favorite thing to film is Blue World,

because I get to go anywhere I want

and film whatever we find.

It's a great adventure.

But I work on a lot of other projects.

I do freelance underwater work
for television and movies.

I work on giant screen
films for IMAX theaters

and even special exhibits for museums.

If it's underwater, my
team and I can film it.

And today Zach and I are
on one such assignment.

We've come to Florida to
attempt to sh**t a scene

for a client featuring a diver

and a Goliath grouper to
illustrate how large they are.

Yes, we've come here for just one single,

very important shot.

Well, I'm down in
beautiful, sunny Florida,

the Sunshine State...

because we heard that there's
a wreck called the Castor

that has a friendly Goliath grouper,

so we're gonna go check it out.

We head on down to the
Boynton Harbor Marina

in Boynton Beach,

where we'll be boarding the Loggerhead,

a local dive charter boat.

We start the day in the
traditional scuba diver way,

schlepping our gear.

[pleasant music]

- Here you are.

- [Jonathan] My buddy, Dave
Ochs of Aqua Safari Adventures,

has organized the sh**t,

and will be modeling in the shots,

if we can find the grouper.

- Stargate.

- [Jonathan] Soon we leave the dock

and make our way offshore.

When we reach the wreck,

we're barely more than a mile offshore.

Zach and I start suiting up.

That suit is so cold.

We are ready.

Ready to dive.

First, Dave is gonna
help us find the grouper

and then do his thing
as the fish whisperer.

[mid-tempo music]

[breathes lightly and quickly]

- Dive, dive, dive.
- Have fun.

- [Jonathan] We hit the water
and start down to the wreck.

The MV Castor lies in 110 feet of water.

It's a 240-foot-long
freighter that was seized

by the Coast Guard in 1999

because it was carrying 10,000 pounds

of cocaine hidden in a shipment of sugar.

In 2001, Palm Beach County's
Artificial Reef program

sank the ship to create
an oasis for marine life.

Over the years, hurricanes
have broken the ship up a bit,

but that doesn't reduce
its appeal to the fish.

The big stern section stands
up high off the bottom,

and a couple of Goliath
grouper like to hang around.

It's easy to see why.

The ship looks like a fish condo complex

with all kinds of great places to hide

both inside and outside.

Soon we set out to find a
friendly grouper known as Wilbur.

[low, wondrous music]

Because the ship is at an angle,

everything looks a little odd.

A crooked staircase.

A lopsided air intake.

The wreck has grown a lovely coral garden.

And this, clearly someone's
science experiment.

No idea what that is.

I take a swim down a long
hallway looking for Wilbur.

No sign of him.

I'm starting to get
worried that he isn't home.

But when I pop out the other end,

there he is waiting for us.

Wilbur isn't shy.

He allows me to swim right up
and film him at close range.

[light music]

He isn't even bothered
by my bright lights.

He knows that divers come to
visit the wreck all the time

and they won't hurt him.

Cue the model.

Now it's Dave's job to
get in the shot for scale,

but he notices something disturbing.

Wilbur has a hook and a piece
of fishing line in his mouth,

and he seems to know that
Dave will be able to help.

Wilbur allows Dave to cut the line.

The hook is in deep, but
it will rust and fall out.

In the meantime, getting rid of the line

will keep Wilbur from getting
it tangled in something,

until the hook comes out.

I don't know if Wilbur knows that Dave

was trying to help him,

but he certainly seems like
Dave is his new best friend.

Wilbur really likes this one spot

of the wreck covered in
beautiful orange cup corals,

and with the silhouette of
the ship in the background,

it's just a great shot.

This is the kind of
cooperative marine life

we underwater cinematographers
dream about, but rarely get.

[light music]

In fact, I think Wilbur's
a better model than Dave.

Every once in a while,

Wilbur comes over to check me out too.

I'm pretty sure he could
eat my entire camera,

so I'm keeping a firm grip on it.

Finally, Wilbur and Dave
both get into a good position

and I have my perfect shot.

You can't ask for more than that.

That's a wrap.

And it's perfect timing,

because down here at
almost a hundred feet,

we're already into some decompression,

so it's time to go.

We ascend slowly to our
deco stop at 15 feet,

where I have 10 minutes
of obligated decompression

before I can go any shallower.

This allows my body to get rid of some

of the nitrogen in my blood

before I go all the way

to the lower pressure at the surface.

It's kind of boring just floating here,

but at least it's easy.

Finally, my dive computer
gives me the green light

so I can ascend and swim back to the boat.

That was fantastic.

We found Wilbur,

the world's most friendly Goliath grouper,

and Dave is like the fish whisperer,

and we got a great shot.

So it was a wonderful
wreck and it delivered.

Being an underwater
cinematographer is not always easy,

but every once in a while I
get lucky with nice weather,

nice water conditions and
cooperative marine life.

And when that happens,

it truly is a great day in the Blue World.

[soft music]

[bright music]