08x04 - Deep Wrecks Champlain

[bunniefuu]

- [Narrator] Coming up,

Jonathan goes diving a
mile above sea level.

But first, the Blue World
team goes deep in search

of spooky lost shipwrecks

in the dark waters of Lake Champlain.

[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.

[soft music]

- [Jonathan] I'm heading to
beautiful Burlington, Vermont,

on the shores of Lake Champlain.

The Zach's and I,

along with our new
assistant diver, Annalise,

are going to explore some deep shipwrecks.

Lake Champlain is located on the border,

between Vermont and New York State.

We already did some really cool dives

on the historic canal schooners,

which were used to transport materials

to and from New York City.

These wrecks were covered in marine life,

and shallow enough to have a
fair amount of natural light.

But today, we're going deeper.

Our adventure begins at

Waterfront Diving Center in Burlington,

with our guide Shelagh Cooley.

Hey, good morning.

- [Shelagh] Good morning.

- How are you?

- Beautiful day for a dive.

- Isn't it?

[Shelagh laughs]

- [Jonathan] It's raining
outside, but we don't care.

We're gonna get wet anyway.

We got nitrox.

- [Jonathan] Since we're
diving on the deeper side,

we're using a special breathing
mixture called nitrox,

which must be analyzed before the dive.

We suit up and take a walk

over to the marina to load the boat.

[upbeat music]

- Hello Larry.

- All flat.

- [Captain Larry] Yeah.

- [Jonathan] Captain Larry
has his funky landing craft

dive boat ready to go.

And Shelagh's ready too.

It might be rainy, but there's no wind.

It's nice and calm.

Perfect dive day.

Soon we arrive at the mooring ball

for the La Vallee tugboat.

The La Vallee was a steam-powered tugboat

operating in the early 1900's on the lake.

It sank in 1931 and vanished for 65 years.

Since the wreck is deep,

we have limited time to work,

so we split into two teams.

We're sending the advanced
team down with the lights

to set them up so they're ready to go

when we get down there.

- [Jonathan] Camera-man Zach and I

follow about five minutes later.

We follow the mooring line

into the cold darkness of 100 feet.

The surface is over 70 degrees Fahrenheit,

but it's only 45 down here.

[eerie music]

La Valle is part of the Lake Champlain

underwater historic preserve,

so we cannot go inside the shipwreck.

The La Valle sank in 1931,

but due to the lack of detailed
records on the sinking,

and its depth,

the wreck was not found until 1996.

But, the cold water down
here has preserved her well.

There are almost no zebra
mussels on the wooden hull.

[eerie music continues]

The helm is in pretty good shape,

but the wheelhouse that it was in

has been blown clean off.

Either by air pressure as the ship sank,

or by an expl*si*n.

As we head towards the stern,

we peek inside the doorways
without going inside.

This looks like a bunk room.

Further back, we see the steam engine.

This is one of the very
few steamboat wrecks,

in Lake Champlain,

that still has the engine aboard.

On top of the wreck,

part of the smoke stack from the engine.

The rest of it can be found
in the mud next to the wreck.

There's a huge cleat for tying
up other boats to be tugged.

And down on the bottom,

the prop and rudder half buried in muck.

[eerie music]

As I swim back towards the bow,

I'm struck by the lonely desolation

of this historic ghost of the abyss.

For nearly a hundred years,

she has quietly rested, peacefully,

in this cold darkness.

We can only spend a short time here

before no decompression
limits force us to ascend.

We're grateful for the
return of light and warmth

as we make our way to the surface.

[laughing]

- You wanna talk about some spooky,

Scooby-Doo stuff right there.

That was like the
spookiest dive I ever did.

- [Captain Larry] Well, you know, that's-

- [Jonathan] The next
day the sun has returned,

and we're heading out to a wreck
that we know nothing about.

Captain Larry found this wreck,

and he's the only one
who knows where it is.

[upbeat music]

There's no mooring on it,

so we have to place our own marker.

- Very technical here. [laughs]

- [Jonathan] When Larry hits
the right location on his GPS,

Shelagh throws the weight.

And with any luck, it
will land on the wreck.

Hopefully we bullseye the wreck-

[cheering]

And there's no way to know
without going down to look.

- Set for air.
- Air, set for air.

- All right.

[water splashes]

[water splashes]

[water gurgling]

- [Jonathan] We dropped
down through the thermocline

into the cold water below.

And wouldn't you know it,

the marker landed right smack dab

in the middle of the wreck.

Shelagh leads the way.

[soft music]

All we know about this wreck
is that it's a wooden barge

that caught fire and sank.

We don't know the name of the
barge or the year it sank.

[eerie music]

Since it's not part of
the historical preserve,

we can swim inside the wreckage
and have a look around.

We need to be really careful

because the visibility is not good at all.

Timbers inside the wreck look pretty good.

But the fire really did a
number on the deck planks.

The evidence of the fire is everywhere

in the charred remains.

[eerie music continues]

The wreck is strung with
fishing line from snagged hooks,

which is how the wreck was discovered.

A motorcycle tire was used as a bumper.

And the hull looks solid.

The darkness, depth, and cold water,

combined with murky visibility,

make this wreck super spooky.

[eerie music]

And after half an hour, we must depart.

We do a short decompression
stop for safety,

before we ascend to the surface.

Lake Champlain has a
rich maritime history,

dating back to the 1600's,

with wrecks of all ages,

some of which have been documented,

while others remain a mystery.

No matter where our adventures take us,

we always find something
fascinating in the blue world.

- [Narrator] Don't go away.

Coming up,

Jonathan dives a mile high

at the Denver Aquarium.

- [Jonathan] I'm fortunate to have visited

some of the best dive sites on earth.

Places like Indonesia, the
Galapagos, the Caribbean,

and even Antarctica.

Today, I'm adding another
special place to that list.

Denver, Colorado.

[record scratching]

No, seriously,

Zack of all trades and I,

are visiting the incredible
downtown aquarium in Denver

to see their super cool exhibits.

[upbeat music]

Denver's pretty far
from the nearest ocean,

but I'm pretty sure

we're gonna have some amazing dives today.

I meet up with Wendie Murray,

the Dive Operations
Manager at the aquarium.

- Hello.

- Hey, Wendie.

- Welcome to the Denver Downtown Aquarium.

- Thanks for having me.

- [Jonathan] We start our day
with a tour of the aquarium,

and we have the place to ourselves

because they're not open to the public

for another two hours.

Our journey begins in
the North America exhibit

where we meet an
alligator snapping turtle.

- So we do have an
alligator snapping turtle.

We're guessing he's about 96.

- [Jonathan] At 96 years old,

he's one of the oldest
known snapping turtles.

And we have perfect timing,
as they're about to feed him.

- Oh, he sees it now. He sees it now.

- He's so cool. I love him.

He gets his shell scrubbed occasionally,

just to get some of that algae off.

- [Jonathan] He's got buoyancy issues.

- [Zach] Yeah.

- [Jonathan] He needs a BC.

[laughs]

- [Zach] There he goes.

- [Jonathan] The weird thing is,

they haven't named him.

[upbeat music]

They have a number of exhibits

containing freshwater
fish of North America,

like trout, salmon, and even sturgeon.

And a parrot.

- This is Molly.

- [Jonathan] Hi Molly.

- She is very verbal. Molly's very verbal.

- [Jonathan] Molly's
daily exercise regimen

involves climbing a rope.

- All right.
- All right, so here she goes.

She's gonna climb up
that rope, up to Ryan,

our mammals curator.

[Molly squawks]

- [Jonathan] Wow, look at that.

- [Wendie] So again,

this is just utilizing her muscles,

some conditioning.

[upbeat curious music]

- [Jonathan] Yay. [clapping]

Soon we arrive at the rainforest exhibit

where they have lots of
exotic tropical fish,

like the archer fish.

Oh god.

- So, you have archer fish.

Have you seen an archer fish spit?

- Oh no.

- [Wendie] Okay. They're really cool.

So Lori's gonna, Lori's
gonna show you what to do,

and then you're gonna do it after.

So...

So they're gonna spit.

- What the heck? Oh wow.

- [Jonathan] The archer fish
has learned how to catch food

by sh**ting a jet of water
at bugs above the surface.

They have incredible aim.

The aquarium staff keep them sharp

by letting them sh**t
crickets out of their hands.

- That's amazing. They
have a really good aim.

- [Jonathan] We passed
some other great exhibits,

but I'm looking for something
big enough to swim in.

- Touch pool.

- Oh, man.

- You can't swim in this one,

but you can touch.

- Hey guys, what's up?

Hello. Hello, hello. You're so squishy.

[upbeat curious music]

Wow.

- Yeah, she's gonna feed the
southerns, if you wanted to-

- Oh, let's check it out.

Wow. The southerns get
some pretty big food.

It's like a half a mackerel.

- Do you wanna feed the cownose?

- Sure.

- Okay.

- In between your fingers,

- So you gotta hold it in your knuckles.

- Yep.

- All right.

- [Jonathan] This touch
tank exhibit allows people

to get up close and personal

with cownosed rays and southern stingrays.

[water splashing]

- Good grief. Wow.

Okay. Just like that.

- Yeah.

- All right, so we're
just gonna go like this.

A little bit of shrimp.

- Keep it a little high.

- All right. Dinner is served.

There you go. There you go.

You got it. Okay.

Here we go. Here we go.

Oh, you got it. All right.

Almost got my watch too.

- So our-
- Wow!

- Our final large exhibit.

This is the largest one that we have,

and it is our shipwreck exhibit.

- [Jonathan] It's filled with huge fish,

sharks, and one of my favorite creatures.

Look at the sawfish. They're so big.

[Jonathan] Sawfish are so rare

that I've never seen one in the wild.

Unfortunately, Wendie says,

only the staff usually gets
to dive in this exhibit.

So, no sawfish for me.

Fortunately, we can dive in
the under the sea exhibit.

So we head upstairs and go
behind the scenes to gear up.

[upbeat music]

These exhibits have tropical
fish, so the water is warm.

[soft upbeat music]

When we enter the exhibit,

I can't believe how many fish there are.

Wendie takes us on a tour,

and now that the aquarium
is open for the day,

we have an audience.

A green moray is used to the camera

and doesn't mind my attention at all.

[soft upbeat music]

A nurse shark poses for a few minutes.

Nearby, another animal I've
never seen in the wild.

A guitar fish.

Which is either an elongated stingray,

or a flattened shark,

depending on your point of view.

They're kind of halfway
between sharks and stingrays,

and they don't mind hanging
out with the stingrays.

I make my way to the
other side of the exhibit,

and find two different species of morays

hanging out behind a sign.

Nearby, a leopard whipray chills out.

This is a somewhat uncommon
species of stingray

known for its long whip-like tail.

And of course, it has
a leopard skin pattern.

This male is obviously used to people

because he doesn't mind me at all.

I can go right in for an eyeball closeup.

That was an amazing dive, with
so many cool things to see.

I loved it.

After the dive,

Wendie takes us over to the
top of the shipwreck exhibit,

which is much larger.

A sandbar shark buzzes right
by the swim entry point,

and that's when she tells
us that she got permission

for us to go in.

So we can see the sawfish.

This exhibit has a sneaky entry corridor

that allows the staff to enter

without disturbing the marine life.

We sneak around and find
a nice spot to settle down

and watch the action.

A sand tiger shark comes
over to investigate.

And right in front of me, a huge sawfish.

[upbeat mysterious music]

Sawfish are essentially rays.

Their gills reside underneath their head,

just like a stingray.

But, they're long and skinny like a shark.

So, they're actually a
lot like a guitar fish.

But, their distinguishing feature,

is the long rostrum with teeth
arranged in a saw pattern.

The sawfish swings its saw

back and forth in the sand to catch fish.

It's a super effective hunting technique.

[upbeat music continues]

We follow Wendie around
the back of the exhibit

to the other side.

[soft curious music]

Over here, we have a good
view of the whole place.

[soft upbeat music]

A curious Napoleon wrasse
comes over for a look.

The sand tiger sharks are curious, too.

Lots of aquariums have sand tigers

because they're the perfect shark.

They look mean and toothy,

but they're actually very mellow,

and they won't eat the
other fish in the exhibit,

as long as they're kept well fed.

The zebra shark gets its name

because in the juvenile
phase it has stripes.

But, as the shark gets older,
the stripes turn into spots.

The sawfish normally
just lay on the bottom,

but every once in a while,

they like to swim around for a look.

[upbeat music]

Soon it's time to leave.

So Wendie takes us back to the entrance.

[soft music]

The downtown aquarium in Denver is truly

one of my favorite aquariums in the world.

They have such a diverse collection

of incredible aquatic life to see.

And it's the best ocean dive in the world.

At more than 5,000 feet above sea level,

Denver might be almost a
thousand miles from the ocean,

but that doesn't mean you
can't get a great glimpse

into life in the blue world.