Hey Gang,
Tim Geers, Mia Peluso and I just returned from Curacao where we shot 3 (or maybe 2-1/2) segments for season 3 of
Jonathan Bird's Blue World. We went down for the coral spawn which was predicted to occur on the nights of Oct 10-12. It did spawn, but not as much as we might have hoped, so the footage is pretty thin. We may have to go back next year for another attempt. Since we are at the beginning of an 18-20 month shooting cycle, that will not be a problem.
While we were there, we also visited the
Curacao Seaquarium, where we met George Kieffer, the director of the dolphin program and the guy in charge of the rehabilitation of a stranded pilot whale named Sully that they are nursing back to health. We decided to make a segment about their dolphin program, and another about Sully, who is named after Captain "Sully" Sullenberger, the U.S. Air pilot who landed the crippled jet on the Hudson River.
For 5 days we shot around the island above and below water, then we dove for half the night on three of the nights we were there, hoping to capture good footage of the coral spawn. (We got some, but probably not enough). On the last day, we spent 12 straight hours working at the Seaquarium. It was a very long 5 days because we worked hard, got sunburned and didn't get much sleep. But the result was some excellent material for season 3!
We would like to thank Habitat Curacao, The Curacao Seaquarium, the Curacao Tourist Board and Ocean Encounters for their support as well as our pal Chernov for being our guide to the island! Mia was on her first assignment with the Blue World team as production manager for a shoot, and we'll see if she ever wants to do it again!
-Jonathan
