Jonathan Bird's Blue World

Maldives Expedition!

2011-10-04T17:19:00.006-04:00

(Click on an image to enlarge)

We have just returned from the Maldives, having shot another awesome segment for season 4. But it wasn’t the easiest segment we ever shot. It all started a couple years ago when Hanifaru Bay in the Maldives became the newest “must see” destination with the discovery of dozens of manta rays feeding in an area about the size of a football field. Because this is a fairly remote spot, the best way to visit Hanifaru Bay is by live-aboard boat. So I chartered the 20-passenger Maldives Aggressor for a trip booked around the strongest tides in September, the time at which several experts agreed that the manta action should happen.

Since Jonathan Bird's Blue World doesn’t have the budget to charter an entire boat like this ourselves, we sold the rest of the spots to diving friends who wanted to join the expedition. So Julia Cichowski (acting as both camerawoman and field producer) and I set out with 18 friends on a journey to the other end of the world. My good friend Carl Bodenstein would help out with additional underwater camera work. He has since demanded to be known as “Cameraman Carl” which has a nice ring to it. (We call him “Caaaaaaaaaarl” in our best Boston accents.)

Our flight took us from Boston to Washington DC to Doha (Qatar) and finally to Malé, the capital of the Maldives. Getting there takes a long time—over 24 hours with layovers. Once we landed in the Maldives, we boarded the Aggressor, a 115-foot vessel with ten double cabins. I roomed with my good buddy Bill Scully. We set sail in the evening for the 6 hour run up to Hanifaru Bay.

The next morning we had a look in the bay, which isn’t really a bay, but a sandy area surrounded by reefs that don’t quite touch the surface. When the tides are right, the wind is right, and a dozen other factors that we don’t really understand are right, this "lagoon" is full of plankton and it attracts dozens of manta rays to feed in a frenzy! Unfortunately, the conditions are good for mantas when there is a lot of plankton for them to eat—hence we did not expect very good visibility. In fact, at this time of the year, the Maldives are in a wet season, where it rains every day, the water is full of particles, and it’s often windy and rough. So imagine our surprise when we reached Hanifaru Bay only to discover crystal clear water, flat calm conditions, and beautiful sunny weather!

And of course there were no mantas whatsoever.

I can’t recall any other time in my life where I arrived at a tropical dive destination with perfect diving conditions, only to wish that they were much worse. There’s something wrong with that. But that’s what we needed.

We headed north for a couple days of diving at another atoll with better reefs, while we waited for the stronger tides to come, hoping that they would bring with them the plankton we needed. I had predicted, based on tides, that the best day for mantas would be Sept 25. We had a few days until then, and hoped that my calculations were right. Soon, on the 23^rd, we got word from one of the manta researchers that a few mantas had started showing up, so we headed back down to Hanifaru and scoped the area. We did some dives, saw one or two mantas at a cleaning station, but nothing going on in Hanifaru Bay. (As you might recall, we did a segment on mantas at cleaning stations in Yap back in season 2, so that was not an option for a Blue World segment).

Finally, the mantas showed up…and you won’t believe it—it happened on the 25^th, the exact day I had predicted. (I’m pretty sure this was a coincidence!) We got into the water with at least 50 mantas, all swimming back and forth, up and down in the water column, with their mouths wide open, scooping plankton from the water. In spite of having divers and snorkelers everywhere, the mantas didn’t seem to mind us at all.

Because we had a ten day charter and most of the dive boats work in 7-day increments, we were lucky to be alone in the bay because the other live-aboards were back down in Malé dropping off and picking up guests. We had two days with Hanifaru Bay almost to ourselves, except for a few snorkelers from a nearby luxury resort. And we had mantas! Manta after manta swam in front of my lens for two days. We had so many mantas that I was able to spend a few hours in the water with my still camera as well. The plankton made the photography challenging, but I got some good pictures. (Getting the chance to use my still camera always makes me happy!)

The next day, it was time to head back to port. Since we had most of a full day to hang around Malé before our flights home, we decided to charter a seaplane to fly around and shoot some aerials. The Maldives are absolutely beautiful from the air! The aerials will contribute well to the segment.

If you want to see more pictures from the expedition, they will be posted on a thread in uwphotochat (pictures start on page 8).

-Jonathan

The Blue World Team heads to Bonaire!

2011-08-15T10:50:00.012-04:00

I have been diving for almost 25 years now, so it’s rare for a dive trip to completely change my perceptions of the sport. But this past week on Bonaire, two different events did just that. (Click any image to enlarge)

Our film crew for this expedition consisted of me, Mia Peluso (production manager), Tim Howe (normally one of our editors but this time getting his first shot at being the topside cinematographer) and Pierre Séguin (underwater cinematographer). Pierre flew in from Miami while the rest of us came from Boston. We arrived at the invitation of Buddy Dive, and the Tourism Corporation Bonaire to film and participate in two extraordinary events hosted every year on Bonaire.

The first event is a freediving event sponsored by Buddy Dive, featuring the world-renown freediver Karol Meyer. Karol is a Brazilian freediving legend who has set more records than you can imagine. She teaches freediving seminars, a freediving certification class, and gives instruction to her students in the open water. My goal was to take her class and become a dolphin—or at least improve my pitiful freediving skills.

The other event is for the 6th Bonaire-Be A Diver-Wounded Warrior Scuba Certification trip, held at Captain Don’s Habitat and co-sponsored by Captain Don's Habitat, Adams Unlimited public relations company and the Tourism Corporation Bonaire. My plan is to go diving with the warriors!

Our crew arrived and spent the first afternoon getting our gear put together and our schedule finalized. The next morning before I even met Karol Meyer, our first shoot was at 7 AM to film her world record attempt. Last year she set a record for static apnea (holding your breath while laying motionless, face-down in the water) at 18:32. Yes, that’s 18 and a half minutes on one breath! It was very interesting to watch the breathing and relaxation techniques. We had to film from a distance because the distraction of a film crew would throw off her concentration. After an hour prepping and almost 14 minutes of apnea, she decided to quit because she wasn’t feeling well. Things have to be perfect to break a record like that and today wasn’t the day. But still—14 minutes!

Later that morning we got to meet Karol and discuss the class. It was unclear if I would be able to adjust my schedule to make all the parts of her two-day class but we figured out which parts were the most important to attend and film.

Later we went over to Captain Don’s to meet some of the Wounded Warriors and plan our shooting schedule. Then we did a couple dives at Buddy Dive just to get our gear all checked out and ready. I was trying out my new incredibly powerful Atlantis LED video lights—which are amazingly bright!

The next day we dove with the Wounded Warriors and met a bunch of nice guys and gals who were injured in the line of duty. All had recently learned to scuba dive and were on their first tropical dive trip with one of their family members. And they were all excellent divers! We dove a nice reef over at Klein Bonaire and spent some time getting to know them.

The next morning it was time for me to attend the first part of the freediving class with Karol. In the classroom at Buddy Dive, I met 5 other students, all much younger than I, and we learned how to breathe for freediving, a few relaxation techniques, and a few tricks of the trade for getting a good gulp of air before a dive. We also learned about shallow water blackout, rescue techniques and other important safety stuff. I thought I knew a lot about breathing since I have been doing it since I was born. However, as it turns out I have been doing it wrong!

After a few hours in the classroom we headed to the pool where we would perfect our apnea skills and rescue techniques. After practicing the rescue techniques for a while, we started working on static apnea. My record for this was 2:15 before the class. With an hour of practice in the pool, I got to just a smidge under 3 minutes! Amazing what a little professional coaching can do. I’m a regular guy—imagine my surprise to find out that I can hold my breath for 3 minutes! At that point I decided I was going to take the whole course no matter what. I didn’t want to miss any of Karol’s class!

After lunch we hit the ocean and practiced swimming down a rope hanging from a float that went into the blue abyss. Karol taught us to kick like a freediver, swim like a freediver and clear our ears frequently. On my deepest dive I easily hit 56 feet on a single breath. Not the best in the class, but far from the worst. Already I was feeling like a freediver!

The following morning we went diving with the Wounded Warriors to the wreck of the Hilma Hooker. You would never know that these folks just learned to dive. They had very good buoyancy control and looked comfortable in the water. The wreck is in good shape and we all enjoyed swimming around and through it like kids on a jungle gym!

After lunch it was time for my private lesson with Karol (having your own TV show has advantages). We went out off the dock at Buddy Dive for some training. Karol wore her monofin and she looked like a mermaid. Mermaids probably can’t dive as well as she. Karol is amazingly graceful in the water and she can stay down a long time, swimming around, exploring and zooming back and forth in her monofin. Wait until you see the video. This lady can dive! By comparison, I look like a fish out of water, flopping around trying to be graceful! I did have my super cool ultra-top secret Force Fin prototype free diving fins that Bob Evans gave me. He engraved my name on them so that “If they turn up on eBay, I’ll know who to blame!” Don’t worry Bob, they are safe with me!

My private lesson with Karol yielded results. My bottom times improved. We didn’t work on getting greater depth, but better relaxation and more time underwater on a single breath. Just being in the water with her is inspiring. Having her next to me on the bottom, watching and smiling, gave me confidence and control. We also used the opportunity for Pierre to get some good underwater shots of Karol, and for Tim to get some good shots from dry land of Karol and I training together. We stayed close to shore for those shots.

Later in the afternoon it was time for the last part of the class. The rest of the students showed up and we headed over to Klein Bonaire. We paired up with buddies and alternated doing dives. Karol swam among us, watching and giving tips. I couldn’t believe how good all the students were getting so quickly. I was soon diving over 60 feet deep without even feeling like I was pushing too hard. Karol’s husband was scuba diving below us, shooting video of the students, and we all took turns diving down to him and making faces into his lens. I was really starting to feel like a marine animal myself. Karol came over and told me I need to change my name to Jonathan Fish—quite a compliment from her. I am really starting to love freediving.

At the end of the class we had to hurry back to our rooms and change clothes because our crew had been invited to join the Wounded Warriors at a reception/cocktail party at the Governor’s house. Every year they have a motorcade over to the Governor’s house, taking a long route through town, nice and slow, where people can honor the Warriors. The motorcade is always led by Jack Chalk from Captain Don’s Habitat, flying the American flag on his bike, and a bunch of local motorcycle club members. At Captain Don’s, Jack Chalk and Anne-Marie Vermeer own a company that gives guided motorcycle tours of Bonaire, and they always take part in the motorcade. This year, Anne-Marie, knowing that I ride, invited me to take part. She presented me with a Blue (of course!) Harley Davidson Dyna to ride with the group. It was an honor to be invited, but a chance to ride a Harley on Bonaire?? How cool is that!!?

We rode through town, then up north towards the Governor’s house. Inside, the Warriors were greeted by friendly faces, people wanting to meet them and shake hands. We went out back by the pool to enjoy a gorgeous sunset. I met the Governor Glenn Thodé and his delightful wife. By now I’m hoping they have watched Blue World (we gave them a DVD) and turned into fans of the show! (More pictures of that event can be seen here).

Later that night, we went to dinner with the Warriors and ended up at the bar at Captain Don’s where one particular Warrior, (you know who you are….no names please!) started with the Kamikaze shots. I don’t remember much after that. ;-) But it was fun!

Thursday morning we had to bid farewell to Pierre as he needed to get home and turn around for a shoot next week in France. Without our second underwater cameraman, the underwater shooting was finished for the week. Ann-Marie invited me to go motorcycle riding with her again and I can never turn that down. But since Mia and Tm don’t ride, they borrowed Ann-Marie’s car and drove along behind us. We took a nice ride up to the town of Rincon to have lunch at a great local restaurant. Tim and I wanted to try some local food. We ordered the iguana soup and were shocked to find whole claws in the soup, which kind of grossed me out. But it made for some funny pictures. Tim got to have his goat stew (he had been talking about trying it all week) and I stuck with the beef stew.

We spent the rest of the day shooting interviews with Warriors. I know what you are thinking…Blue World rarely does interview-style segments and its sort of outside the usual formula of our segments. Well guess what…it’s my show and I can do anything I want. :-) I like these folks and I’m doing a segment on them. I want you to hear what they have to say about diving, about life and about the enduring spirit. You are going to love it. They are America’s finest.

Friday consisted of more interviews and lots of topside shots. Then we attended the “Taste of Bonaire” festival downtown. The film crew and the warriors ended up back at the Captain Don’s bar afterwards and between Jack Chalk and my new military friends buying rounds, it was a fun night. I feel so honored to have met this year’s wounded warriors. They are a great bunch of people with big hearts and positive attitudes dealing with some very serious injuries. I am humbled by them all and hope we will keep in touch over the years.

Blue World takes home three Emmys!

2011-05-16T09:25:00.005-04:00

This weekend was a whirlwind for the Blue World team! A few months ago we found out that we were nominated for six New England Emmy Awards. Saturday night was the moment of truth--to find out if we won anything! Six nominations is quite an honor all on its own, but taking home an Emmy award is an incredible thrill!

By the end of the awards ceremony we had taken not just one Emmy, but three! The first was in the Best Segment category, for a segment about lobsters that was filmed in Maine. (You can watch it on-line here.) Next we won for Best Children/Youth Program with our Antarctica episode! (Part 1 is on-line here. Part 2 will be posted next month.) The interesting part of winning these two awards is that one is a general audience (adult oriented) award, and the other is a children/youth category. By winning in both, it just goes to show what our fans already know: this is a program for all ages. Anyone that is fascinated by the underwater world likes Jonathan Bird's Blue World.

At the very end of the evening was the announcement of the nominees for Best On-camera Talent/Host and I was nominated. I was up against some very well-known and talented hosts and I was pretty sure I had no chance. My heart was pounding as they opened the envelope...and read my name! Our whole team jumped up and screamed! I won it! For a guy that has spent 20 years behind the camera, imagine my surprise to get an award for a role in front of the camera!

That was the third Emmy of the evening for Blue World. We had a great time after the event was over--taking pictures. Between all the team members, we had an unbelievable 18 Emmy Award statues to take home. They barely fit in the car! And of course the next day we had a celebratory party. Today is just another day at work...but the work is finishing off the editing for season 3--our best yet. Look out Emmy Awards next year!

-Jonathan

The Final Shoot of Season 3!

2011-05-01T11:45:00.002-04:00

It is with mixed feelings that I report Cameraman Tim and I have just finished the final shoot of season 3 of Jonathan Bird's Blue World. On the one hand, I'm excited that we have finally finished and we will soon be releasing the episodes to public television, international television and the web. But on the other hand, it's a little depressing to be finished. After all, we had a lot of fun doing it! We have been in production for about 18 months on what will be 24 more segments (9 half-hour programs). The finished programs are scheduled for delivery to the closed-captioning service in June.

Anyway, the final shoot was a half day at Sea World in San Diego, following up on a stranded pilot whale named Sully. We first met Sully on Curaçao at the very beginning of our season 3 shooting in October, 2009. He had recently stranded on a beach there. After George Keiffer and his team of marine mammal specialists at the Curaçao Sea Aquarium nursed him back to health, they tried releasing him into a pod of pilot whales, but he wouldn't go! He followed the boat back to the aquarium, and set a new speed record! After multiple attempts to re-introduce Sully into the wild failed, they gave up and started looking for a permanent home for him. They just didn't have the space in Curaçao at the Sea Aquarium.

Sea World in San Diego volunteered to take the 1,000 pound whale. So they flew him to San Diego! There, after doing hearing tests, they discovered what was wrong with Sully--he couldn't hear very well. As a result, he could not catch his own food using echolocation. That was why he was starving and stranded, and that was why he wouldn't go back to the wild. Sully would die if released, and he knew it. So Sea World offered Sully a second chance at life.

We spent the morning with Booker Crenshaw (one of Sea World's PR reps) and Sully's trainers at Sea World, learning how they feed him, play with him, train him and rub him down. He has grown by several hundred pounds since he arrived at Sea World, and has become quite used to people. I actually think he is a ham on camera. He seems to enjoy sticking his head out of the water and looking at the camera. Once Sully gets to a certain level of training, he will be introduced to the other two pilot whales at Sea World. And they are females, so who knows, maybe in a few years there will be some little baby Sullys swimming around!

-Jonathan

Jake completes his training on Grand Cayman!

2011-04-07T09:57:00.007-04:00

It all started nearly a year ago when 13 year old Jake Whitlock sent Jonathan Bird's Blue World a paper he had written for English class. He wrote about a dream to go diving with Jonathan Bird. We decided to get Jake certified and make his dream come true! (Read about our surprise film crew visit at Jake's house in this previous blog post).

After surprising him at his front door with a camera crew, he started his certification in Massachusetts where he lives. But for the final part of his exciting journey, we wanted to take Jake someplace amazing to complete his final checkout dives and go diving with Jonathan. Where? Grand Cayman of course! The Cayman Islands are a world-renown diving destination with warm, clear water, great reefs, coral, walls, shipwrecks and Stingray City! We contacted the Cayman Tourism Authority and they thought it was a great idea. They put us in contact with Sunset House—the perfect place to stay. Sunset House has been focused specifically on divers for 50 years!

So we let Jake (and his parents!) in on the secret. Last week we boarded a flight in Boston. Even with a huge delay due to a late season snow storm, we made it to Grand Cayman with our gear. But before we drove over to Sunset House, we made a stop at Divers Supply. What Jake found there was a special surprise. Thanks to the generosity of Sub Gear, Divers Supply and Sunset House, Jake was outfitted with a brand new set of Sub Gear diving equipment! How lucky can this kid get? Can it get any better? Yes!

Next, we headed over to Sunset House and checked into our rooms. Within an hour, Jake and his instructor Kathryn Apse were in the pool, reviewing skills (since his first two checkout dives were in the fall up in Massachusetts). While we were doing that, Channel 27 (Cayman News) came over to interview Jake. WATCH THE SEGMENT.

The next morning, after a wonderful Sunset House breakfast, Jake and Kat hit the water right off the dock to get in another check out dive. They intended to do both of them quickly and get them over with, but a curious sea turtle extended the dive to almost an hour, and Jake started getting cold, so the second checkout was scheduled for later in the morning off the boat.

After an early lunch, we hit the Sunset Divers boat and headed out to a nice wall where Jake did his final checkout dive with Jonathan instructing him on the proper method of blowing bubble rings and sneaking up on garden eels. The second dive at Eden Rock was spent swimming through the coral tunnels.

That evening, back at Sunset House, Jake was presented with his own certification card! He had become a real scuba diver! But the fun had only just begun, because Jonathan had another surprise: a brand new pair of Force Fin Pro diving fins for Jake--the same ones Jonathan wears. These were donated by Force Fin and also personally signed by Bob Evans, the designer of the Force Fin. Now Jake had truly joined the team!

Sunday morning was a typical beautiful Cayman day—warm and sunny with poofy white clouds. We left the dock with Sunset Divers right after breakfast on the boat and headed to Grand Cayman’s newest wreck, the USS Kittiwake. And what a wreck! Sitting on the sand upright in only 60 feet, it’s a jungle gym for grown-ups! Already the wreck has a huge school of jacks and two Goliath Grouper residents. Jake and I swam through and around the wreck while Cameraman Tim filmed everything. We had intended on doing only one dive on the wreck, but it was too much fun. So we did a second dive too. On the second dive, a huge school of reef squid had moved in and surrounded the upper structures, so we spent some time filming them too.

After lunch, we piled into a van and our Sunset Divers crew drove us across the island to the marina up in north sound where they keep another dive boat for Stingray City. Twenty minutes later we were splashing into the 10 foot deep water while curious stingrays came over, looking for a handout. Divemaster Andy had given us a lesson in the proper way to feed the stingrays without getting a hickey. As soon as we hit the water, Jake eagerly accepted some bait and started feeding like a pro. He quickly became the most popular guy on the sea floor with 5 stingrays taking turns eating from his hands. And yeah, we got it all on camera. This is going to be a fun segment. Congratulations on your new c-card Jake and welcome to the world of scuba diving!

Blue World filming at the Mystic Aquarium!

2011-03-22T10:17:00.003-04:00

It all started a little over a year ago when Cameraman Pierre and I were filming in the Galapagos. We got some amazing footage of sea lions playing, hunting and even barking underwater into my camera. We thought a segment about sea lions would be interesting, but the footage from the Galapagos wasn't enough. It was neat, but didn't tell a story. We thought maybe we should visit a big aquarium that trains sea lions to learn more about how smart they are and how they can be trained. But where? Fate had plans for us. At an educational ocean conference a few months later, we bumped into some biologists from the Mystic Aquarium in Mystic, Connecticut, only 2 hours from my house! We asked if we could visit and learn a little about sea lions. They checked with the PR department for us. "Sure, come on down!" was the response.

So yesterday, after months of trying to get several schedules to line up (mine, Cameraman Tim, and several of the trainers at the aquarium) it all finally worked out. We got up early and drove down to Mystic. Soon we were met by Erin Merz from the public relations department. She had tirelessly put the whole thing together for us. Soon our motley film crew was introduced to four lovely sea lion trainers who took several hours of their time to walk us through a day in the life of working with sea lions.

They started with food prep. I spent half an hour washing, inspecting, and sorting fish for the sea lions to eat. They are fed six times a day so food prep is a large part of maintaining their 6 California sea lions.

Next I donned some big rubber boots over my sneakers and went out to meet the sea lions. Over the course of several hours I learned how they train the animals with positive reinforcement and even got the chance to learn and use a few hand signals myself. (The more experienced animals in the aquarium know over 100 hand signals! That's smart!) I also learned that all their sea lions are either rehabilitated animals that were stranded and which cannot be released to the wild, or animals that were born and raised in captivity. They are like swimming puppy dogs--eager to play and interact with each other and their trainers. They seem to love to show off and goof around. And they eat a lot of fish in the process.

Of course all that fish eventually comes out the other end! So I got to experience the not-so-glamorous part of being a sea lion trainer--cleaning sea lion poop. Ick.

Later in the day we filmed one of their daily sea lion shows with a big crowd watching. It was interesting to see how the trainers run a show so flawlessly with the sea lions doing all their tricks and flips all cued by subtle hand signals that the audience doesn't even notice. But I had an appreciation for how long it takes to teach the sea lions all those signals. Even though they are very smart, 100 hand signals is a lot! I'm not sure how long it would take me to learn that many!

This will be an amazing segment in season 3, combining what I learned about sea lions at the Mystic aquarium with what I observed in the wild. We can't wait to get started editing this segment!

We would like to extend our gracious thanks to the Mystic Aquarium, and in particular Erin Merz, and sea lion trainers Deborah Pazzaglia, Jen Reo, Kristen Patti, and Julie Formanski for a great day!

-Jonathan

Back from the Silver banks!

2011-02-25T11:27:00.001-05:00

The Blue World crew has just returned from the Silver Banks where we filmed Humpback whales for the third season! We chartered the Turks & Caicos Aggressor for a week and spent all week trying to sneak up close to whales. The female Humpbacks in the north Atlantic migrate down to the Caribbean in the winter to have their calves in the warm, calm waters. The males follow along, hoping to mate with the females.

One of the largest gatherings of Humpbacks occurs in the Silver banks, a shallow area about 80 miles north of the Dominican Republic. It is protected by fringing reefs and coral heads, creating an isolated area, far from land. Although there is nothing to eat for the whales, they have calm, warm, clear water where they can give birth to their calves.

As the calves get a little older, they get rambunctious, eager to explore and have fun. Their mothers want to protect them, but at the same time, need to allow them to swim around a little. To film them, we get in the water near the whales very slowly and quietly, and wait for them to come over and give us a look. Sometimes they are too scared and skittish. But sometimes, the curiosity of the calf overcomes its apprehension, and the calf swims over to us, under the watchful eye of mom. These experiences can only be described as magical. The animals are magnificent, tremendously huge, and extremely gentle around us, always moving with care.

Although the first couple of days were slow with the whale action, it really picked up later in the week. Pierre and I were able to film mothers and calves, as well as sleeping whales, and even a “Valentine” which is a female and a male engaged in pre-mating rituals. We got so much footage that I felt comfortable taking my still camera into the water a couple times and managed to get some very cool images! (Anytime I get to shoot some stills on a trip, it’s a good trip!)

This is going to be one of the best segments in season 3 and I can hardly wait to get started editing it when I get back!

-Jonathan

The JBBW Team goes to the Riviera Maya

2011-01-18T09:41:00.004-05:00

As part of production for season 3 of Jonathan Bird's Blue World we headed down to the Riviera Maya region of Mexico last week to shoot a couple segments. We had an optimistic plan to shoot three segments. Last year we heard about a cool dive with Bull sharks that is organized by Phantom Divers in Playa Del Carmen. Then we heard about a nearby adventure to swim with sailfish feeding on baitballs organized by Solo Buceo up in Cancun. So we thought we could try to shoot those segments, plus another segment about cenotes. (I can't go to Mexico and not dive a cenote. I love those things!) To add to the fun, Todd Kelly was with us on his first Blue World shoot (talk about being thrown right into fire!) So, Mia, Todd and I headed out and landed in Cancun to mild, cool weather and strong winds. This was to be a theme of the week.

Unfortunately, right before we left Boston, we found out that fishermen had killed all the Bull sharks. We're not sure if they did it to get back at the dive shops (jealous of their success in turning shark tourism into money) or if they just saw it as easy money. Either way, it was very sad. Apparently some of them were finned and thrown back alive to die. Cruel, wasteful and shameful. We still hoped there would be enough left to dive with.

We had the chance to try the sailfish trip early in the week as it looked like our only weather break for the week. It was rough, but we still made the run out there with Solo Buceo in a trip organized through Jorge "Chino" Loria of Phantom Divers. In spite of heavy sea conditions, we jumped overboard into bait balls with 25-30 sailfish zipping around eating the fish. I looked at those long sharp bills and tried to put it out of my mind as I hid behind my video camera and kept it rolling. Swimming with the sailfish is hard work because the baitfish are trying to get away from them so they keep moving. It's all about swimming as hard as you can while trying to shoot steady video. Good exercise!

The next day we went out with Phantom Divers to find some Bull sharks. Unfortunately, in spite of a lot of chumming and waiting, we saw nothing. It looks like the fishermen did get them all. Hopefully in the next few months some more sharks will come to the area and Jorge from Phantom Divers can work a deal with the fishermen to protect the sharks.

The wind kept getting higher every day and by the middle of the week we couldn't do any ocean dives. Fortunately, you can dive cenotes anytime. For our first cenote, we joined cave diver Carlos "Charlie" Estrabeau from Phantom Divers diving a private sinkhole called Muyal-ha. At the bottom we found spooky sulphur layers that looked like clouds, mastadon bones and interesting "pillow" rock formations. Very cool!

The next day we joined Christine Loew, a cave diving instructor from Yucatec Divers to explore a cenote/cave system called Pet Cemetery. Our goal was to find and film a Blind Cavefish, which we did thanks to Christine's knowledge of where to find them. This is going to make a great segment.

The next day we headed down to Akumal and did a dive at the popular cenote Choc Mool, led by Alvaro Roldan of Akumal Divers. Choc Mool often has a lot of divers, and for a good reason--it's a really nice cenote. We got lucky and managed to do our dive between large groups so we mostly had the place to ourselves.

We expect that even though we got no Bull sharks, we have 3 nice segments from this shoot (2 cenote segments and a sailfish segment.) Now we have to get to work on editing these.

We stayed at two very nice properties on this trip. Unlike the last time we visited when we stayed at a huge all-inclusive resort out of town, this time we stayed right in Playa Del Carmen in two smaller places. We really loved being within easy walking distance of great restaurants and things to see. I really recommend staying in town when you visit. We stayed at the opulent and high end El Taj for a few days, and then at the charming and delightful Casa de Gopala for the rest of the week. Casa de Gopala is owned by the people who own Yucatec divers, so if you are visiting the Riviera Maya to do some cenote or cave diving, this is a great place to stay.

-Jonathan

Our Newest Segment: About a 13 year old JBBW fan!

2010-10-20T14:54:00.003-04:00

It all started when Jake Whitlock, a 13 year old ocean-lover from Massachusetts got a writing assignment for school. His task: write about something he would love to do. His finished paper was 3 pages of underwater adventure centering around his desire to go diving with some guy named Jonathan Bird. (Hey, that's me!) He e-mailed it to us--and we loved it. Then we started hatching a plan to make his dream come true. With his parents' permission, we enlisted the assistance of Katherine Apse, a scuba instructor working for United Divers in Somerville, MA. Kat specializes in scuba certification for children and young adults. Because Jake is 13, he can be certified with a full adult certification. Kat and I met up one morning near his house and hiked up the street with Cameraman Tim and Production Manager Julia Cichowski for an "Ed McMahon Moment." Jake's parents knew we were coming, but Jake didn't.

I knocked on the door and Jake answered--and his expression said it all! He was shocked and thrilled! The Blue World film crew was at his front door! I introduced him to Kat and explained that she was his new scuba instructor. You have never seen a 13 year old light up more than to discover he is getting certified to dive, and he will be going diving with someone he watches on TV.

Over the next few weeks, we showed up randomly during his scuba course. We filmed him in the classroom, his first breaths underwater in the training pool, and even his first dives in the ocean. We dove together in some murky water in Nahant, MA on his first open ocean training dive. His certification at this point is almost done, but the adventure is only half over. We plan to take him to a tropical island for his big dives with the JBBW team. But which island? Well, that's a surprise. Can't give everything away just yet.

This will be a fantastic segment for season 3, especially for the younger viewers in our audience when they realize that they too can become scuba divers!

-Jonathan

The Blue World Crew Heads to Bonaire!

2010-10-06T09:43:00.004-04:00

In search of the elusive coral spawn, Mia, Cameraman Tim and I headed to Bonaire last week during the time of the predicted coral spawn to shoot a segment for season 3 of Jonathan Bird's Blue World. Some of you may recall that we struck out on the coral spawn on Curaçao last year. We were there in October and the big spawn happened in September. The coral typically spawns twice per year, once in Sept about a week after the full moon and again a month later in October. But one of the two is the "big" spawn, with the other one being smaller. You never know which will be the big one. So last year, we got very little on Curaçao. We were lucky to have a couple of backup segment ideas though.

This year on Bonaire, we didn't have a back-up plan, so we surely hoped the coral would spawn! We started our dive trip at the always enjoyable Captain Don's Habitat where we had beautiful, large, well-appointed rooms in bungalows with seriously cold AC. We dove at night off their dock, starting on Monday night. We did two dives per night, starting at about 8 and going until around 11:30, to be sure we wouldn't miss anything. A typical evening would have us in the water by 8 or so, out at 9:30, change tanks, and back in until 11:30. We kept the dives shallow so we could have nice long dives. On each dive, all we did was swim up and down the reef looking for signs of corals getting ready to release eggs. Kinda boring actually!

On Monday we saw nothing. On Tuesday, we saw one coral head spawn and I filmed it but I only caught the end of it. Wednesday was the peak, with about 5% of the reef spawning. That's when we got most of the best shots. But we were still short a few tight close-ups I needed. Fortunately, just one more coral head spawned on Thursday night and we were able to get the much needed last few shots. Whew!

Clearly, we did not have the "big" spawn this year either. Looks like it will happen in October. I'm not sure if we are really unlucky that we missed the big spawning event two years in a row by being there the wrong month, or if we are really lucky that, in spite of that, we got the shots!

We also did some day dives looking for some other critters that will be featured in season 3, such as sea horses, frogfish and cleaning stations. Our divemaster Lutty from Captain Don's found us some great sea horses at a site called "Oil Slick." Thanks Lutty!

Halfway through the week, we moved to the lovely 5 star Harbor Village Luxury Hotel, and wow, what a nice place! Beautiful accommodations, incredible beach (especially for Bonaire, which is not known for beaches) and a fantastic staff. The only downside is that they do not have a house reef like Captain Don's, Buddy Dive, and the other resorts that cater more specifically to divers. So we ended up driving over to Captain Don's house reef for the night dives.

So in a 6 day trip (4 dive days), we did 7 night dives and believe it or not, only 5 daytime dives. (We spent a lot of our days shooting topside stuff). With 90 minute night dives, we managed to stuff a lot of diving into only only 4 diving days! And yes, we pulled off a cool segment that I'll start editing soon. When you watch a 9 minute Blue World segment, you are often watching something that took quite a while to shoot. In this case, it took two trips to the Caribbean over a year to finally get the shots. That's the way nature sometimes works!

-Jonathan

Blue World visits Diver Ed in Maine!

2010-08-09T21:15:00.003-04:00

This past weekend the Blue World team headed up to Bar Harbor, Maine to shoot a segment about "Diver Ed"--a Bar Harbor celebrity. Ed and his wife Edna ("Captain Evil") run a charter boat called the Starfish Enterprise, on which they conduct a program called the Dive-In Theatre. It's a little like a combination of a guided underwater tour and a hands-on touch tank experience. Ed goes underwater with his camera tethered to the surface so people can watch him point out underwater marine life on a 60" flat panel TV on the boat, while Edna narrates from the surface. Then Ed comes back with a bag full of critters for the kids to touch. He explains (in hilarious ways) how animals like sea stars, lobsters and sea cucumbers eat, walk and yes, poop. People of all ages love his show. He also uses a little plastic side-kick called Mini Ed to give scale to objects underwater. Mini Ed often has run ins with lobsters that don't end too well. It's all in good fun, and people always learn quite a bit.

I have known Ed for a few years and even bumped into him once in the Bahamas. We started talking about doing a segment about him. Julia Cichowski, production manager extraordinaire, finally scheduled the whole thing and got us in the same place at the same time. We dragged along "Cameraman Tim" Geers, my wife and Executive Producer Christine Bird, and even my kids, for a weekend of fun with Diver Ed.

When we arrived and started setting up, Ed and Edna presented me with my own Mini Jonathan, complete with Force Fins and a camera. Later on the dive with Ed, I was able to use Mini Jonathan to "film" Mini Ed being attacked by a Lobster. Luckily, both minis survived!

It was a hilarious and enjoyable shoot, complete with a cookout on the boat. I can't wait to start editing this fun segment. And if you are planning a vacation in the Bar Harbor area this summer, you just have to go out with Diver Ed...he is the best!

Jonathan

Diving Southern Queensland: The Gold Coast!

2010-06-19T07:23:00.004-04:00

A little over ten years ago while visiting the Caribbean island of Dominica, I met Jules Morton and Glen Holmes, the divemasters at Castaways Hotel and Dive Center. We became friends and talked about diving in various places in the world that we loved. A few months later, Jules and Glen came up and visited Christine and I in Massachusetts for a few weeks. We did some New England diving, showed them our favorite dive sites in Eastport, Maine, and had a great time sharing dive stories. Glen told me that some day I needed to go to Australia to dive the Gold Coast—his favorite diving. Ten years later, to the exact day, Glen took me, Julia and Kerry diving in the Gold Coast area. Glen promised some of the best diving ever. Well, we were not disappointed! We went out diving with Herb Ilic from Palm Beach Dive on his boat Evolution on a private charter with Glen as our divemaster. We were looking for some Wobbegong sharks for a segment on benthic sharks (sharks that live on the bottom), and boy did we find them. Dozens upon dozens of Wobbegongs of two species covered the sea floor at dive sites filled with clouds of silvery baitfish. The sharks have obviously been gorging themselves on the baitfish, and they were bloated from all the food.

At a site called Windara Banks, we dropped into crystal clear water, about 70 degrees and descended to 75 feet where we found the top of a seamount. It was a deep dive. At 120 feet I found a solitary Sand Tiger shark (they call them Grey Nurse sharks in Australia). Although the dive was visually stunning, we were not seeing as many sharks as we liked, so we switched to another site called Julian Rocks. I have never seen so many Wobbegongs anywhere in one place! And as we dropped deeper, there were about 10 Grey Nurse sharks cruising in the gulleys between the rocks.

The diving around Gold Coast is unusual because it blends critters found in more northerly tropical waters with the critters found in the temperate waters to the south. For example, you see temperate algae and Wobbegongs living alongside tropical crinoids, soft coral and Eagle rays. Very interesting diversity!

This exciting diving, although a little chilly, was a wonderful way to wrap up a magnificent trip diving around Queensland! We shot several segments for Blue World and explored a region that none of us had ever seen before. We would like to extend a grateful thanks to Tourism Queensland for their assistance in putting this trip together and helping us pull it off. Kerry and I can hardly wait to get home and start editing the video into some new, exciting segments for season 3 of Jonathan Bird’s Blue World!

-Jonathan

Blue World Team entry #2 from Queensland, Australia – June 15, 2010

2010-06-14T20:58:00.004-04:00

Well the JBBW team is back in Cairns having just returned from four days aboard the Spoilsport, the 100’ well appointed dive boat belonging to Mike Ball Dive Expeditions. Although it didn’t turn out exactly as we’d planned, our liveaboard experience was wonderful and we have several hours of footage to add to the Blue World segment library.

We boarded the Spoilsport on the evening of Thursday, June 10^th where we were welcomed with champagne cocktails and snacks by our crew of 12. We got our cabin assignments, unpacked our dive gear and settled in for the night and our short crossing to the Ribbon Reef.

Each day onboard had generally the same schedule which began at 6:45 AM with a cheerful call of ‘Wakey, wakey” from Trip Director Kerrin. This was followed by a light breakfast and an early 7:15 AM dive. Then came the full breakfast, open dive deck which usually meant two dives, lunch, two more dives, a night dive and finally dinner. All in all you can get in 4-5 dives a day. The crew is outstanding and run an open dive deck, meaning you can get in an out of the water at will (following all the safe and proper diving procedures of course). Diving is done directly from the dive deck and the crew set up ample ropes to guide divers to and from the various sites.

Our three days of diving offered us 14 dives that covered the Great Barrier Reef from Steve’s Bommie on Ribbon Reef #3, to Stepping Stones on Ribbon Reef #10. The currents were light and our visibility averaged about 40’. Our trip was to have included a crossing out to Osprey Reef in the Coral Sea, but unfortunately this had to be cancelled due to 30 knot winds and 15’ seas.

On all of our dives on the Great Barrier Reef we saw massive ‘bommies’ (coral heads), beautiful reef topography, a wide variety of reef fish and had plenty of marine life to interact with. One of our highlights was at Lighthouse Bommie where we first encountered Olive Sea Snakes. We met some of the most cooperative sea snakes possible all destined for a job in television. Jonathan shot some fascinating footage of these snakes hunting in and around coral heads and rocks and got to interact quite closely with them.

Another highlight were the Giant Potato Cods at Cod Hole. At one point in time, the cod here were fed regularly by all the dive boats. This practice has recently been generally curtailed, but divers still benefit from how familiar the cod are with divers. The cod will generally swim right over as soon as they see you and indeed Jonathan and one of the largest Potato Cod became quite close. If it were possible, Jonathan’s children would now have a new, 6 foot long, pet cod. By the way, the cod are called ‘Potato Cod’ due to their uncanny resemblance to large gray potatoes. They are actually large groupers.

Other highlights included large schools of Big Eye Jacks and Yellow Striped Snapper, truly giant clams, very personable Green Turtles, white tipped and gray reef sharks and a surprising encounter with Tawny Reef Sharks which showed up one night while we were moored just outside of Lizard Island. Jonathan managed to get some good shots of these by dropping his camera over the side of the dive deck.

The only disappointment for us was that we didn’t get any personal encounters with Minke Whales. Minkes were high on our shot list and although several other divers onboard did get to see at least one or two, however briefly, we didn’t get a glimpse. We are here at the very beginning of the season, so advice to those of you that have high hopes of Minke encounters, you may want to wait until the season is in full swing in July and August. Thankfully the sea snakes, cod, and large schools of fish rounded out our shot list nicely.

The last night onboard was spent moored just off of Lizard Island. The crew threw a lovely Australian barbeque and a great time was had by all. The next day delivered quite a treat as our return trip to Cairns was via a low flying, single prop airplane from Lizard Island. This is part of the standard 4-day dive package for Mike Ball Dive expeditions. The flight took us over long strips of the Great Barrier Reef and we got to appreciate the vastness and beauty of it all. We were able to get some good shots of the reef during the flight.

Next we go back to Brisbane to dive the Gold Coast. We can’t wait to see what we’ll find there.

~ Julia

The Blue World Team lands in Australia!

2010-06-10T00:14:00.005-04:00

After a 32 hour series of flights from Boston, the Blue World film crew (this time consisting of me, Kerry Hurd and Julia Cichowski) arrived in Cairns, Australia. Our assignment: shooting segments featuring the amazing underwater experiences to be had in Queensland. We’ll be here for 2 weeks documenting marine life from the Great Barrier Reef off Cairns, to the Coral Sea, all the way down to the sharks in the waters off Brisbane.

Our first two days were spent working at the Great Barrier Reef with a company called Sunlover Reef Cruises. They have a massive platform they call a “pontoon” anchored right next to a beautiful section of reef. It takes about 90 minutes to reach the pontoon by boat. Passengers board a 100 foot long catamaran for the ride out. However, our first day we were flown on a helicopter out to the pontoon so we could shoot some aerials of the Great Barrier Reef. In a helicopter, it’s a 20 minute flight. After we arrived and flew around for a few nice shots of the pontoon anchored near the reef, we flew up the reef a little and shot some impressive looking stuff of the reef. Then we landed on the helipad about 100 yards from the pontoon. Since they sell helicopter flights as part of the tourism operation, people get shuttled back and forth to the helipad by boat all day long to get their 10 minute aerial tour of the reef.

Once we got to the pontoon, I was impressed with not only how immense this floating activity center was, but all the things you can do! They have an underwater viewing room with windows on the reef, a semi-sub and glass-bottomed boat for tours of the reef, snorkeling, scuba diving, scuba instruction and even a program called Seawalkers (which the dive instructors playfully call the “bucket head program.” More on this later.)

We started our day with a dive on the reef. The tide had turned and the viz was down a bit to maybe 50 feet. A little murky by tropical diving standards, but it didn’t inhibit our enthusiasm because the reef was gorgeous and the marine life is so used to divers that they have absolutely no fear. (In truth this is also because they are fed to bring them over to the divers and snorkelers). We watched a sea turtle that would follow a divemaster like a puppy. A huge Maori wrasse decided I was his best friend and followed me for 20 minutes, looking at my hands for food and peering with wonder into my camera lens. They use small 72 cu ft tanks and we milked ours for the most bottom time possible! Fortunately Julia had her Ikelite G11 still camera rig and shot some great pics of the action while Kerry was filming for the show. When Kerry finally ran out of air, I had just a few minutes left with no cameraman. The wrasse was so close that I turned my camera around and was able to film a self-portrait with the fish. That’s close!

On our second day on the Sunlover pontoon, we rode out on the boat, did some various topside shots and standups around the pontoon, then of course did another dive, where we encountered the friendliest sea turtle in the ocean. After lunch we participated in the Seawalker program. This is a program for people who want to get underwater without scuba. It looks a little hokey, but we thought it would be hilarious in the segment, so Julia and I geared up to try it while Kerry filmed. Basically, they put an 80 pound helmet on your head, with a huge plexiglass window in the front. They pump air into the helmet so you have a constant flow of fresh air to breathe. It bubbles out the back. Underwater the helmet weighs about 8 pounds. You walk down a ladder and onto a nice flat platform, where they bring some fish over. My assessment? It’s an absolute riot! It was probably the most fun I have had underwater in ages! Wait until you see the segment. (We rigged an audio recorder in my helmet so I could do standups underwater on camera. Very cool stuff). Julia shot some funny pics.

After the bucket-head experience, we boarded the boat for the ride back to Cairns, had some food and did more shots on the boat. We have wrapped our first Queensland segment. Today we are boarding the Mike Ball live-aboard boat to Osprey Reef for 5 days. It should be awesome!

-Jonathan

JBBW takes home the Emmy!

2010-05-23T17:23:00.004-04:00

Last night was pretty exciting! The entire Blue World team attended the 2010 New England Emmy Awards because we were nominated for 3 categories. (Best Children's Program, Best Cinematography and Best Segment.) Of course we wanted to win all three :-) but we were thrilled to take home the Emmy Award for best segment! This is an adult category, proving that Jonathan Bird's Blue World is fun for the whole family! Check out a video of the acceptance speech.

Picture Captions:

1: The sign outside the event hall.

2: Julia, Jonathan and Christine before the reception.

3: Pierre with his ticket.

4: Our entire team at the table (except Jonathan, holding the camera, as usual!) Clockwise from left: Candice Geers, Tim Geers, Mia Peluso, Linda Hurd, Kerry Hurd, Art Cohen, Pierre Séguin, Julia Cichowski, Christine Bird.

5: The team posing with their Emmys!

New webisode posted: Mangroves!

2010-05-05T21:35:00.002-04:00

Mangroves might not seem like an exciting subject, like sharks or sea turtles, but they perform an important function in the ocean. Learn all about the importance of mangroves and the interesting ways these plants live half-submerged in sea water in this fun segment from season 2!

-Jonathan

We return from the Bahamas...again!

2010-04-30T12:08:00.004-04:00

After our trip to the northern Bahamas by live-aboard earlier in the month in search of hammerheads, we set out last week on a shoot to the Bahamian island of Andros, further south, in search of Blue Holes and Silky sharks at the AUTEC Buoy. The U.S. Navy's Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center (AUTEC) maintains several buoys anchored in 6,000+ feet of water in an area called the "Tongue of the Ocean" where they test sonar. These buoys, being isolated structures in a vast empty open ocean, almost always have fish around them. Sometimes sharks. Sport fishermen know these buoys as hot spots for Marlin, Wahoo, Mahi and tuna. They also know that sometimes it's hard to get a hooked fish to the boat because the sharks eat them. These particular sharks are Silky sharks--creatures of the open ocean. We wanted to do a segment on the AUTEC buoys and the marine life around them. Unfortunately, there were very few fish and no sharks at all on both days we had scheduled for the shoot. In technical terms, we were "skunked." (You can read a story about my adventures in the past at the AUTEC buoy here.)

Fortunately for us, the blue holes don't move like the sharks at the AUTEC Buoy, so they make pretty reliable subjects. Blue holes are ancient holes eroded into the limestone that look like craters. Some are above water and some were formed when the sea levels were lower (during the last ice age) and are now underwater. They are often openings to huge cave systems. We dove and explored a couple blue holes and their caves. The result will be a fantastic segment on the geology and chemistry of these amazing formations. And yes, they are super cool to dive! We had a blast with the filming!

We would like to offer a special thanks to Small Hope Bay Lodge for hosting us! What a wonderful place to visit. We left feeling like family. If you ever get a chance to go diving there, you will not regret it!

Captions for images:

1: "Cameraman Tim" using the old trash bag trick for shooting in the rain.

2: Jonathan on one of the AUTEC buoys.

3: Tim shooting

4: The Guardian blue hole from the surface.

5: The crew at the end of the shoot: Mia Peluso (Production manager), Tim Geers, and Jonathan.

Back from the Bahamas!

2010-04-17T21:40:00.002-04:00

Well, I just came back from a very fun (but not extremely productive) shoot in the Bahamas. We intended to shoot a segment on Great Hammerheads, and we did see a couple, but they didn't stick around long enough to get much material. We had tons of Caribbean Reef sharks, a couple Tiger sharks, many Lemon sharks and a couple Nurse sharks. Pierre and I shot a few exciting sequences that may turn up in season 3, but nothing on the Great Hammerhead.

One of the fun parts of the trip was spending some time with some great friends. I chartered the whole boat (my favorite live aboard in the whole world...the Dolphin Dream) and had 12 of my diving pals aboard, including David Doubilet.

Also, towards the end of the week I called home on the satellite phone to discover that we have been nominated for THREE Emmy Awards for Jonathan Bird's Blue World!!! How cool is that?? The big ceremony is May 22 and we'll find out if we win any of them. We're pretty excited about it!

That's about all to report for now. Keep checking back for the latest info.

Best,

Jonathan

New episode posted: Sea Turtles!

2010-03-29T13:02:00.004-04:00

This is one of our favorite episodes from season 2. I went to Malaysia to film mating sea turtles and spent several weeks working on getting the sequence. And WHAT a sequence. It was something I had never seen before. Our finished sea turtle segment follows the entire lifespan of sea turtles from birth to mating to egg laying. We shot females laying eggs using infra-red cameras and babies rushing to the sea after being born. You will enjoy this one.

-Jonathan

400 Kids enjoy Blue World at the DC Environmental Film Fest!

2010-03-17T18:06:00.003-04:00

Today we showed 4 segments from Season 2 of Jonathan Bird's Blue World to an audience of about 400 kids in Washington DC at the Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital. The segments were Stars of the Sea (Sea stars), The Real Nemo (anemonefish), Feeding Frenzy, and Sea Turtles. You always know that the kids are engaged in the subject when 400 kids are silent for 40 minutes with no fidgeting!

-Jonathan

Blue World at the DC Environmental Film Fest!

2010-03-15T09:32:00.003-04:00

Jonathan and Christine Bird will be presenting Jonathan Bird's Blue World on March 17 at the Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital at 10:30 AM in the Town Hall Education Arts and Recreation Campus (THEARC) at 1901 Mississippi Ave, SE, Washington DC. We are presenting four segments from season 2 (Stars of the Sea, The Real Nemo, Feeding Frenzy, and Sea Turtles). None of these segments have yet appeared on the website. (They have aired on television as part of season 2 though). Jonathan will be answering questions after the showing. We hope to see you there!

-Jonathan and Christine

New "Tools of the Trade" Webisode posted!

2010-03-12T20:13:00.002-05:00

Jonathan discusses the scuba tank and regulator in the newest webisode in the Tools of the Trade series. Filmed in beautiful Curacao!

JBBW films at the Georgia Aquarium!

2010-02-14T10:01:00.004-05:00

The Georgia Aquarium is the largest aquarium in the world! Their Ocean Voyager exhibit contains 6.3 million gallons of water, and since they are 400 miles from the ocean, all that seawater had to be made from fresh water! We wanted to do a segment on this amazing place since they are one of the few aquaria in the world that are large enough for a whale shark. In fact, they have four whale sharks! The largest one, a female named Trixy, is 23 feet long and growing!

Tim Geers, Bill Murphy (on his first assignment with the Blue World team) and I headed down to Atlanta on Thursday night with a plan to spend the whole day Friday filming at the aquarium. The PR department had arranged for us to meet many of the staff members responsible for everything from animal care to exhibit maintenance. We also would have the chance to participate in the feeding of the animals and do a dive in the Ocean Voyager exhibit!

We arrived and unloaded our gear from the car. Soon we were down in the basement, getting a tour of the pump room, where they have enough massive pumps to turn over the 6.3 million gallons once every hour! Next we went up to the top of the ocean voyager to watch the feeding of the whale sharks. I got the chance to feed the mantas, which was a little tricky because they can't stop swimming to feed. You have to walk along the edge of the tank and dole out the food right in front of the swimming manta's mouth.

Next we got to dive the exhibit and this thing is so big, you can forget you are in an aquarium. They have more species of fish than you would typically see on a dive. They have whale sharks, Great Hammerheads, Sand Tiger sharks, Sandbar sharks, Zebra sharks, blacktip reef sharks, nurse sharks and Wobbegong sharks, just to name a few! There is so much marine life in the tank that it's hard to know where to point the camera. I can hardly wait to start editing this segment because it's so visually stunning. Diving in this exhibit is not just reserved for "special" people doing television segments. If you are a certified diver and have $325, you can do it too. Just call them up and make a reservation. Is it worth $325? Umm....YES!!

After a long day of shooting, we started taking our gear out to the car and it was snowing like crazy! All of Atlanta had to shut down!! We were afraid our flight would be cancelled the next day, but they managed to get the airport up and running by Saturday and we made it home on time.

Diving in the Georgia Aquarium was an incredible experience and the segment (to appear in season 3) will be pretty cool!! If you get the chance to visit this aquarium, do it!!!

-Jonathan

Check out our new EXTRAS section!

2010-02-05T15:08:00.003-05:00

The Jonathan Bird's Blue World website now has a new EXTRAS section! This will be used for bloopers, interviews and other video segments that are not part of the actual program. We are launching a new series of short videos in this section called "Tools of the Trade" to highlight the equipment used for scuba diving and underwater photography. So check it out!!

New Webisode posted!

2010-01-28T14:11:00.005-05:00

Check out the new webisode about the Tropical Fish Rescue in Rhode Island! Jonathan participates in a rescue effort to save baby tropical fish before they die from the cold in New England. Watch the webisode to learn how the tropical fish get lost and end up in New England, a thousand miles from home!

You can read the blog entry from the filming of this webisode, back in the fall of 2008.

Jonathan on WCSH in Portland, Maine

2010-01-13T10:50:00.005-05:00

Earlier this week I drove up to Portland, Maine for an interview on the Maine program "207" produced by WCSH 6, the NBC affiliate in Portland. This program about Maine airs all over the state and into Canada. The segment aired the evening of Jan 12th, 2010 and is now on the WCSH Website. We imbedded it here. Not sure how long it will remain available though.

Jonathan

JBBW on a Billboard!

2010-01-10T08:38:00.002-05:00

For any of you in the Massachusetts area, Jonathan Bird's Blue World is appearing on a billboard near Gillette Stadium (home of the New England Patriots) for the next few weeks! We were in that neck of the woods yesterday and stopped for a few pictures. The billboard is advertising Blue World's run on WGBH-Kids, a public TV station in the Boston area. According to the owners of the billboard, about 30,000 people will see the ad every day. And this weekend The Patriots have a big playoff game!

Check it out!

-Jonathan

New Episode posted!

2010-01-05T11:59:00.002-05:00

Watch the new webisode now on BlueworldTV.com! It's about the amazing manta rays of Yap island in Micronesia! Check it out!

New Webisode posted!

2009-11-30T16:36:00.003-05:00

Hey Gang, we just posted the 4th webisode from season 2--about Dr. Guy Harvey's research on stingrays at Stingray City, Grand Cayman. You can read about the shoot in our BLOG entry from back in May. Hope you enjoy the new segment!!

The new DVDs are here!!

2009-11-22T07:29:00.002-05:00

Finally, after almost 2 years of production, months of editing and design, and another month of pressing--the season 2 DVDs are here!! We are now shipping all the pre-orders that have come in and we are extending our pre-order price as a pre-holiday discount until Dec. 15. You can get a huge stack of season 2 DVDs for holiday gifts for a great price! CHECK IT OUT!

The DVD is a two disc set containing all 7 half hour shows from season 2, plus a bonus feature ("Sharks: Predators with a Purpose" an award-winning short film about the need to protect sharks, produced by Oceanic Research Group). Also included is a great coupon for significant savings from Ian's Natural Foods, our major sponsor! So get some DVDs today and spread the fun!!

-Jonathan

JBBW returns from Raja Ampat, Indonesia!

2009-11-13T08:51:00.002-05:00

Hey Everyone,

I'm in Singapore on my way back from an exciting trip to Raja Ampat, Indonesia filming for season 3. This remote area in eastern Indonesia takes about 3 days to reach from the USA but has the most spectacular coral reefs in the world. Pierre and I were filming a rare "walking" cat shark and Tasselled Wobbegong sharks for a segment on bottom-dwelling sharks. Also, we shot tiny pygmy seahorses (only the size of a fingernail) for a segment on seahorses.

The reefs were amazing and the trip was spectacularly fun, but I'm looking forward to getting home. I have been away a lot and I'm looking forward to a nice quiet holiday season at home!

More news to come soon....

Jonathan

New Webisode is posted!

2009-10-28T10:14:00.003-04:00

Yes, we posted it a couple days early because we are leaving for Indonesia tomorrow. The newest episode of Jonathan Bird's Blue World is on the website!

Whale sharks of Holbox!

Check it out!!

The JBBW team returns from Curacao

2009-10-15T11:36:00.004-04:00

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

Jonathan Signing posters & DVDs at NPEE

2009-09-30T21:44:00.003-04:00

It was a fun weekend at the Natural Products Expo East in Boston. I was there at the Ian's Natural Foods booth signing shark posters and DVDs for fans of the show. They were running a DVD on a small screen, and we had lots of people young and old stop by to talk sharks, Blue World and great healthy food! (I even managed to grab a stash of Ian's new healthy snack food "Fruitabits." They didn't last long once I got home and my kids discovered them!)

Did you miss the Expo? Well you can catch the Natural Products Expo West in March, 2010. It's in Anaheim, CA! Ian's will be there, and so will I! We'll even have season 2 DVDs available. Come on down!

-Jonathan

Goliath Grouper spawning shoot!

2009-09-18T10:15:00.004-04:00

Pierre and I just came back from a great shoot filming the Goliath Grouper spawning event in Florida for the 3rd season of Jonathan Bird's Blue World. We spent a couple days filming with David Doubilet, Jen Hayes and Wyland--heavy hitters in the underwater world. That was great fun. We were working with Jim Abernethy off his boat the Shear Water. We had tons of great fish action. Unfortunately, we are so busy finishing the second season stuff right now that I haven't had time to go through the footage and capture some underwater stills for the BLOG. I'll have to add them later. However, I have a couple topside shots of the gang in in action! (Special thanks to Annette Robertson for these pics!)

After a few days on the Shear Water, Pierre, David, Jen and I headed over to work with David Ochs and AquaSafari Adventures for an afternoon and dive a different wreck. We had fewer fish, but really clear water!

And in other news, if you haven't noticed yet, the first webisode of season 2 is now posted on the Blue World Website!! It's about my adventure learning to be an aquarist at the New England Aquarium. Check it out!

Jonathan

Season 2 is Coming Soon!

2009-09-06T18:50:00.002-04:00

Well, the season 2 master tapes for Jonathan Bird's Blue World have been delivered for closed captioning and they are now on the way to NETA for the satellite feed to the public television stations beginning Oct. 9, 2009! It's very exciting! It won't be long now before the show is airing across the USA!

We are now working on authoring the DVD set for the complete season 2. It should be ready well before Christmas and will be a two disk set. It will be provided in anamorphic 16:9 aspect ratio to take advantage of HDTVs. At this point, there are no immediate plans for a Blu-ray set, even though it was shot in HD. That's because the licensing costs of Blu-ray are too high to justify a small press run.

In the meantime, I squeezed in a short trip to Florida to film the Goliath Grouper spawning event. Wow, those are some big big fish and Pierre and I filmed a wonderful segment.

Finally, some more big news....check out the all new BLUE WORLD website!!

Jonathan

We're editing like crazy!

2009-08-25T16:38:00.002-04:00

We have one week to go before we will be outputting all the season 2 programs to tape, so things around the Blue World office are busy! We have been editing the segments slowly over the past 18 months as we have been shooting them. Most of the segments were edited by me while I was not traveling, but Art edited two of them and Kerry edited four. As you know, the segments, which run 6-12 minutes each, end up being "webisodes" on the website, with a short opening sequence. But strung together, three at a time, with "bumpers" between them, and a 1 minute opening sequence, they are ~28 minute television programs.

With season 2, things are more complicated than season 1. First of all, we're shooting, editing and delivering the show to television in HD. (For you technical buffs, we shoot in 1080/60i). Also, we now have an underwriter (Ian's Natural Foods....yummy chicken nuggets!) so we needed to create a "spot" (15 second promo) for them that goes into the beginning and end of the program for public television.

So after the Ian's spot was complete and approved, including a theme song by Bruce Zimmerman, we had to get Art into the studio to record his "bumpers" (you know, the part where the guy with the great voice says "Coming up next on Jonathan Bird's Blue World..."). After those were recorded, the assembly of programs began. This is fun because it all comes together. The new opening sequence which we have been working on for months, the Ian's spot, the bumpers, the segments, and of course putting the credits together and trying not to forget anyone.

The last step is when we rent a very expensive Sony HDCAM studio deck for a day to output everything from our editing system (An 8 core Mac running Final Cut Studio) to tape. This is nerve-wracking for me, because I constantly worry something will go wrong. It usually doesn't, although once we had a power outage in the middle of an output to tape and everything crashed. When the shows are on tape, I can breathe a huge sigh of relief because they no longer depend on hard drives and computers! Having the finished product on a nice HD tape in the hand is a good thing. That's when it feels real.

Next those HDCAM masters go to a company that does the closed-captioning for the hearing impaired, and the descriptive audio for the blind. The new masters with closed captioning are then sent to NETA, our distributor, for the satellite feed. Our satellite feed for season 2 begins October 9, so you can start bugging your local public TV stations for it after that!

Whew, it's a lot of work to make this show. A typical 10 minute segment requires at least a week in the field to shoot, sometimes more. Then it takes about 10 days of editing to get it completely finished. By the time we finish an entire half-hour show, complete with music, bumpers, etc., we probably have a solid two months invested in it. Now you can see why it takes more than a year to make 7 new shows!

Wish us luck...we go to tape next weekend!

-Jonathan

P.S. Have you noticed that the new Jonathan Bird's Blue World website is live?

Season 3 filming begins in the Galapagos!

2009-08-19T17:12:00.005-04:00

We have a lot of cool announcements coming in the next few weeks. We are launching our new JBBW website, delivering the finished edits of the season 2 shows to our distributor, and starting a marketing effort on season 2. But for this Blog entry, I want to tell you about the very first shoot of season 3--in the Galapagos.

I spent 2 weeks working in the Galapagos with Pierre and Julia on the first segments we are shooting for season 3. Since we have already done segments on Whale sharks (coming out in season 2) and hammerheads (season 1) we are not making any segments on the subject which is the most common in the Galapagos. Instead, we are doing a segment on sea lions and on marine iguanas. (We also planned a segment on mola mola, but they didn't cooperate.)

We had a fantastic 12 days working from a nice live-aboard dive boat, spending 6 days at Wolf and Darwin Islands to film whale sharks and hammerheads (hey, I love those critters) then headed down south to the cold water to film the sea lions and marine iguanas.

Last shoot of season 2!

2009-05-25T06:49:00.004-04:00

Christine, Tim and I just came back from Grand Cayman, where we completed the final shoot of Season 2 of Jonathan Bird's Blue World! The segment is about Stingray City and the research that Guy Harvey (famous marine artist and PhD in marine biology) has conducted into the habits of these animals. Stingray City is the name of a place where they have been feeding Southern Stingrays for many years, making them friendly. On a day when a cruise ship is in port, more than a thousand people go out to feed the stingrays. What effect does this have on the animals? How does it change their natural behavior? Well, you'll find out when the show airs! One of the best parts of this segment was getting to know Guy and his daughter Jessica. We spent a couple days diving, fishing and even relaxing on the beach with Guy and his family. It was great fun!

Later, we shot a segment at the Cayman Turtle Farm which will probably appear in season 3. This new facility (rebuilt after Hurricane Ivan in 2004) is quite impressive, and the turtles are so cute!

-Jonathan

The Blue World Team Goes to British Columbia

2009-05-24T22:45:00.003-04:00

Things have been busy around here in the Blue World! As we reach the end of our season 2 filming, we are getting a little nuts. Pierre, Kerry, Linda and I just returned from a week shooting in Port Hardy, British Columbia, at the end of Vancouver Island. We went out for a segment on Giant Pacific Octopus, some shots of giant sun stars, and also the Pacific Wolf-eel. We didn't get enough decent material for the octopus segment, so that will have to wait until season 3. However, we got some great footage of the wolf eels and sun stars, so look for those in the release of season 2!

-Jonathan

The Blue World Team Goes To Antarctica!

2009-03-13T10:10:00.003-04:00

We have just landed back in Ushuaia, Argentina (southernmost city in the world) from our exciting Blue World shoot in Antarctica. Our team took a ship over 600 nautical miles from Ushuaia over the Drake Passage (roughest water in the world) to Antarctica for a week of diving and exploring the most remote and hostile place on Earth.

We dove every day in water that ranged from 30 to 34 degrees, using extremely warm drysuits. The highlights of the diving included a school of gigantic jellyfish almost 2 feet across, weird and rare cold water benthic invertebrates, a pair of curious Leopard seals (known to be the most aggressive animal in Antarctica) and even a dive on a shipwreck.

We walked with thousands of penguins and Fur seals, dove under icebergs, and even visited a couple of remote research stations. Fortunately, we enjoyed extremely good weather. The sun was out most of the time and the daytime temperatures peaked above freezing.

All this exciting stuff will be part of the Antarctic segments in the second season of Jonathan Bird's Blue World coming to you in the summer of 2009!

The Blue World goes underground!

2008-11-14T15:37:00.004-05:00

Hi Everyone,

After being home for an entire week and a half, I packed my bags to head off on the next adventure of Jonathan Bird's Blue World. Our Season 2 filming continued in the cenotes of Mexico! Julia (line producer), Tim (cameraman and director) and I headed to Tulum, in the Riviera Maya of Mexico to spend 3 days diving in the cenotes and caverns of the Yucatan. Although none of us are certified cave divers, we were lucky to have cave diving instructor Marco Wagner from H2O Pro Divers leading us through the cenotes, pointing out the exciting highlights. We dove Grand Cenote, Car Wash, and Calavera several times and filmed some amazing things, from stalactites and stalagmites to haloclines (where fresh water and salt water meet, creating a psychedelic boundary layer). As usual, we shot way more footage than we need for a segment. Wait until you see this segment! Wow, it's going to be amazing! A big thanks goes out to the Riviera Maya Tourism Board for setting up the shoot and to Rick Allen/Nautilus Productions for the loan of a monstrous 200 watt underwater HID light.

We are planning a summer 2009 release of season 2, which will consist of at least 7 half-hour episodes. Keep watching this Blog for more updates on the continuing adventures!

Season 2 shooting continues in Yap...

2008-10-20T09:39:00.003-04:00

Julia, Pierre and I just returned from 2 weeks shooting in Yap, Micronesia. This is one difficult place to reach. I flew from Boston to Newark to Tokyo to Guam to Yap and it took 2 days. We shot a segment on Gray Reef sharks, a segment on manta rays (Yap is most famous for its manta rays), and parts of segments on mangroves, sea stars, venomous fish, mandarinfish, anemonefish and remoras. It was a busy shoot! We are building a huge backlog of material to be edited. Kerry, Art and I will be busy editing these segments all winter, in between additional shoots for season 2. It was a long trip and I’m glad to be home! I got a few dives with my still camera, so here are a few shots! -Jonathan

Diving and Filming in Eastport, Maine

2008-10-01T21:51:00.006-04:00

Well, Pierre and I just returned from underwater filming in Eastport, Maine. We were working on parts of several Blue World segments which will feature creatures found in this incredibly rich cold-water environment. We spent some time filming Gene, a male Atlantic wolffish which I have been photographing now for 12 years. He currently is guarding a nest of eggs in his den and was hard to photograph, but we were able to position the lights and camera to get some shots of the eggs behind his head. We also filmed monster-sized Northern Lobsters which attacked the camera, sea stars, basket stars, scallops, soft corals, and a bunch of other stuff which will turn up here and there throughout the second season. It was cold water, drysuits and hot chocolate after the dives for a week. Great fun!

The images here are older images for example since we were only shooting video this week.

Rescuing Tropical Fish in Rhode Island

2008-09-15T09:14:00.002-04:00

Because the Gulf Stream brings juvenile tropical fish from the Caribbean all the way to southern New England, divers sometimes find baby tropicals in the shallows while diving in Rhode Island and further south. Unfortunately, when winter comes and the water temperatures drop, they die. So, for many years, the New England Aquarium Dive Club has organized a fall tropical fish rescue day event in Rhode Island to collect the tiny fish. Many of them go to home aquaria, and the rest go to the New England Aquarium. Many of the enormous fish in the Giant Ocean Tank exhibit at the aquarium were actually caught during the tropical fish rescue, and would have died if they hadn't been saved.

I thought this would make a fun Blue World segment, so I joined seasoned pro fish rescuers Alicia Lenci and Michael Schruben for a lesson in fish hunting. They have been a part of the fish rescue for many years, and assisted me on my film Secrets of the Reef in the Philippines as pro "fish wranglers." The problem isn't so much catching the fish, but finding them. They are small, and they hide in the rocks in very shallow water (really, not deep enough that you need scuba gear...some people hunt them with a snorkel). Michael and I did a couple dives and he showed me how to find and catch the fish, while Tim Geers and Kerry Hurd shot the footage of it all happening.

We encountered somewhat limited visibility from recent storms, and some surge, which made the filming difficult, but I think it will still make a good segment. We still have some more filming to do for the segment at the New England Aquarium, but it's going to be fun when complete, and should end up in the second season of Jonathan Bird's Blue World.

-Jonathan

Jonathan appears on WBZ Radio in Boston

2008-08-25T10:16:00.004-04:00

Last night I spent an hour being interviewed on the Jordan Rich Show on WBZ Radio, one of the largest talk/news stations in the USA. We mostly talked about Jonathan Bird's Blue World and my new book, Creatures of the Deep Blue. The last time I was on Jordan's show was about 5 years ago, so it has been a long time. I really enjoy being on Jordan's show because he makes it easy to be a guest--he is good at keeping things moving and on track without any stress, even though it's live radio!

There is an .mp3 of the interview on our website in case you missed it. LISTEN

-Jonathan

The biggest fish in the sea

2008-08-22T12:47:00.003-04:00

Many of you know that last year I headed down to Holbox, Mexico on a little adventure with my family and some friends to investigate the whale shark phenomenon there. Well, it was amazing, to say the least. Hundreds of whale sharks gather in this area to feed on abundant plankton in the summer. The fishermen have known about this for ages, but only in the past few years has the word gotten out to the diving community. Now the sleepy little fishing village on Holbox Island is one of the world's hottest spots for interaction with whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) the world's largest fish.

I headed back down there in July this year to shoot a segment for the upcoming season 2 of Jonathan Bird's Blue World, and conditions were a little windier than last year, but there were a ton of sharks. Unlike last year, many of the sharks had great schools of fish surrounding them, feeding on the same plankton. When I got close with a camera, the fish would aggregate tightly underneath the shark, like a big beard. It made for fantastic pictures and video.

Although you can't scuba dive with the sharks at Holbox, you can snorkel. And since they are feeding at the surface, snorkeling is actually the best way to interact and film them. I will never forget looking down the enormous throat of a whale shark as it gorged itself at the surface, with water rushing into its mouth like a huge storm drain! This will make an incredible segment in season 2!

Jonathan

Blue World Merchandise hits the streets!

2008-08-20T15:40:00.002-04:00

If you just can't get enough of the Blue World and you want to show your support, check out our cool new stuff in the Blue World TV Store! We have everything from t-shirts to hats, sweatshirts to bibs....all with Janet MacCausland's fantastic Blue World logo on them!

Check it out!

Greenland sharks in the St. Lawrence

2008-08-19T12:28:00.002-04:00

Pierre Séguin and I just returned from a week in the St. Lawrence filming Greenland sharks for a season 2 episode of Jonathan Bird's Blue World. There is a place where for no reason anyone can explain, for the past 5 years, Greenland sharks have come into diving depths and approached divers without chum....apparently out of curiousity. It has scared the pants off of a bunch of divers! The water is normally about 39 degrees there at the warmest...so this is about the warmest water that these normally-arctic sharks are found in.

We planned to go last year, but the sharks showed up late, so our July trip was cancelled. This year they showed up early (June) and there were a lot of sharks....until we were scheduled to go (of course!) There has been a ton of rain this summer and as a result, the water is warmer than usual because the currents shifted. We decided to go anyway since a friend of Pierre's had offered to let us shoot aerials from his very cool helicopter. After 4 days of diving, we got two encounters....both very deep, where we could find cold enough water. We're hoping to go back in a few weeks, and hoping the currents return to normal along with the temperature. I never thought I would complain about water that is warmer than usual, but if you want Greenland sharks, you definitely don't want warm water.

It was very spooky diving that deep up there. The runoff from the rivers creates a tea-colored surface layer of fresh water that blocks all the light (viz about 3 feet). You go below it to get into colder, clearer water (viz about 15 feet). It's literally as dark as night....like a twilight dive. You can barely see anything. Then big sharks come slowly out of the blackness. I was deep, suffering from narcosis, tunnel vision, freezing my butt off, and chasing 12 foot sharks.

Cool stuff if you ask me!!

The image is a frame-grab from video of a shark filmed at 130 feet.

-Jonathan

Jonathan Bird's Blue World

2008-08-19T01:47:00.000-04:00

Jonathan Bird's Blue World is an educational family-oriented underwater adventure series co-produced by Jonathan Bird Productions and Oceanic Research Group.

It is hosted by dynamic naturalist and underwater photographer Jonathan Bird.

The format is magazine style, with short 7-10 minute segments each containing a complete adventure story with an educational component.

For television, these segments are packaged with 3 segments in a half-hour episode.

For internet delivery, each segment is self-contained.

Segments encompass a variety of subjects, including stories about animals, marine research and researchers, underwater exploration and recent discoveries. The stories always have an underwater theme and feature stunning underwater photography.

While programs are geared towards a younger audience, please do not consider it a "kids" show.

Anyone from 6 to 60 will enjoy this series!