This time on Jonathan Bird’s Blue World, Jonathan goes muck diving to film some outlandish
marine life!
Hi, I’m Jonathan Bird and Welcome to my world!
For most divers, the best diving involves warm, clear water and lots of colorful fish.
So coral reefs are the most popular dive destinations.
But as divers gain more experience, they seek out new and different diving environments,
like shark diving.
Or cave diving, and everything in between.
One exciting environment is muck diving.
I know, it doesn’t sound very exciting, but trust me, if you like cool critters, muck
diving is where it’s at.
Muck dives don’t generally involve any actual muck.
Usually they’re just dives with a sandy bottom inhabited by critters that have adapted
to this unique habitat.
It’s stuff that either doesn’t live on reefs, or would be very hard to spot on a
reef.
While technically, muck diving can be done just about anywhere there’s a silty, sandy
or muddy sea floor, certain places around the world have developed quite a reputation
for good muck dives with lots of critters.
And this is one such place: the Blue Heron Bridge in Riviera Beach, Florida.
This may not look like much of a dive site, but this bridge is actually world-famous for
the stunning diversity of interesting critters that inhabit the shallow water just below
the traffic zooming by!
I’ve stopped in for a couple dives to check out the diving and find out what all the fuss
is about.
But I’m terrible at finding stuff, so I have enlisted the help of local Blue Heron
Bridge expert Jeff Nelson, from Force-E, a local dive shop.
It’s sort of a weird dive.
We suit up in the parking lot, and then walk over to the water’s edge.
Because there are strong currents here when the tide is coming in or going out, we have
to dive during a short window when the tide changes.
So my dive today begins at dusk, during the high tide slack.
I’ll have all I can handle with my camera, so Jeff will tow along a dive flag.
It floats above us to make sure the people in boats can see us.
It’s still light as we sink down into only 6 feet of water and start looking for critters.
Jeff has promised me one of the hardest fish to film—a jawfish with eggs.
The jawfish is my quarry.
Almost immediately, Jeff finds me a weird fuzzball.
It almost looks like a jellyfish, but this is a large nudibranch called a sea hare.
And this one is laying its eggs!
As we continue on through the murky water…a sea horse!
In most places, sea horses are not only hard to find, but frustratingly uncooperative.
I think this guy has seen enough cameras that he knows if he poses for a minute or two,
I’ll go away and leave him alone.
A puffer is attracted to my lights and comes over for a look.
Nearby, the fastest sea star I have ever seen, racing across the sand.
And then, another cooperative sea horse, using its prehensile tail to grip an old piece of
rope.
Without Jeff to point out these little guys, I would probably swim right by them and not
even see them.
With the sea horses in the bag, it’s time to move on.
We pass a Yellow Stingray hunting for food.
They eat mostly shrimp, worms and clams—stuff that lives in and on the sandy sea floor.
I just hope this hungry stingray doesn’t find those sea horses!
A mantis shrimp sticks its eyes out of its burrow to check out my bright video lights.
But it’s definitely not coming out.
Jeff knows where to find a small octopus.
It dives into its home when I approach.
But if there is one thing about octopods, they are curious.
Staring at its reflection in the lens of my camera, it soon comes out to investigate.
First, a quick touch of the camera housing.
I stick my finger around into the shot to give the octopus some scale.
You can see that this is a very small octopus.
But nobody told her that!
She grabs my finger with her suckers and tries to pull me into her den.
If you ever have the opportunity to arm wrestle with an octopus you will find they are amazingly
strong.
And the suction cups feel so weird on my skin.
While hunting for the jawfish, we come across a super rare and weird fish.
This little guy is a batfish.
It walks along the bottom on legs that have evolved from pelvic fins.
And just over its mouth…a retractable lure used to fish for prey.
It’s gill openings are hidden behind its pectoral fins so the prey won’t see it breathing.
When it decides to swim, you can tell that this fish isn’t really designed to swim
very well.
Definitely a bottom dweller!
Towards the end of the dive Jeff finds me the elusive Jawfish with eggs—but I blow
it by moving in too close, and scaring the little fish.
He won’t come out.
And my lights are probably frightening him too.
So I give up.
But don’t worry, I have a plan.
Will Jonathan manage to film the elusive jawfish?
Stick around and find out!
Early the next morning, we are back at the bridge for the next slack tide.
So before the sun is even up, Cameraman Todd and I are gearing up with Jeff.
This time I really hope we can film that Jawfish!
We drop down into the shallow water and start making our way over to the Jawfish’s burrow.
Along the way I am seduced by another octopus!
Ask any diver…octopods are too cool.
You just have to stop and watch them when you find one!
This one is a little bigger than the other one.
Cameraman Todd and I take turns getting some shots and waiting for the octopus to do something
interesting besides just stare at us.
I stick my hand out to see if I can rouse the animal’s curiosity.
She is not going for it.
Fortunately, Jeff teaches me a better way—make my hand look like an octopus on the sand.
And it works!
With a couple suction cups, she tries to take me home.
That was really fun, but my mission is to find the jawfish, so we move on.
There he is—the elusive jawfish.
But this time I’m going to work my way closer very slowly so I don’t spook him.
Oh no, I scared him again!
Oh wait a minute, he’s coming back up.
How do I know it’s a him?
The eggs give him away.
When it comes to jawfish, the male guards the eggs in a very unlikely place—his mouth!
Jawfish are mouthbrooders, meaning that once the male has fertilized the eggs, he takes
them from the female and keeps them safe in his mouth for about 2 weeks until they hatch.
During that time, dad can’t eat anything.
The eggs are transparent.
You can see the little eyeballs of each baby jawfish inside the eggs.
Every once in a while, he has to aerate the eggs.
To do that he spits the eggs out and then sucks them back in.
He does this every minute or two for a couple weeks!
With my mission complete, we head back towards the beach--past the concrete columns of the
bridge.
I come across a snake eel, out early looking for breakfast.
The snake eel (which is an eel, not a snake) pokes its head into holes looking for small
fish and invertebrates to eat.
This one caught a small crab.
By the time we finish the dive, the sun is up in Riviera Beach.
As Jeff and I emerge from the ocean, I can’t believe how much stuff I saw on such a shallow
dive in the most unlikely spot.
Muck diving is fun!
That dive was amazing!
So many cool little critters!
On my trip to the Blue Heron Bridge, I only had time for a couple dives.
But in only two dives, I saw a huge variety of animals and I know I barely scratched the
surface.
The Batfish, sea horses, octopods and Jawfish are rare animals that are not easy to find
anywhere, yet we saw them on one dive here.
Needless to say, I’ll be back for more.
Muck diving is awesome!