Coming up, Jonathan finds the friendliest hammerhead in the ocean!
Welcome to Jonathan Bird’s Blue World!
It’s a beautiful day in the Bahamas.
And it’s about to get better because I’m meeting up with Coyote Peterson, (Hey Man!
How are ya?)
Mark Vins, and Mario Aldecoa from Brave Wilderness to help with the creation of their new show,
Blue Wilderness.
We start in Grand Bahama, and sail north on a live-aboard dive boat called the Dolphin
Dream, one of my favorite boats.
Our destination: Tiger Beach, a famous place where Tiger sharks interact with divers.
Upon arrival, the crew starts chumming.
Then we suit up and hit the water.
We have tons of sharks.
Our team and the guys from Brave Wilderness are having a blast.
We’re getting lots of great footage.
Most importantly, the main attraction has showed up.
We have multiple Tiger sharks swimming around us.
Coyote even gets up close with a Tiger.
But then, things get even more magical with the arrival of a rather special shark.
A Great Hammerhead named Patches.
Great hammerheads are usually quite shy.
It’s extremely unusual for one to get right up to the camera like this, so after the dive,
Mark and I ask Captain Gerard about her.
Gerard, tell me about Patches.
Tell me the history of this shark.
Alright, so Patches showed up at Tiger Beach about two seasons ago.
She wasn’t too playful when she first came in.
She would hang out on the outside of the dives a lot, but as she got used to the divers and
watched the Tiger Sharks doing their thing, coming in and feeding, she started to slowly
make her way in and once she started getting comfortable with us, she would let us feed
her some pieces of fish.
We used to catch fresh fish for her because she was a bit of a picky eater, and then she
got more and more comfortable with us and let us get a little more hands-on with her
and pet her.
And then once that happened she pretty much just stuck around and so she is quite special
for us at Tiger Beach because she is the only hammerhead we know that acts like that and
stays in that area.
So is it a rare experience to get to get up close to a hammerhead like this at Tiger Beach?
Most hammerheads, they’re quick, they come in, they spend ten or fifteen minutes.
They don’t really go that close to everyone.
They kind of like move through, get their food and get out.
But with Patches you’ll see that she’ll come in, play with a diver at the bait crate
and go and spin through all the divers at the dive site and come back in.
So it’s quite special the way she interacts with people.
With this magnificent shark hanging around the boat, Mark and I know that there is no
time to waste.
We quickly suit up for another dive, to film Patches while she is here.
Alright Mark, let’s go see if we can find Patches!
Hammerhead sharks, let’s do it!
Yeah!
The minute we hit the water, Patches comes right over to investigate us near the surface.
She exhibits the classic hammerhead “tilted swimming” behavior, which has only recently
been scientifically studied.
It allows the Great hammerhead shark to use its tall dorsal fin as a wing, to increase
lift, reducing swimming effort.
Patches passes extremely close to me, but her proximity is in no way aggressive.
She is clearly just curious.
She is the kind of shark that underwater photographers dream about—cooperative and friendly, coming
super close to the camera, but in no way threatening.
Patches just seems to go back and forth between me, cameraman Bill, and Mark.
And sometimes she likes to demonstrate how hammerheads use the mass of their hammer and
their incredibly flexible body to turn on a dime, like no Tiger shark ever could.
Patches is my new favorite shark of all time!
Eventually we sink down to the sandy sea floor next to the reef, and Patches follows us like
an excited puppy.
Soon, our divemaster Houston has joined the party with a crate full of fishy snacks.
We all gather around, cameras at the ready, to begin filming the shark feed.
And Patches isn’t about to be left out of the action!
She is the only hammerhead I have ever seen that will swim into a feed with a bunch of
Tiger sharks.
She is just as long as the Tigers, but nowhere near as girthy and powerful.
Yet she sticks up for herself—even pushing one of the Tigers away by whacking it in the
gills!
Nearby, a Lemon shark is resting on the bottom, knowing well enough to stay away from a bunch
of feeding Tiger sharks.
Lemons can gulp water to breathe, and rest on the bottom.
But not Patches.
Great Hammerheads are called Obligate Ram Ventilators.
They are one of the few species of sharks that need to keep swimming to ram water down
their throats and into their gills.
So they keep moving, and usually have their jaw open.
It looks aggressive, but it’s just respiration.
She may have to keep moving, but her super shark power is turning.
Great hammerheads can turn much tighter and faster than Tigers, and even Reef sharks,
which are far smaller.
Turning so tightly, Patches can make twice as many runs at the chum box, so she gets
more chances to be fed.
And her persistence pays off.
Houston doles out some nice yummy fish.
We have three Tiger sharks on the dive, and normally even one Tiger shark would be amazing.
But Patches still steals the show.
She is the star, and I think she knows it.
She just keeps making passes in front of everyone, and we aren’t going anywhere as long as
we have air to breathe!
But alas, no scuba tank lasts forever, and soon we have to make for the boat.
Patches follows us up to the swim step, but we definitely are not afraid.
Only thrilled!
Woo!
Dude, most cooperative shark ever!
Is this real life?
Did that just happen?
Guys that hammerhead was enormous.
And unbelievably friendly!
Wow, what a segment!
Jonathan thank you, good work!
Yes!
Nice!
That was awesome!
At the end of a long day diving with the world’s most awesome Hammerhead, I can only wonder
if I will ever meet her again.
With any luck, Patches will return next season, so other divers can get to know her and develop
an appreciation for one of the most spectacular shark species in the Blue World!
Hey Everyone!
If you want to learn why hammerheads swim at an angle, check out the video we did to
explain it!
And thanks for watching our latest episode all the way to the end!
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