Coming up next on Jonathan Bird's Blue World, the world's
fastest fish give Jonathan a run for his money!
Hi, I'm Jonathan Bird and welcome to my world!
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Have you ever wondered why a
sailfish has a sail and a pointy bill? Well I have!
And to find out, I have traveled down to Cancun, Mexico
to see if I can get up close to a sailfish in the wild.
My day begins at the crack of dawn.
Nice Early start, 6 AM!
Time to go find some sailfish!
I load the car with all my gear and then we're off to the marina.
My guide is Jorge Loria from Phantom Divers
who put this trip together for me. It's a little tense this morning
because the weather is not good for working offshore.
Jonathan: PRETTY WINDY!
The wind is blowing at nearly 20 knots, which means that if we had any sense, we would stay home--
but this is the calmest day we are going to get all week.
It's go now or not at all. The heavy surf
speaks for itself. We're in for a rough day.
We arrive at Solo Buceo, the dive shop
in Cancun that is running the expedition.
Their boat is designed for running way offshore.
I carry my gear in from the car.
Fortunately, I'll be traveling light today. Interaction with sailfish is best done
without scuba gear, so I'll just be using a mask, fins and snorkel.
The protection of the marina belies the ocean conditions.
A look at the trees shows the wind, and just outside the harbor,
the waves break. Yikes!
With all our gear loaded, we push off the dock and head out to sea.
Alberto, the mastermind of this expedition
is on the phone, checking to see if any fishermen have seen the sailfish
this morning.
Our captain pushes up the throttles for a long run out to sea.
It will be at least two hours to get anywhere near sailfish territory.
Jorge: "OK guys, we're going to navigate a couple hours
"north of Contoy and we're going to be looking for the
"birds eating the sardines, and therefore the sailfish
"are there so it's going to be a two and a half hour ride.
"Everybody's got mask and fins?"
Our plan is to look for birds.
(Jonathan): "Believe it or not, to find sailfish, we need to find some birds flying around. That's because
"sailfish love to eat sardines, little silvery fish about this big.
"But to find the sardines, we find some birds that are also hunting
"the sardines."
Everyone on the boat keeps an eye
open as we drive around the open sea, hoping for a glimpse
of birds on the horizon. And after a few hours,
we find the birds. Unfortunately, some fishermen saw them too.
(Jonathan): "Well, we're like 20 miles out and we found
"birds flying all over the place, feeding on a bait ball,
"and I think there are some sailfish. And we're going to jump in and see if we can find them!"
We pull up to the fish under the birds and it's time
for us to jump in! (Alberto): "GO GO GO!"
Jorge got in first and he has his hand up
to tell us where the sailfish are.
My first glimpse under the water reveals just blue
and some bubbles. But then a sailfish comes racing
out of the distance!
The sardines are packed into a tight school,
sometimes called a bait ball. They are trying to protect themselves against
the sailfish by staying close to each other.
But the sailfish are chasing them and attacking from all sides.
They pin the sardines against the surface so they can't get away!
The sardines often swim close to me
for protection. I'm starting to get worried about those sharp bills
on the front of the sailfish!
These beautiful fish are among
the fastest animals in the sea. They can swim 60 miles per hour!
That's as fast as a car on the highway!
A sailfish uses its bill like a sword to slash through the baitball
and stun a sardine. Then it can gobble the fish down.
They're getting awfully close!
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Sometimes the sailfish even skewer sardines on the end of their bills.
Whoa! Did you see that? Watch it again in slow motion!
Here comes a sailfish from the left and it nails a sardine
right in front of the camera! Even in slow motion it's fast.
Watch it even slower.
Boom! Right there! Talk about
good aim!
The action is incredibly fast-paced and tiring.
I have to keep up with the action, which keeps moving.
My legs are getting tired. Eventually, I can't keep up with the baitball and the action
drifts too far away.
The boat comes and picks me up.
I'll get a quick rest, then they will drop me back in close to the fish.
A few minutes later, I'm ready to go again.
Jonathan: "Ready?" Alberto: "OK! Go go!"
I get my bearings
and then I'm back into the sailfish.
You can see in this shot
that when a sailfish swims, it folds its dorsal fin down to reduce drag.
But then, BOOM
it pops the dorsal fin up like a sail. Did you see that?
Watch it again in slow motion.
There! We can only guess why the sailfish has such a large
sail-like dorsal fin, but it appears
they use the sail to frighten the sardines by surprising them, or possibly
to look larger when they are herding the fish. The sailfish
work together to keep the sardines from escaping below and one by one,
they pick off each and every sardine, until the entire
baitball is gone.
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Jonathan: "Oh man,
"that is exhausting! Swimming around
"with all these fish that are the fastest fish in the ocean.
"They have a lance on their nose, I thought I was going to get skewered.
"They swim right at the camera and zoom at the last minute but man
"what an exhilarating experience! Whew,
"I'm so tired!"
It takes a couple hours to get back to the dock and even though we've had a long rough
day at sea, the experience was worth it.
Sailfish are magnificent animals and something I had never seen before.
Being right in the middle of a school of sailfish attacking sardines
is definitely nature at its wildest.
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